FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
Most Americans have seen at least
one war movie, where at some point a fresh-faced young private is hit with some
shrapnel. From the ground, he calls out for the unit medic – another young guy,
from another small town, whose quick reaction and skill just may save his life.
In the near future, however, it may no longer be another Soldier, who comes
running to his side. Instead, it might be an Army-operated unmanned aerial or
ground vehicle, said Maj. Gen. Steve Jones, commander of the Army Medical
Department Center and School at Fort Sam Houston and chief of the Medical
Corps.
“We have lost medics throughout the years because they have the courage to go
forward and rescue their comrades under fire,” Jones said. “With the newer
technology, with the robotic vehicles we are using even today to examine and to
detonate improvised explosive devices, those same vehicles can go forward and
retrieve casualties.”
Jones spoke at an Association of the U.S. Army-sponsored medical conference
near the Pentagon Sept. 22.
“We already use robots on the battlefield today to examine IEDs, to detonate
them,” he said. “With some minor adaptation, we could take that same technology
and use it to extract casualties that are under fire. How many medics have we
lost, or other Soldiers, because they have gone in under fire to retrieve a
casualty? We can use a robotics device for that.”
Jones said unmanned vehicles used to recover injured Soldiers could be armored
to protect those Soldiers on their way home. But the vehicles could do more
than just recover Soldiers, he said. With units operating forward, sometimes
behind enemy lines, the medical community could use unmanned aerial vehicle
systems, or UAVs, to provide support to them.
“What happens when a member of the team comes down with cellulitis or
pneumonia? We have got to use telemedicine to tele-mentor them on the diagnosis
and treatment,” he said, adding that UAVs could be used for delivering
antibiotics or blood to those units to keep them in the fight. “So you don’t
have to evacuate the casualties, so the team can continue its mission.”
Other technology that Jones said already exists, sensors that could monitor a
Soldier’s vital signs, for instance, might also one day make their way to the
battlefield, being worn by Soldiers full time.
“Army Medical Research and Materiel Command is actually developing
physiological sensors that Soldiers can wear,” Jones said. “And in a few years,
they will be able to field this. They can be wearing the sensors and we can
just monitor them. And we can do that remotely.”
The general likened the sensors to something like a “Fit Bit,” which Soldiers
might wear now to monitor their heart rate and steps taken.
“This is just a step forward that will monitor other physiological parameters,”
he said. “Do they need to push more water? How many calories have they
consumed? There is a lot of information we can provide commanders that they can
use to manage their Soldiers.”
The same sensors could be used to triage casualties automatically, so that
those injured Soldiers whose vital signs are the worst are the ones who get
rescued first.
“If you see a casualty whose heart rate is way up, whose respiratory rate is
way up, that may be an indication they lost a lot of blood, and need treatment
now, as opposed to a casualty whose vital signs are stable and you wouldn’t
have to treat as quickly,” he said.
The same sensors can also be installed on unmanned aerial vehicles that might
one day rescue Soldiers when they go down.
Jones also discussed the use of “GoPro” cameras on Soldiers to document wounds
and treatment that is administered. Such video, he said, can be transmitted
real-time to follow-on treatment facilities where it can be used by physicians
there to better understand exactly what treatment a Soldier has already
received.
Additionally, such footage could be
used to provide feedback to the medics who performed the initial care to help
them improve their skills. The Army is doing something similar now, he said,
through the use of medical simulators.
“We train combat medics in simulators and record treatment they provide and
play it back for them,” he said. “We show them how they entered the scene, how
they surveyed their casualties, how they decided which casualty to treat or not
treat. And then we talk to them about the treatment they actually provided.”