“Engage, Collaborate and Learn”
Indian Military Review and the Centre for Joint Warfare Studies (CENJOWS) organised a Webinar on Military Healthcare in association with the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) on 25-26 July 2020. Military Healthcare is a unique virtual event for military practitioners, professionals, researchers, hospital management, medical equipment & hospital supplies, dealers and distributors to discuss, interact, learn, imbibe and survey developments.
The event will provide a platform to share and discuss solutions and strategies for the way ahead and to help focus on ensuring the readiness of our service members, contingency preparedness and modernization. It covered a wide array of topics, from maintaining a medically ready and medically prepared force, accessibility to healthcare for efficient and effective treatment, advancing telehealth and telemedicine technologies and taking a closer look into the medical supply chain.
Welcoming the delegates, Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia, Director CENJOWS, highlighted the stellar role played by the medical personnel both in war and peace and the immense faith reposed in them by the uniformed fraternity. The importance of force protection both during war and peace was stressed upon and he also highlighted the relevance of the webinar especially in these times of COVID and events along the China border.
Keynote Address
Lt Gen Anup Bannerji, DG Armed Forces Medical Services gave the Keynote Address. He gave an overview of the Military Healthcare philosophy and highlighted the role of the Medical services in ensuring the highest level of medical fitness of the soldiers in varied terrain and climatic conditions both during peace and war. He highlighted the unique nature of military healthcare which caters for womb to tomb requirements of not just the soldiers but also their families and ESM. He explained the components of the healthcare wheel and the importance of the triad of healthcare, i.e. ethics, people and processes as also the various levels of healthcare being provided. He concluded by highlighting the challenges of the future and the way ahead which will be necessitated by the changed future environment, the impact of technology and cost effectiveness.
Session 1 : Military Healthcare Philosophy
Maj Gen Anupam Chattoraj, Addl DG AFMS highlighted the definition of ethics in general and specific to the medical services. Within the medical services the military personnel are also governed by the military oath and not just the Hippocratic Oath and this at times causes ethical dilemma when the primacy of the national security has to be seen within the medical prism. He explained the status of medical personnel in the Geneva Convention and the decision dilemma faced by young professionals in the field with conflicting requirements of resources being at a premium, the need to ensure adequacy of numbers for the task at hand and prioritizing of medical care with the military aim in the national security paradigm.
Col Neeraj Garg, Staff Officer to DG AFMS deliberated on the echelon-based combat medical support, its aim and the nature and challenges. He brought out need to create capacities and capabilities in the combatants to overcome the shortage of medical support at all places. He gave a detailed overview of the echelons of combat medical support including casualty evacuation.
Pranav Shitte, Managing Director, G. Surgiwear Ltd, gave an overview of the company and spoke on the product portfolio, especially the indigenously designed and manufactured Tourniquet, which the company has provided to the medical services both within and outside the country. He explained the state-of-the-art products, which were being developed with the aim of saving soldiers’ lives in field conditions.
Dr Rajvi Mehta, Scientific Consultant, Trivector Biomed LLP spoke on challenges of air pollution and spread of diseases through the aerial route, especially in hospitals. She gave a detailed talk on various air cleaning technologies available in the environment and products available with the company for ensuring safe air at key establishments.
Session 2 : Emerging Technologies and Protocols For Healthcare In Combat
This session was chaired by Air Marshal Pawan Kapoor, Retd, former DGMS (Air). He gave an overview of the principles of combat healthcare and emphasized on the need to provide the correct intervention in the correct time and the need to train and retrain all personnel continuously.
Lt Gen Madhuri Kanitkar, Dy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Medical), spoke on the way forward in Telemedicine. She highlighted the need to use this tech to overcome the various shortages of resources faced by medical professionals. She further explained that as part of Digital India, the National Digital Healthcare Mission (NDHM), which was to be launched on 15 August 2020, will begin spreading telemedicine techniques throughout India. She gave a detailed presentation on the plans for expanding telemedicine in conjunction with all stake holders so as to make it available across the country in a cost effective manner. Future medical care would require the use of Internet of Things, Big Data analysis, AI, etc, within a secure legal framework and the AFMS too would have to embrace it. The first step would be the launch of SeHAT & ECHSeHAT, the e-OPD planned for the Services in the near future.
