Jan. 30, 2008 Combat Nurses: Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists The human body alone isn't equipped to deal with the wounds of war. Trauma caused by an improvised explosive device, for instance, is literally and figuratively a jolt to the entire system. Blood changes and loss, temperature decreases, oxygen deprivation and shifts to the pH balance of bodily
Jan. 30, 2008 Combat Nurses: The OR Statistically, the Air Force Theater Hospital performs more life-saving trauma procedures in four months than most major metropolitan trauma hospitals handle in a year. Behind every procedure is an operating room nurse. Capt. George Moctezuma, OR nurse, wears a black tunic that is punctuated with
Jan. 30, 2008 Combat nurses: The ER The Air Force Theater Hospital is one of the busiest trauma hospitals in the world. Every trauma code that comes into the hospital starts in the emergency room, where Air Force nurses work to save wounded Soldiers' lives and -- along the way -- provide some comfort. Captain Shelly Garceau, a night
Jan. 30, 2008 Combat Nurses: a special 5-part feature from Balad It's 4 a.m. at one of the busiest trauma centers in the world and Capt. Shelly Garceau, an emergency room nurse, is finally taking a breather. Moments earlier, she'd dropped two Marines off in the Intensive Care Unit of the Air Force theater hospital here. They'd suffered partial thickness burns
Jan. 30, 2008 Reintegration begins now for Airmen returning home Long before bags are packed, replacements are in place and final out-processing is complete, redeployment preparations begin for Airmen. Redeployment preparations here help with reintegration at home station, said Chaplain (Capt.) Cliff Jones. "Our focus is continuity of care," he said. "We want to
Jan. 30, 2008 Sensors may lead to faster treatment for traumatic brain injuries While it still may be years away, military medical officials hope to one day place a sensor on every troop that would measure a blast's impact and alert a combat medic to the possibility of a brain injury. The latest fielding of helmets fitted with blast sensors to troops deploying to combat could
Jan. 30, 2008 AFMC team wins 'hazardous' Air Force competition An Air Force Materiel Command team of bioenvironmental engineering and emergency management professionals won the Air Force's 2nd annual Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Challenge held Dec. 10 through the 14 at Brooks City-Base, Texas. Considered to be the olympics for the two career
Jan. 30, 2008 New eye treatment offers better outcome, saves money Two 59th Medical Wing team member's implementation of a new drug project to treat age related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly, is helping patients and saving the Air Force $990 per unit dose. In recognition of their accomplishments, Pamela Singleton and Lt. Col.
Jan. 30, 2008 Enhanced health information sharing supports warriors Department of Defense officials here recently announced the organization-wide release of enhancements to share electronic health information with the Department of Veterans Affairs. DOD information will be shared through the Bidirectional Health Information Exchange and the Clinical Data
Dec. 28, 2007 Wilford Hall Medical Center: 50 years of medical excellence Hospital officials and guests commemorated Wilford Hall Medical Center for 50 years as the Air Force's medical flagship in a ceremony here Nov. 16 that marked medical excellence from 1957-2007. Maj. Gen. (Dr.) Thomas W. Travis, commander of the 59th Medical Wing, led the ceremony to celebrate the
Dec. 28, 2007 Behind the scenes, Airmen help to open hospital Airmen on a medical mentoring team have been working hard to ensure the successful opening of an Afghan national army hospital here for the past several months. The team's original mission was to mentor their ANA counterparts and teach them the necessary medical skills to treat Afghan military and
Dec. 28, 2007 Assistant Air Force Surgeon General visits LRMC, Germany During a recent visit to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center Dec. 12, Maj. Gen. Melissa A. Rank interacted with staff and patients and commented on how armed forces medical care in Germany has evolved throughout her career. General Rank, the assistant Air Force surgeon general for medical force
Dec. 28, 2007 Immunology laboratory named Center of Excellence The newest Center of Excellence for radioallergosorbent, or RAST, testing in the Air Force Medical Service lies within the Diagnostic Immunology laboratory at Wilford Hall Medical Center here. RAST testing is the process of using a patient's extracted blood to detect the antibodies associated with
Dec. 28, 2007 Wingmen save fellow Airman's life at Kunsan When Pacific Air Forces officials sent out guidance for all the Pacific bases to have a Wingman Day, no one could have thought that during the day three wingmen would come to the aid of another Airman saving his life. At approximately 8:40 a.m. Nov. 13, as Kunsan Air Base members were gathering in
Dec. 28, 2007 New eye exam technology improves productivity A new piece of equipment at the 72nd Medical Group optometry clinic is eliminating the need to dilate a patient's eyes for an exam, which will save the Air Force lost man-hours. Air Force Materiel Command provided the clinic with an early Christmas present, an Optos 2000, a low-powered scanning
Dec. 28, 2007 Patient safety checks at Air Force hospital scores top DoD Award The 59th Medical Wing leads the Department of Defense in patient safety for significantly reducing the chances for inpatient suicides among high risk people. The 59th Mental Health Squadron's winning initiative, "Nurse/Mental Health Technician Change of Shift Safety Checks," led by Capt. Jose
Dec. 28, 2007 Immobility, injury place thousands at risk A difficult-to-detect ailment kills 200,000 people in the U.S. each year -- more than AIDS and breast cancer combined, according to Tricare officials. Yet few have heard of Deep Vein Thrombosis. DVT has been dubbed the "economy class syndrome" because of its association with long flights in cramped
Dec. 28, 2007 Tricare beneficiaries save with mail-order pharmacy Nearly 20,000 Tricare beneficiaries are saving money on their prescriptions after making the switch to mail order through the new member choice center. After only two months of operation, beneficiaries saved approximately $600,000 on prescriptions by switching from retail to the Tricare Mail Order
Dec. 28, 2007 DOD, VA begin disability evaluation program The Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs recently implemented a test program for disability cases originating at the three major military treatment facilities and the VA hospital in the national capital region. The leadership of DOD and VA will review the program's progress over
Dec. 28, 2007 Air Force ophthalmology team saves government big bucks Two 59th Medical Wing team members are recipients of the Air Education and Training Command's 2007 Air Force Exceptional Innovator Award. Ms. Pamela A. Singleton and Lt. Col. Richard G. Lane's implementation of a new drug project has saved the U.S. government $990 per unit dose of a drug used to