The primary medical role of the Special Operations Forces (SOF) Medic is to stabilize the patient and prevent loss of life, limb, and eyesight on the battlefield. Significant time and resources are invested to ensure that SOF Medics are the best trained and most proficient combat Medics in the world. While considerable focus is placed on teaching the intricacies of saving life and limb, it seem...

Current operational theaters have developed to where medical evacuation and surgical assets are accessible in times comparable to the United States. While this has been an essential tool in achieving the best survivability on a battlefield in our history, the by-product of this experience is a recognized shortcoming in current protocols and capabilities of Special Forces medics for prolonged ca...

This week the first group of 150 British army medical staff fly to Sierra Leone to set up a treatment centre for health workers infected with the Ebola virus. We hope that the provision of high quality medical care will reduce mortality among affected patients. Our facility will be sited next to a larger Ebola treatment centre to be run by the charity Save the Children. We have spent the past t...

OBJECTIVES There is a need for research which informs on the overall size and significance of clinical skills deficits among new medics, globally. There is also the need for a meta-review of the similarities and differences between countries in the clinical skills deficits of new medics. DESIGN A systematic review of published literature produced 68 articles from Google/Google Scholar, of whi...