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As health-care costs continue to soar, millions of confused consumers are paying medical bills they don't actually owe. Typically this occurs when an insurance plan covers less than what a doctor, hospital, or lab service wants to be paid. The health-care provider demands the balance from the patient. Uncertain and fearing the calls of a debt collector, the patient pays up. Most consumers don't realize it, but this common practice, known as balance billing, often is illegal. When doctors or hospitals think an insurer has reimbursed too little, state and federal laws generally bar the medical providers from pressuring patients...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29, 2008 – Though Iraq’s military medical system has gained significant capability over the past five years, recruiting qualified physicians remains a challenge, the coalition’s top advisor to the Iraqi surgeon general said. Only 160 out of 800 available positions for physicians in the Iraqi military medical system have been filled, U.S. Army Col. (Dr.) John Powell, director of health affairs for Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq, told bloggers and online journalists in a teleconference Aug. 26. “The biggest piece right now,” Powell said, “is personnel … who have medical capabilities, who can do what’s necessary to diagnose...

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, Aug. 28, 2008 – A powder that regrows fingers and toes sounds like the stuff of fairy tales, but medical experts here are hoping they can use it to make magic happen for wounded warriors. Doctors from the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research are trying a regenerative medicine powder that’s already approved by the Food and Drug Administration in hopes of stimulating tissue growth in soldiers with missing extremities. “The powder is FDA approved and is already being used for hernia repairs and other applications,” said Dr. Steven Wolf, chief and task area manager...

A member of the 3rd battalion, 4th brigade, 1st national police division hands a stuffed animal to an Iraqi girl during a combined medical engagement in the Sha'ab neighborhood of northern Baghdad on Aug. 22, 2008. Sgt. Zachary Mott. BAGHDAD — Hundreds of residents braved the intense Iraqi summer heat to receive a medical screening from American doctors and receive an aid package from Iraqi National Police in the Sha’ab neighborhood of the Adhamiyah District of northern Baghdad on Aug. 22.Even before the doors officially opened shortly after 8 a.m., Sha’ab residents began lining up outside the neighborhood school for...

Patients walk past Iraqi Soldiers providing security from the 11th Iraqi Army Division, Aug. 20, 2008, during the combined medical engagement conducted in Sadr City. Photo by Sgt. Philip Klein, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division Public Affairs. BAGHDAD — When much needed health care is provided to citizens, it’s a welcome gift. The gift is even more welcome when Iraqi citizens see their own Soldiers taking the lead to help them. The 11th Iraqi Army (IA) Division delivered medical supplies and provided treatment to the citizens of the Thawra 1 neighborhood of the Sadr City District of Baghdad,...

An Iraqi Army nurse prepares an intravenous injection, Aug. 14, 2008, at the Iraqi Troop Medical and Dental Clinic. Photo by James E. Brown. CAMP TAJI — The doors opened up early at the Iraqi Army Troop Medical and Dental Clinic, but not until the clinic workers completed the daily task of picking up around the facility and conducting vehicle maintenance. By then, Iraqi Army Soldiers stationed on Taji start to trickle in - sick call slips in hand - to be seen by one of the military nurses for various medical reasons.“On average they see 60 to 70 patients...

A federal judge has ordered a temporary halt in the state's 10 percent cut in Medi-Cal reimbursement rates, improving access to care for 6.5 million low-income patients but throwing a new wrench in already difficult state budget negotiations. The U.S. District Court decision forces the state to reimburse most Medi-Cal providers at rates prior to the 10 percent cut, which lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made effective July 1 as a cost-cutting measure to help resolve a $15.2 billion budget shortfall this year. The move effects reimbursement rates the state pays to doctors, dentists, pharmacists, adult day-care centers and other...

