U. S. military medical unit integrates new technologies in hurricane response exercise

U. S. Army Lt. Col. Michael Alvis, MEDEL deputy commander, browses through a Global MedAid real-time report which tells him how many patients have been treated. In preparation for the 2014 hurricane season, the Joint Task Force-Bravo Medical Element (MEDEL) conducted a humanitarian assistance/disaster response (HA/DR) exercise at Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras June 12, 2014. The MEDEL's mission was to establish a forward medical treatment operation capable of providing triage, primary care, surgical capabilities, patient holding and evacuation. As part of this exercise, a suite of mobile technology applications that run on smartphones and tablets were used to enhance the capabilities of the unit: Global MedAid, Medical Application of Speech Translation (MAST) and GeoSHAPE. (Photo by U. S. Air National Guard Capt. Steven Stubbs)