Professional Military Medical Knowledge Management and Education for Development

Abstract

"Military Medicine" is an academic discipline supported by extensive literature and scholarly activities with broad applications across the spectrum of medical specialties. Armed forces physicians generally recognize that there is a body of knowledge peculiar to the medical problems and needs of military units and that this knowledge base is different from that required in ordinary medical practice. The practice of medicine by uniformed physicians in fixed military facilities does not differ greatly from the above mentioned "ordinary medical practice." However, Military Medicine involves risk ("threat") assessment, prevention, medical dispositions (evacuations), and the clinical management of diseases and injuries resulting from military occupational exposures. This is not to suggest that the environmental hazards to which military members may be exposed are completely unfamiliar in civilian occupations; rather, it is the manner and degree of the military occupational exposures that are unique. Thus, while civilian workers certainly may be at risk of hearing loss from exposure to noise, few are at risk of exposure to the high blast over pressures generated by artillery pieces and other explosive weapons.