The 36-year-old actress was born in Hollywood, California. Robert Applegate, her father, was a record producer and record company producer executive, and Nancy Lee Priddy, her mother, was a singer. She also had to fight both breast and cervical cancer. Christina Applegate will always remain in the audience’s memory as Kelly Bundy in the sitcom “Married with Children.” The actress made a great film and television career until her 36 years. Christina Applegate had major roles in several pictures, as “Farce of the Penguins,” “Anchorman,” “The sweetest thing” and is the lead character in the ABC sitcom “Samantha Who?,”...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 12, 2008 – More than 1,000 residents of Ud Kheil village here were treated by Afghan medical staff and received medicine, vitamins and personal items through a joint assistance operation conducted by New York Army National Guard, Afghan and British soldiers Aug. 7. Army Capt. Joseph Merrill works with a translator to direct a father seeking medical attention for his son. Merrill, a native of Binghamton, N.Y., is a member of the New York National Guard. U.S. Army photo by Lt. Col. Paul Fanning, Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The...

LOS ANGELES, (AP) -- Authorities say FBI agents have served search warrants at three hospitals and arrested two men in a scheme to recruit homeless people to fraudulently bill government health care programs for millions of dollars in unnecessary health services. Federal authorities say the searches Wednesday were conducted at City of Angels, Tustin Hospital and Medical Center and Metropolitan Hospital.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA, Iraq, Aug. 5, 2008 – Doctors from 41st Fires Brigade and El Salvador’s Cuscatlan Battalion brought medical care to citizens of the Zuwarijat district of Kut, Iraq, July 31. Salvadoran 1st Lt. Fernando Alfaro, of the Cuscatlan Battalion, treats an Iraqi policeman during a medical activity by American and Salvadoran doctors at the Jameer clinic in the Zuwarijat district of Kut, Iraq, July 31, 2008. About 200 patients received treatment, which focused on preventive medicine, during the event. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Daniel T. West, 41st Fires Brigade  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available....

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center made John Kanzius an offer he did refuse. Kanzius met earlier this month with top administrators from the Pittsburgh health-care system. They told him they wanted to fund all cancer research for his external radio-wave generator. In return, UPMC would have owned the project's intellectual property rights for cancer treatment. Kanzius thought about it for a day. "I told them no," Kanzius said Tuesday, the first time he has spoken publicly about the UPMC offer. "They said they would invest millions of dollars in it, but my question is, do I want a single...

BAGHDAD, Aug. 1, 2008 – Many families in Iraq have a variety of ailments due to malnutrition and lack of potable water and basic care. With Army Staff Sgt. Jason Torres, a native of Miami, looking on, Dr. Yousif Yousif examines the face of an Iraqi girl who is experiencing swelling in her face during a medical operation in Baghdad's Iraqi Family Village, July 26, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. James Hunter, Multinational Division Baghdad  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. It is no different in Baghdad’s Iraqi Family Village, where residents suffer from a myriad of illnesses....

BAGHDAD — Two quality healthcare facilities will boost Baghdad’s medical community. Once a thriving cardiac hospital, the Ibn al Bitar Hospital was severely damaged during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The hospital, located in an urbanized area of Baghdad west of the Tigris River, was destroyed by looters who stole all of the equipment and burned the building to the ground. Only the concrete foundation and the ground floor remained. The hospital’s director general and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region Division, worked together to rebuild a new modern and functional critical care unit. Construction of this two-story building began...

A national analysis of physician office and emergency department records shows that the types of skin infections caused by community-acquired MRSA doubled in the eight-year study period, with the highest rates seen among children and in urban emergency rooms. The study, conducted at the University of California, San Francisco, examined annual data from the National Center for Health Statistics of patient visits for skin and soft-tissue infections from 1997 to 2005. The results appear in the July 28, 2008 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Dhea Mijwal Shami Maadahidi, 38, a surgeon and manager of the Rutbah General Hospital in Rubah, Iraq, checks the mouth of a child during a cooperative medical engagement in Akashat, Iraq, July 23, 2008. The Baghdad native was one of three medical specialists working with Coalition forces to provide the town with health care. During the event, surgeons and corpsmen were assisted by Iraqi doctors to treat sicknesses ranging from measles to the flu. Photo by Cpl. Ryan Tomlinson, Regimental Combat Team-5, 1st Marine Division Public Affairs. AKASHAT — Navy surgeons and corpsmen with 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion,...

A British woman said she spent $15,000 to have her cat's face rebuilt after it was hit by a car and disfigured. Tanya Dickson said her cat, Hetty, was in a coma when she found him by the side of the road and veterinarians told her one of his eyes had collapsed and his nasal cavity was shunted among other injuries following the accident, The Telegraph reported Friday. Dickson said Hetty underwent a number of operations while being kept alive in an incubator and six days after his injury, he was able to meow again. She said he was eating...

