Defence Engagement (Health) between the UK and Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

This paper describes the range of Defence Engagement (Health) (DE(H)) activities between Northern Ireland and Ireland following the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998. Although the Agreement made provision for cross-border cooperation in health, the Omagh bombing of August 1998 energised the discussion to provide greater co-ordination of future responses to mass casualty events. The paper describes these DE(H) activities at the Strategic, Operational and Tactical levels to show the integration across these levels and between the agencies of both governments. The paper shows how a DE(H) programme can have a successful strategic effect by finding topics of mutual interest that can bring together two countries in order to provide an effective health and social care provision. This paper forms part of a special issue of BMJ Military Health dedicated to Defence Engagement (.

Framework for the evaluation of military health systems.

The organisation of a military health system (MHS) differs from the civilian system due to the role of the armed forces, the unique nature of the supported population and their occupational health requirements. A previously published review of the Military Medical Corps Worldwide Almanac demonstrated the value of a standardised framework for evaluation and comparison of MHSs. This paper proposes such a framework which highlights the unique features of MHSs not covered by health services research of national health systems. These include: national context and summary; organisational structure; firm base facilities, healthcare beneficiaries and medical research; operational capabilities, overseas deployments, collaborations and alliances; personnel including recruitment, training and education; and history and culture. This common framework can help facilitate international collaboration between military medical services including capability development, training exercises and mutual support during military operations. It can also inform national contributions to future editions of the Almanac.

Innovation in education: the military medical ethics 'playing cards' and smartphone application.

Military medical personnel need to understand military medical ethics to comply with international humanitarian law, national health practice and professional norms. Teaching this subject is constrained by a lack of educational resources, being further exacerbated by the limits imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper describes an innovative approach to deliver military medical ethics education using 52 scenarios published as a set of playing cards and a smartphone app. The rationale for the methodology and the development of these scenarios is summarised. This package forms a part of a 'd(igital)-learning' educational suite that includes physical cards, the app and a website for teaching both military and military medical ethics. The paper describes the experience of delivering this d-learning package in military medical ethics to UK and international audiences. The final sections offer a look ahead to the next stages for refinement to the current suite and the wider d-learning resources.

Civil-military cooperation in the early response to the COVID-19 pandemic in six European countries.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has presented many countries with significant health system and economic challenges. The role of civil-military cooperation in a health crisis of the magnitude presented by COVID-19 remains virtually unexplored. This review aims to detect and identify typologies, if any, of associations between security or military systems and the national response measures during the COVID-19, as adopted by six European countries during the early phase of the outbreak (January to March 2020). METHODS: We designed a structured qualitative literature review (qualitative evidence synthesis), primarily targeting open-source grey literature using a customised Google web search. Our target countries were UK, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Sweden. We employed a 'best fit' framework synthesis approach in qualitative analysis of the result records. RESULTS: A total of 277 result records were included in our qualitative synthesis, with an overall search relevance yield of 46%. We identified 19 distinct descriptive categories of civil-military cooperation extending across seven analytical themes. Most prominent themes included how military support was incorporated in the national COVID-19 response, including support to national health systems, military repatriation and evacuation, and support to wider public systems. CONCLUSION: Findings of this review show the significance of military systems in supporting an expansive response during the COVID-19 pandemic, and our proposed methodological approach for capturing military health data in a reproducible manner and providing a comparative view on common types of interventions provided by civil-military cooperation to inform lessons from the use of military capacities during current COVID-19 outbreak.

Health risk management matrix -- a medical planning tool.

This paper describes the Health Risk Management Matrix. This is a planning tool, developed at the Defence Medical Services Training Centre, to teach students how to develop and write a Medical Force Protection Plan. The tool covers 5 stages: hazard identification, identification of the population at risk, risk assessment, control measures (divided into information training and policy, medical counter-measures, and treatment) and monitoring activities. The paper provides a worked example using malaria as a hazard.

