Lessons Learned in Developing a Military Medical Lessons Learned Center

摘要

Without a way to collect, organize, analyze, and address the lessons learned from its past operations, military medical leaders lose the benefit of their service's previous experiences. One compelling example is the use of tourniquets to treat extremity hemorrhage on the battlefield. After World War Two, an Army medical officer described the need for improved tourniquets to be issued to soldiers on the battlefield. (1) Despite this clear feedback from the front lines, uncontrolled bleeding from extremity hemorrhage was the cause of death for more than 2500 fatalities in Vietnam a quarter-century later, making it the leading cause of preventable death in this conflict. (2) The failure to field effective tourniquets and train combatants in - their use was still causing preventable deaths in American combat forces at the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. (3) Although tourniquets are now widely used by U.S. forces (4), a more effective lessons learned process would have prevented thisrelatively simple advance from taking almost a half-century to be successfully implemented. The increased medical lessons learned capability now present in the U.S. military is helping to expedite the transition of lessons learned information into improved practices. At the start of the Global War on Terrorism in 2001, the Army was the only service that had incorporated Tactical Combat Casualty Care into its basic combat medical personnel training program.