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, July 25, 2008 – Every morning, the soldiers of 1st Platoon, C Company, 6th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, make their way across a scorching flight line to the platoon’s three UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. Army Sgt. Adam Connaughton, a medic with 1st Platoon, C Company, 6th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, checks the injured eye of a Marine during a medical evacuation mission to Outpost Vegas, near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, July 22, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Spc. George Welcome, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Pilots, crew chiefs and medics all take part...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER, Iraq, July 24, 2008 – Medics and doctors play a key role in maintaining the health and safety of U.S. soldiers throughout Iraq. A doctor from Montgomery Village, Md., brings especially important skills to the combat theater. Army Lt. Col. (Dr.) Margaret Swanberg, of Montgomery Village, Md., checks the pupils of Army Spc. Michael Woywood, of San Antonio, for dilation during a military acute concussion evaluation demonstration at Forward Operating Base Hammer, Iraq, July 18, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Michael Schuch, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution...

AN NAJAF — Provincial and local officials hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony July 19 to open a new Primary Healthcare Center in Sooq-sha’lan. An Najaf Deputy Governor Hassan Abtan pointed out that, prior to the PHC’s opening, residents traveled for an hour to get medical care. “Now it’s just 5 to 10 minutes away,” he added. He praised the quality of the construction, said the Iraqi crew who built it should be proud, and also complimented the partnering effort between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and provincial officials to ensure the project’s successful completion. Those attending included Abtan, Dr....

You may never think of hospitals quite the same way again, but it turns out that quite a lot of patient-care medical equipment sold these days is based on Windows. And this Windows-based equipment, whether it be cancer-care, EKG or ultrasound machines, is prone to getting hit by computer worms and viruses like any other Microsoft-based machine sitting on a corporate LAN.Hospital IT administrators want to ensure this equipment is kept up to date on security software patches in order to prevent infestation by worms that may invade hospital LANs. But as our story on this describes, patching medical devices...

7/16/2008 - BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- Fixed wing aircraft such as the C-130 Hercules, KC-135 Stratotanker and C-17 Globemaster III, can transform into aeromedical evacuation, or "aerovac," airframes, allowing medical personnel to care for larger patient loads, over longer distances, at higher altitudes, with a greater ability to care for the seriously injured. The 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight here, which is tasked to care for and transport patients from all over Afghanistan to Bagram Air Field, and run missions taking patients out of theater to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, can provide litter space for up to...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq, July 14, 2008 – Residents of Juhaysh in Iraq’s Wasit province received medical assistance from Iraqi and coalition forces during a cooperative medical engagement July 9. Army Maj. (Dr.) Mario Caycedo, a native of Miami and a surgeon with 703rd Brigade Support Battalion, talks with an Iraqi boy and his father during a cooperative medical engagement in Juhaysh, Iraq, July 9, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Tami Hillis, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 32nd Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army...

I’ve noted the phenomenon of Big Nanny pediatricians quizzing parents about whether they own guns before. The AMA, of course, is notoriously filled with gun-grabbing activists. Read Shawn shares another example via the Raleigh News and Observer. He e-mails: “No longer satisfied with just making sure the kids are in good health, the doctors now see fit to pry into your personal life to see if you have guns in the home.”

Farm-raised tilapia, one of the most highly consumed fish in America, has very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and, perhaps worse, very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids. The combination could be potentially dangerous for some patients with heart disease, arthritis, asthma and other allergic and auto-immune diseases that are particularly vulnerable to an “exaggerated inflammatory response.” Newswise — Farm-raised tilapia, one of the most highly consumed fish in America, has very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and, perhaps worse, very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, according to new research from Wake Forest University School...

Five-year-old Ahmed and his father, Warrant Officer Othman Mallouki, an Iraqi policeman with Fallujah Headquarters District, get ready to leave the Joint Command Center after a visit with Marines from Company B, Police Transition Team 8, Regimental Combat Team 1, June 21. Marines with the team are working with the family to arrange transportation for Ahmed's surgery in Jordan. Photo by Cpl. Chris Mann. FALLUJAH — Sounds of joy and laughter resonate through a police station’s narrow hallways. A young boy slowly enters through a doorway at the end to greet the boisterous group of Marines, but the sounds of...