Roles for international military medical services in stability operations (security sector reform).

This is the second in a series of three papers that examine the role of international military medical services in stability operations in unstable countries. The paper discusses security sector reform in general terms and highlights the interdependency of the armed forces, police, judiciary and penal systems in creating a 'secure environment'. The paper then looks at components of a local military medical system for a counter-insurgency campaign operating on interior lines and the contribution and challenges faced by the international military medical community in supporting the development of this system. Finally the paper highlights the importance of planning the medical support of the international military personnel who will be supporting wider aspects of security sector reform. The paper is based on background research and my personal experience as Medical Director in the Headquarters of the NATO International Stability Assistance Force in Afghanistan in 2006.

Pertussis -- a case finding study amongst returnees from Op Herrick.

We present a case finding study of serologically confirmed Pertussis amongst BFG-based returnees from Op HERRICK. The role of Pertussis in the aetiology of the commonplace "Kabul Cough" is discussed. It is recommended that enhanced health surveillance for Pertussis takes place both during and after future deployments to Afghanistan, to prevent the potential onward transmission of a potentially fatal illness to unimmunised children.

Stability operations and the implications for military health services support.

This paper examines the implications of the new military campaign type--Stability Operations--on military health service support. The paper uses the format of the medical estimate process and shows how the health service support planning factors of Mission Analysis; Ground; Enemy forces; Friendly forces; Time and Space; Security; Casualty Estimate; Medical Command, Control, Communication, Computers and Information (C4I); Medical Capabilities; Medical Force Protection; Medical Logistics; and Medical CBRN are affected by this change. The paper also identifies two new roles for military medical services, assistance to security sector reform and assistance to reconstruction and development. These two new roles will be discussed more fully in later papers.

Reflections on medical aspects of ISAF IX in Afghanistan.

This paper is a personal review of my experience as the Medical Adviser in the NATO Headquarters of International Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan from August 2006 to February 2007. It is in 5 sections, medical plans and operations, clinical issues, supporting the Afghan Security Forces Medical Services, supporting Health Sector Reconstruction and Development and preventive medicine. It concludes with a short summary of personal lessons.

Roles for international military medical services in stability operations (reconstruction and development).

This is the last in a series of three papers that provide a discussion on the wider roles of military medical forces in stability operations. It examines the framework for civil-military co-operation in humanitarian operations and complex emergencies. It then introduces the non-military components of 'stability' operations and examines the military role in reconstruction and development. The paper examines the potential capabilities of military medical services in providing medical support for non-military populations, Village Medical Outreach Programmes and medical infrastructure projects.

A review of 10 years of systematic health surveillance in the Army.

Health and morbidity reporting has been an important feature of the historical assessment of military campaigns from times of antiquity. Most of these reports have concentrated on hospital admission rates and mortality. In 1994 the British Army introduced a primary care health surveillance reporting system called J94. This provided the first opportunity for the systematic capture and analysis of morbidity data that allowed the identification of disease trends and the audit of remedial action. In parallel with the developments made by the military in the field of health surveillance, a number of initiatives in the NHS tried to develop real time surveillance systems with differing degrees of success. This paper reviews the developments made by military and civilian programs, identifies the problems that have been faced, areas where success has been achieved and the issues that will have to be considered as we prepare for the introduction of the next generation of IT based medical information systems into the military.

EX SAIF SEREEA II--the field hospital clinical report.

This paper places on record the clinical activity of the hospital facilities run by 22 Field Hospital on Exercise SAIF SEREEA II in Oman from August to November 2001. There were 1322 episodes of illness resulting in a hospital admission. The mean rate of admission was 1.96 patients per thousand per day (SD 13.62). The main causes of admission were gastrointestinal illness, conditions related to the heat and injuries. The reporting of health service utilisation data is an important duty of medical personnel during overseas deployments in order to add to the dataset available for the estimation of medical workload for future operations.