Category: Blog – Medical
Building Enduring Healthcare Systems in the Afghan National Security Forces – Part 3
“Eminence-Based Medicine” versus “Evidence-Based Medicine” Speaking of improving medical practice, COL (Dr, Ret) Gary Davis, my predecessor four times removed, has an apt description of Afghan medical practice in previous years: “eminence-based medicine” versus “evidence-based medicine”. When we ask some of the ANA physicians why they may have, for example, prescribed five antibiotics for a [...]
Category: Blog - Medical
Building Enduring Healthcare Systems in the Afghan National Security Forces Part 2
It has been said that it is better for the Afghans to do it “good enough” to an Afghan standard than for us to do it for them. Some Afghans seem very happy to have us buy them their fish, clean it, cook it, and even take care of the dishes. We are here to [...]
Category: Blog - Medical
Building Enduring Healthcare Systems in the Afghan National Security Forces Part 1
So, how do you build an enduring military healthcare system in one of the poorest countries in the world? How do you do that in the face of an active insurgency? How do you do that in less than ten years when it has taken the US a couple hundred years to do it? Where [...]
Category: Blog - Medical
Who’s that manning that Humvee? It’s … Combat Pharmacist
Navy Lt. Commander Timothy Thompson with Afghans. – Provided/BND Count those pills and pass the ammunition. Every day for six months, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Timothy Thompson, 40, wore a flak vest, Army fatigues and carried a weapon when he went to work at a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. You could describe his job as combat [...]
Category: Blog - Medical
“A Great Day To Be a Soldier”
On 4 February 2010, the Afghan National Army (ANA) Armed Forces Academy of Medical Sciences (AFAMS) graduated its first Medical Logistician course. The twelve graduates had completed a 3 week course of instruction on the ground of the ANA’s National Military Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. Their training included fundamentals in receipt, classification, and storage of [...]
Category: Blog - Medical
Take My Hand – Part II
Let me continue from Part I with an extension of a familiar aquatic theme. (After all, half of our Medical Training Advisory Group (MTAG) team is US Navy.) “If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day. If you teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime.” We are here [...]
Category: Blog - Medical
Take My Hand – Part I
It has been almost a year since I took the position of CSTC-A Command Surgeon. In the past year, we have seen tremendous change and impact of our efforts. CSTC-A is now NATO Training Mission – Afghanistan/Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan (NTM-A/CSTC-A). The following vignette is adapted from a story by Dr Gary Davis, [...]
Category: Blog - Medical
“Take My Hand” Part I
It has been almost a year since I took the position of CSTC-A Command Surgeon. In the past year, we have seen tremendous change and impact of our efforts. CSTC-A is now NATO Training Mission – Afghanistan/Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan (NTM-A/CSTC-A). The following vignette is adapted from a story by Dr Gary Davis, [...]
Category: Blog - Medical
Building Healthcare Systems in Afghanistan – Tips for Success
Greetings again from Kabul! Our advising mission of the Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan National Police (ANP) continues to progress steadily. Every day has new challenges and opportunities to excel. It can be long, tedious, and even frustrating work; but the investment of your work here makes small, incremental progress in building sustainable ANSF [...]
Category: Blog - Medical
Think Differently
Greetings from NATO Training Mission – Afghanistan/Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan (NTM-A/CSTC-A) Command Surgeon Combat Medics. Let me begin by saying what an honor and privilege it has been for me to serve as NTM-A/CSTC-A Command Surgeon. In almost one year here, I have been inspired by the fabulous work of many hardworking, highly [...]
Category: Blog - Medical
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