WASHINGTON: US researchers reported that they may have found a way to flush out herpes viruses from hiding — offering a potential way to cure pesky and painful conditions from cold sores to shingles. They discovered that a mysterious gene carried by the herpes simplex-1 virus — the one that causes cold sores — allows the virus to lay low in the nerves it infects. It does so via microRNAs, little pieces of genetic material that regulate the activity of many viruses, the researchers report in the journal Nature. It may be possible to "wake up" the virus and then...

CONVOY SUPPORT CENTER SCANIA, Iraq, July 2, 2008 – A military intelligence officer here finally got to work where her heart is -- in the medical community. Army 1st Lt. Khara Keegan from Sioux City, Iowa, applies bandages on a patient at the Smith Gate Burn Clinic, at Combat Support Center Scania, Iraq, June 23, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Damian Steptore, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. After originally enlisting to become a combat medic in the Army Reserve nine years ago, Army 1st Lt. Khara Keegan, a...

John Kanzius couldn’t tell his wife what he was doing. He’d been diagnosed with a rare form of B-cell leukemia in 2002, and he’d endured months of chemotherapy. But still the cancer persisted. As he tells it: “I go into a partial remission or whatever. In another six or eight months, it’s back again. So, I go back into some more chemotherapy.” Then one late night in 2003, unable to sleep and energized with an idea, the chemo-battered Kanzius began to tear apart the couple’s vacation home on Sanibel Island. “Of course, I couldn’t say at that point that I’m...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE ISKAN, Iraq, June 26, 2008 – More than 200 adults and 80 children received medical care June 21 during a combined medical engagement at the Al Herea School in Farisiyah, Iraq. Soldiers from 3-7th Inf. Regt. usher in residents from Farisiyah and Jurf as Sahkr, Iraq, during a combined medical engagement June 21, 2008. More than 200 adults and 80 children received medical care and humanitarian aid packages during the event. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Rhonda Roth  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Eight Iraqi medics from 33rd Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army Division, and surgeons...

EMS on 2 wheels gets speedy care to victims Sunday, June 22, 2008 9:31 PM By AMANDA DOLASINSKI THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH James Fish carefully weaves his large hands through the straps of Natalie Ratliff's blue bike helmet. He snaps the straps together and checks the space under. Satisfied the fit is snug, he asks, “How does that feel?” The 8-year-old girl nods and smiles. Soon Fish, a medic with the Washington Township Fire Department, gets on his own bicycle and pedals off. He's one of 25 certified EMS bicycle patrols for the township, which serves the city of Dublin. Other...

PANJSHIR PROVINCE, Afghanistan, June 20, 2008 – Six Afghan medical providers learned basic lifesaving skills at a Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team cardiopulmonary resuscitation course held at the Rokha Clinic on June 18. Air Force Staff Sgt. Janine Duschka, a Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team medical technician, teaches the jaw thrust maneuver to Afghan medical providers during a CPR class at the Rokha Clinic, in Panjshir province, Afghanistan, June 18, 2008. This was the first of a 15-class CPR program that the Panjshir PRT is providing this year. U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Jillian Torango, Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team  (Click photo...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA, Iraq, June 19, 2008 – When she was born, doctors didn’t expect her to live a week, but a 1-year-old Iraqi girl is defying the odds. Noor Majeed smiles at the Forward Operating Base Delta medical facility in Iraq, where she received several life-saving procedures. She will undergo reconstructive surgery in Boston on June 30, 2008. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Noor Majeed overcame her initial prognosis, but without proper care, she still could die. But surgeons at Children’s Hospital in Boston have agreed to donate their services to help her, and...

Cholesterol genes 'protect heart' Cholesterol appears to play a key role in heart disease A third of the population have genes that could help them in the fight against heart disease, say scientists. A study of 147,000 patients suggests that certain types of the CETP gene might increase the levels of so-called "good" cholesterol. UK and Dutch research, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found a 5% cut in heart attacks for those with the key types. A UK geneticist said it could point to drugs which help many more people. What it does provide are...

