Implementation of the Veterinary Trauma Readiness and Operational Medicine Agility (Vet-TROMA) Military-Civilian Partnership Pilot Program.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Venn, Emilee; Bacek, Lenore; Acciacca, Rachel; Pratscher, Paul; Edwards, Thomas; Purswell, Emily; Barnoski, Jacob; Belill, Kathryn A.; Nemelka, Kevin; Barrigan, Cynthia; Enroth, Matt
- Source
- Medical Journal, US Army Medical Center of Excellence (MEDCoE). Oct-Dec2023, p15-27. 13p.
- Subject
- *PILOT projects
*PREPAREDNESS
*BATTLE casualties
*WORKING dogs
*MILITARY medicine
- Language
- ISSN
- 2694-3581
Military-civilian partnerships (MCPs) have come to the forefront within the Military Health System (MHS) as an enterprise-wide option to augment medical skills training and sustainment when existing military treatment facility frameworks lack adequate access to certain defined caseload objectives. Recent efforts to incorporate MCPs as a tool for MHS organizations to accomplish training objectives since passage of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act have focused heavily on optimizing the readiness of healthcare providers to deliver effective combat casualty care in operational environments. The Defense Health Agency established a MCP Working Group to serve as a centralized repository for cataloguing and evaluating the effectiveness of these partnerships for maintaining trauma readiness. While MHS centralized military-civilian partnerships have maintained a multidisciplinary approach across medical specialties and skill levels to achieve objectives, consideration for veterinary medicine and support to Military Working Dogs (MWDs) is usually not included in initial program designs. The inclusion of MCPs as an option for maintaining the clinical readiness of nearly 1200 U.S. military veterinarians and animal care specialists could provide significant contributions toward optimizing the survivability of canine combat casualties and should be considered by senior MHS leaders. Establishment of the Veterinary Trauma Readiness and Operational Medicine Agility pilot program has provided valuable lessons learned and opportunities for future veterinary MCPs to further support MWDs in combat environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]