The international responses to the COVID-19 pandemic led to a host of changes and lessons learned across the Military Health System that will be valuable in preparing for the next crisis - whether that's another pandemic, a new conflict or natural disaster.
The far-reaching effects of the pandemic was a topic for top military health leaders from the U.S. and several other countries at an international COVID-19 panel discussion on Feb. 23. The virtual panel discussion was part of the annual meeting of AMSUS, the Society of Federal Health Officials.
"We need to manage risk in a sensible way," said Defense Health Agency Director Lt. Gen (Dr.) Ronald Place.
"As clinical leaders, we need to better explain clinical risk to our senior leaders. It's a concept they understand. But we need to put it in their language - when it's prudent to accept risk. And when it's not."
Two overarching themes emerged from the presentations: militaries continually show their flexibility in responding quickly to crises, and nations often turn to their military in times of crisis.
Major topics from the panel included:
- Preparedness
- Logistics
- Lab capacity
- Clinical guidance
- Technology infrastructure
- Communication
- Modeling and simulation
- Data management
Preparedness
Place said he gives "great credit to our public health and preventive medicine teams. They had their pandemic playbooks, and they understood the actions that needed to happen to protect individuals and populations."
From the French perspective, militaries need to improve training "during a no-crisis time" to be better prepared for crisis management. That means "an increase in interagency cooperation," said Col. (Dr.) Sandrine Duron Martinaud, head of the epidemiology and health policies evaluation unit in the Office of the French Surgeon General for the French Armed Forces Health Service.
"This would improve cooperation and mutual support, and we also need to rely better on training between the European and NATO nations," she said.
Brig. Gen. (Dr.) Duncan Wilson from the United Kingdom said his country will publish a "national crisis management guideline...during the latter part of this year." Wilson is the medical director to the Surgeon General of the British Armed Forces as well as the head of research and clinical innovation.