ENHANCE YOUR CAREER

We'll help you to stay abreast of the newest developments, techniques and latest trends. Our goal is for you to provide the highest quality of patient care. Our intent is to help you achieve your continuing education goals and give you a chance to perfect your specialty.

As a Physician in the Army Reserve, you’ll be eligible to:

• Earn CME credits while performing your service
• Attend seminars and specialty conferences
• Collaborate with peers from diverse backgrounds
• Learn the latest trends in preventive medicine, environmental and occupational health, health promotion and wellness, epidemiology, disease prevention, trauma medicine, telemedicine and burn medicine
• Attend courses to sharpen your skills
  

Latest Technology
You’ll be exposed to cutting edge equipment at many state-of-the-art facilities throughout the country and around the world. And you’ll get an opportunity to work at world-renowned medical centers, including: Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston; Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Fort Gordon; Landsthul Regional Medical Center, Germany; Madigan Army Medical Center, Fort Lewis; Tripler Army Medical Center, Honolulu; Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington D.C.; William Beaumont Army Medical Center, Fort Bliss; and Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Bragg.

Your experience with field medical units may include:

• Capabilities for telemedicine transmission
• Computed radiography
• High-resolution still imagery
• Interactive video conferencing
• Computerized patient information management systems and high performance wireless communications, enabling you to link into a network of specialists

Humanitarian Missions
Being an Army Reserve doctor gives you the opportunity to participate in humanitarian missions. In the U.S., you might find yourself treating people wounded in a disaster. In other countries, you may be treating people who have little or no access to health care. Army Reserve physicians have served with missions in Egypt, Guatemala, South America and other locations.

ARTICLES OF INTEREST: HUMANITARIAN

Joint Medical Team Work Together On Guatemalan Humanitarian Mission
This article discusses the integration of skills between the medical personnel of the United States Navy and Army. Participating in this year’s Humanitarian Support over the Shore (HSOTS), from Feb. 10 through 14, sailors and soldiers in the medical field joined forces to provide medical support for more than 1,300 active and Reserve Navy, Army, Air Force and National Guard service members. By training together in various areas such as mass casualty drills and sea-to-shore emergency personnel transport, the joint team was able to exchange knowledge and equipment. Such practices promote the enhancement of health care response and the improvement of medical specialties for future operations. As a result, our military becomes stronger and more experienced. Read Article

Army Surgeon General Visits Mayo Clinic; Helps Build Reserve Partnerships
This article discusses the Mayo Clinic and its importance to the Army Reserve Medical Corps. In 2002, Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. James B. Peake paid a visit to the clinic to recognize its contributions to the Army Reserve and build future partnerships within the field. During his visit, Peake pointed out that the clinic itself played a key role in the development of the Army Reserve due to its dedication to health care for our nation’s soldiers.

Peak also discussed the need for flexibility when serving and how the Army has responded to such needs. Physicians today are put on 90-day deployment rotations, giving them the opportunity to serve our country while still maintaining their professional and personal lives. Although many are deployed for 90 days, some are gone for only weeks at a time serving in various countries on humanitarian missions. Thanks to places like the Mayo Clinic, such practices in the United States are in full force and making a difference in not just our lives, but the lives of people in other parts of the world as well. Read Article

Armed With Medical Skills, Faculty Members Serve In The Reserves
This article discusses three pediatrics professors from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and their respective contributions to the Army Reserve. Although their responsibilities are similar at CWRU, the paths that led them to military service, as well as the duties they fulfilled while serving, were quite different from one another.

Usually serving one weekend per month and two weeks every year, these physicians performed physical examinations locally, attended clinical specialty meetings, and participated in exercises at medical training bases to provide humanitarian aid. Dr. Melvin Berger, M.D., Ph.D., who is a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, has gone on several humanitarian missions in places such as Panama, Honduras, Ecuador, and Bosnia. Dr. John Schreiber, M.D., M.P.H., who is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, served during Desert Storm at Scott Air Force Base where he did aeromedical triaging on war casualties and worked in flight medicine and pediatrics. Dr. John Carl, M.D., who is a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, is relatively new to the Reserve and was given a great opportunity to take advantage of the Health Professions Scholarship Program, which helped finance his medical education.

Not only have these three professors gained prestige and recognition for their contributions to the Army Reserve, they have also enhanced their skills in the medical field. Through their leadership and service, they have set the precedent for their colleagues and have influenced them to make similar contributions now and in the future. Read Article

Army Reserve Teams In Central America For Medical Exercises
This article discusses two groups of Army Reserve medical teams who provided free medical exams and treatments to needy people in Punta Gorda, Belize and Chiquimula, Guatemala, both located in Central America. Working alongside local health care and government officials, the teams participated in the U.S. Southern Command-sponsored Medical Readiness Training Exercises, also known as MEDRETE. This program gave members of both teams the unique opportunity to go through an entire deployment process and treat real patients in the field, instead of going through typical medical training exercises which are conducted near home and are simulated. During this fiscal year, more than 60 deployments will be sponsored through the MEDRETE program, which will serve the citizens of 14 different nations covering Central, South American and Caribbean nations. Read Article

For a full list of U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps humanitarian articles go to the articles section of the site.

