title: Information technologies for Marine Corps combat medicine.
abstract: Future Marine Corps warfighting concepts will make it more difficult to locate casualties, which will complicate casualty evacuation, lengthen casualty wait times, and require infantrymen or corpsmen to provide more extensive treatment. In these future scenarios, information flow and communications will be critical to medical functions. We asked, for Navy medical support to the Marines, what information will future combat medicine require and what technologies should supply those information needs? Based on analyses of patient data streams, focus groups of Navy medical personnel, and our estimates of the cost and feasibility of communications systems, we recommend the following: (1) increase medical training for some fraction of Marines, especially in hemorrhage control; (2) augment corpsmen's training; (3) furnish data systems for evacuation and supply that would provide in-transit visibility and simplify requests; (4) provide all ground medical personnel with access to treatment information systems and limited voice communications; and (5) exploit e-mail systems to reduce reliance on voice communications. Implementation time frames are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Center for Naval Analyses, Alexandria, VA 22302-0268, USA.
authors.forename: N B
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Carey
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Rattelman
authors.forename: H Q
authors.initials: HQ
authors.lastname: Nguyen
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D017144:Focus Groups; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services; D008331:Management Information Systems / Q000639:trends; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D008887:Military Medicine / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States