Mr Leo Mavely, founder and CEO of Axo Biosolutions, spoke on the novel indigenous technologies to control life-threatening bleeding during combat. He highlighted that the largest number of casualties in combat occurred due to bleeding and of these 54% were potentially survivable. He gave a detailed presentation on various products being manufactured by the company which were also being exported. He requested for greater interaction between the industry and the AFMS so that innovations within the country as per the needs of the user could be expedited.
Session 3 : Modernisation of Military Healthcare Infrastructure and Delivery
This session was chaired by Surg Vice Adm MV Singh, former DGMS (Navy).
Air Marshal MS Butola, DGMS (Air) highlighted the importance of infrastructure development especially in the primary combat healthcare. He explained the importance of this especially in the current scenario on the Indo China border. He spoke on the need to use technology and infrastructure to reduce the days spent in acclimatization in HAA by having high press (O2) transportable tents. Use of such methods would enhance availability of acclimatized troops in a faster time frame, thus improving combat capabilities. He emphasized the importance of developing infrastructure and use of technologies for combat healthcare.
Surg Vice Admiral Joy Chatterjee, DG Hospital Services spoke on setting up field hospitals for combat healthcare. He gave a detailed presentation on the concept, available infrastructure, the deployment timings, layout and the features available in such facilities. He explained that such facilities would be extremely essential in providing high quality healthcare to the troops in the field and these were being implemented in the Armed Forces.
Air Cmde Sadhna S Nair, gave a detailed presentation on the use of technology in medical healthcare with special emphasis on wearable devices. She explained the various types of devices, their capabilities and benefits. The challenges, especially secure networks and security of data were also explained and she said it was the way forward in providing quality healthcare to people in remote and difficult locations insofar as the forces were concerned.
Mr Dilip Patil, founder director Trivector Biomed LLC spoke on the topic of hand and surface hygiene in medical healthcare and this has assumed much greater importance since the spread of the COVID pandemic.
Cmde Ajay Sharma, Retd, Vice President, Bharat Forge spoke on Making in India for the world and gave an overview of the innovation and indigenous products being manufactured by the company especially AI-based monitoring and surveillance of personnel in offices and public places which has assumed greater role in the COVID pandemic scenario.
Session 4 : Challenges For The Future
This session was chaired by Lt Gen (Dr) CS Narayanan, Retd, former DCIDS (Med).
Surg Vice Admiral Rajat Datta, DGMS (Navy) spoke on the challenges in military healthcare. Some of them highlighted included the rising costs, requirement of energy efficient hospitals, cost-effective treatment, robust procurement, harnessing and motivation of the workforce and good leadership.
Maj Gen S Bhatnagar, ADG AFMS (MR, H & Trg) gave a detailed presentation on the avenues in research, health and training. He explained the major research themes on which work was already going on. He also gave a detailed account of the response to COVID by the country and the armed forces.
The seminar provided an opportunity to all the stake holders to discuss the relevant issues pertaining to medical healthcare and a number of important issues emerged which will provide the way forward in further improving and rejuvenating combat healthcare.
Maj Gen Ravi Arora, Retd, Chief Editor IMR gave the vote of thanks and complimented all the participants on the comprehensive discussions on all aspects.
Proceedings of the webinar are also available on Youtube at www.youtube.com/channel/UC7NQ7uD98Dk1pnYhmd0N_5A
Senior Speakers at the Event
Air Mshl MS Butola DGMS (Air)
Vadm Rajat Datta DGMS (Navy)
Lt Gen Madhuri Kanitkar DCIDS (Medical)
Surg Vice Admiral Joy Chatterjee DG Hospital Services
Surg Vice Adm MV Singh Former DGMS (Navy)
Maj Gen A Chattoraj ADGAFMS (HR)
Air Mshl (Dr) Pawan Kapoor Former DGMS (Air)
Lt Gen CS Narayanan Former DCIDS (Med)
Air Cmde Sadhna Nair Air Cmde MS (Org & Plg)
Col Neeraj Garg SO to AFDGMS