ARTICLES OF INTEREST: TECHNOLOGY

Bone And Soft Tissue Research
This article discusses an advancement of research efforts in regenerative medicine for the damaged tissues of wounded soldiers. The bone and soft tissue research program plans to collaborate with industry and academic partners to enhance the ability to repair penetrating extremity injuries of soldiers that result from blast and projectile damage. By preventing and treating wound infection and tissue damage, the program will be able to improve the functionalities of wounded soldiers and return them back to duty faster than ever before. Not only will this improve the quality of soldiers’ lives and boost morale, it will also save the military millions of dollars. Read Article

Automated Critical Care Life Support
This article discusses a research effort to support the discovery, adaptation, and development of new devices that can be incorporated into the critical care system of soldiers during pre-and post-surgery at echelons 2 and 3. This involves the integration of portable, lightweight, and semi-autonomous devices that are capable of monitoring and regulating patients after casualty stabilization and during evacuation.The development of such life support equipment will be of great value to medical personnel when monitoring the status of a wounded soldier’s health, especially under battlefield conditions. Since vital signs are difficult to obtain in such times, these devices will help medical personnel better recognize and treat soldiers’ states of pain. Read Article

Medical Simulation For Training
This article discusses the research and development of more realistic patient simulators for medical personnel to train with during battlefield simulations. By practicing with simulators that more accurately portray the physiology of the human body, physicians become better prepared for the harsh, unpredictable conditions they are likely to face when evacuating and treating wounded soldiers. This involves simulators that are deployable, wireless, autonomous, rugged enough to survive the field, realistically weighted, and cost-effective. This equipment provides a more realistic simulation of wounded soldier trauma, which enhances the quality and availability of medical personnel training efforts to a degree that physicians will be able to master their skills and equipment before entering the battlefield. The result: a decrease in the number of soldiers who die by wounds and a reduction in training costs. Read Article

‘The Doctor Is In’ With RP-7 Robotic System
This article discusses a recently developed mobile robot that enables two-way, long-distance communication between a physician and a patient, patient’s family, other physicians and/or nurses. The five-and-a-half-foot tall robotic system, called RP-7, has a viewscreen mounted on top of it that allows the physician to see who he/she is talking to and vice versa. An advanced digital camera is attached to the system which can be panned, tilted or zoomed so the physician’s range of vision is maximized. Also, the camera’s resolution allows the physician at the control station to properly read monitor screens or printouts. This enables diagnostic physicians to help physicians, nurses, and/or residents treat patients during time-sensitive operations, even when the physician is at another location. MAJ Kevin Chung, medical director for the Institute of Surgical Research’s burn intensive care unit (ICU) at Brooke Army Medical Center, talks about his experience with the robot in this article and explains how it has helped him handle being available to work on a 24/7 basis. Read Article

Damage Control Resuscitation Directly Addressing The Early Coagulopathy Of Trauma
This article discusses the opportunity to formally evaluate the immediate and direct treatment of the coagulopathy of trauma. Due to the considerable attention that has been directed toward the technical details of damage control surgery and reversing the acidosis and hypothermia present at admission, little attention has been given to the reversal of the coagulopathy related to blood loss that is present at the same time. This article discusses the importance of recognizing and immediately addressing the coagulopathy found in severely injured patients and what steps can be taken to help prevent hemorrhagic deaths. By properly studying coagulopathy reduction in patients and measuring their outcomes, insights will be gained as to whether or not damage control resuscitation is the most optimal means of relieving trauma patients. Read Article

A Special Report On The Chitosan-Based Hemostatic Dressing: Experience In Current Combat Operations
This article reports the preliminary results of the hemostatic efficacy of the HemCon dressing used on combat wounds in the pre-hospital setting. Since almost 50% of combat fatalities and up to 80% of civilian trauma fatalities within the U.S. are caused by uncontrollable hemorrhage, making new methods and products for hemorrhage control has become a research priority of the U.S. Army Department of Defense Combat Casualty Care Research Program. Although standard gauze field dressings and direct pressure assist with the control of hemorrhage, they are often inadequate. By analyzing a total of 68 cases of HemCon dressing use over a one-year period by Special Forces combat medics, physicians, and physician assistants, two U.S. Army emergency physicians were able to determine several positive outcomes of HemCon dressing usage in the pre-hospital setting on combat casualties. This includes the cessation of bleeding and the improvement of hemostasis of wounded soldiers, as well as the replacement of standard gauze due to gauze failures. Read Article

Trauma System Development In A Theater Of War: Experiences From Operation Iraqi Freedom And Operation Eduring Freedom
This article discusses improvement efforts of civilian trauma systems in the U.S. Because of the concentrated exposure of military hospitals to large numbers of injured people during a relatively short period of time, our military physicians have become more and more advanced in trauma care with each passing war. However, due to noted failures of our preparation and delivery of trauma care in the combat environment, marked by Desert Storm and 9/11, the joint military forces of the United States devised a plan to place a formal system of trauma care in theater to improve the care of wounded soldiers. The goal of this system was to ensure that every soldier, marine, sailor, or airman injured on the battlefield has the optimal chance for survival and maximal potential for functional recovery. Read Article

For a full list of medical technology articles go to the articles section of the site.