Page 85 - JSOM Winter 2021

“Now, more than ever”

The Virtual Combat Medical Care Conference 2021 in a Pandemic Setting

Capt Sebastian Weber ; LtCol Dr Florent Josse, MD *
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or the fourth time, the Combat Medical Care Conference Through their talque account, the participants had access to
(CMC) took place under the motto “Now, more than presentations, live discussions, and virtual workshops.
Fever” on July 13–14, 2021.
There was a virtual exhibition room for 25 companies to pres-
The research, development, and training of Combat Casu- ent their products related to the treatment of combat-related
alty Care have no standstill. Correspondingly, there was great injuries in their profiles and workshops. Moreover, there was
motivation and commitment of the organizing team to hold the possibility for direct interaction between the participants
the CMC 2021 despite of the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pan- as well as between the lecturer and the audience by using the
demic. Therefore, the conference had a new look, as a virtual messenger client.
event with live moderation and interactive components and
live discussions. The symposium was bilingual (English and German) to meet
the international character. All lecturers and instructors in-
The German Society for Military Medicine and Military Phar- vested a lot of commitment and passion and created interest-
macy e.V. (DGWMP) was responsible for organizing this event, ing and enriching lectures and workshops.
as in the past. The cooperation between the Department for
Anesthesiology, Critical Care, Emergency Medicine and Pain The opening contribution, “11 Years Since the Battle of Isa
Therapy from the military hospital of the Bundeswehr in Ulm Khel, Afghanistan – What Have We Learned?” with the sub-
with Lieutenant Colonel (MD) Dr Florent Josse as responsible sequent live discussion with three involved soldiers, was an
officer (scientific supervision), the Special Operations Training exceptional introduction to the event.
Center (AusbZSpezlOp) Pfullendorf, and the Tactical Rescue
& Emergency Medicine Association (TREMA e.V.) was again
successful, as in the past conferences.

CAPT (Ret) Frank Butler – A Quarter-century of Tactical Combat
Casualty Care
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Tactical Com-
bat Casualty Care (TCCC) Guidelines, it was a huge honor
to host the developer of the TCCC concept, CAPT (Ret)
Frank K. Butler, MD for his presentation. SGM (Ret) Mike
Hetzler’s presentation about the latest updates of the TCCC
guidelines completed this subject, and the subsequent live dis-
cussion with the two speakers was very special.

The livestream was split into three virtual rooms during the
John Grado and the organizers of the CMC at the virtual platform
of talque. first evening of the event to meet the number of lectures and
presentations. Case reports of military missions by the French
The organizing team chose the specialized real-time commu- Armed Forces in Africa and the US Armed Forces in Yemen
nity and management tool talque as event venue to master the were presented in the main program. Simultaneously, there
balancing act between hygiene regulations on the one hand were presentations in the virtual rooms: “CBRN,” such as the
and providing an interactive platform for international and management of chemical warfare agents, and “Force Health
scientific exchange on the other. Protection,” including a report of health protection during
*Correspondence to florentjosse@bundeswehr.org
1 Capt Sebastian Weber and LtCol Florent Josse are from the Department of Anaesthesiology, Critical Care Medicine and Emergency Medicine,
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Military Medical Center Ulm, Germany.
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