An Iraqi man and boy wait for treatment during a medical assistance activity at the hospital in Numaniyah. Iraqi and Coalition medical personnel treated more than 150 patients. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Daniel T. West. FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA — Iraqis took the lead during a medical assistance event at the hospital in Numaniyah last week. Iraqi Soldiers delivered boxes of medical supplies and water to the facility, while seven Iraqi doctors, a doctor and a nurse from the 1st Georgian Infantry Brigade, a dentist from the Salvadoran Cuscatlán Battalion and U.S. Army medics treated more than 150 patients.Iraqi...

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, June 13, 2008 – A new lifesaving standard of care has garnered the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research here a prestigious recognition: invention of the year. The innovation, called Damage Control Resuscitation of Severely Injured Soldiers, was named one of the Army’s “Top Ten Greatest Inventions of 2007.” “The American Association for Trauma Surgeons calls this one of the biggest improvements to trauma care in the last 10 years,” said Michael Dubick, senior research pharmacologist for the Institute of Surgical Research. The invention is aimed at saving severely injured soldiers with internal injuries that...

VA MEDICAL CENTER HOSTS "WELCOME HOME" CELEBRATION FOR RETURNING COMBAT VETERANS June 9, 2008 WASHINGTON, DC - The Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, DC will honor returning combat veterans with a unique outreach and education event on Saturday, June 14, 2008 from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. The Welcome Home Celebration will be held on the hospital grounds at 50 Irving Street, NW, rain or shine. More here

WASHINGTON, June 8, 2008 – As security in Iraq improves, more doctors are returning to clinical services, but more are needed in the Iraqi security forces, an official involved with this process in Iraq said. “[In Iraq they still] need quite a few doctors just to get to the level where they need to be to provide the primary health care for their force,” Navy Cmdr. Joseph Coleman, deputy director of health affairs for Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq, said in a teleconference with journalists and bloggers June 5. “They’re drastically low on doctors in the military. So they’re going...

IRONICALLY enough, the dangers of the liberal health-care agenda are being made clear by the care that a liberal icon, Sen. Ted Kennedy, has received since his brain seizure last month. One day after an MRI detected a tumor, Kennedy was quickly diagnosed with a malignant glioma - a rare and often-fatal form of brain cancer. Less than two weeks later, his tumor was being removed by one of the world's experts in brain cancer at Duke University Medical Center. He'll follow up with chemo and radiation therapy tailored to the genetic makeup of his cancer to keep the cancer...

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Cristina Williams, the medical officer for Marine Wing Support Squadron 274, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward), checks the vital signs of an Iraqi schoolboy here May 15, 2008. Photo by Lance Cpl. Jessica Aranda. AL ANBAR PROVINCE — Medical personnel attached to Marine Wing Support Squadrons 172 and 274 visited a local village to participate in a cooperative medical engagement here recently. CME missions are dedicated to providing health care to local nationals who lack adequate facilities while simultaneously raising awareness on the people’s health conditions to the Iraqi government.“The Marine Corps is often involved in special...

6/4/2008 - LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) -- A member of the 59th Medical Wing has been awarded the Canadian Meritorious Service Medal for his life-saving contributions to Canadians and coalition soldiers while deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan. Col. (Dr.) Thomas Seay, the 59th Radiology Squadron commander, was assigned to the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan as the senior medical mentor of an embedded training team while deployed. The doctor's primary job was to mentor to Afghan medics and physicians as they opened a new Afghan National Army Regional Hospital. However, while waiting for the hospital to open and the Afghan...

TIKRIT, Iraq, May 29, 2008 – Many of the physical tolls professional athletes face are mirrored in professional soldiers. Pulled muscles, back pain, and sprains are just a few injuries soldiers face while conducting day-to-day operations in Iraq. Army Staff Sgt. Gaither, physical therapy noncommissioned officer in charge with 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, checks on a soldier with back pain at the combat support hospital at Contingency Operating Base Speicher, Iraq. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Enter the Army physical therapist -- a mobile, hands-on medical professional who works with soldiers to...

Families will be forced to name somebody to be in charge of their rubbish under a council's 'zero tolerance' approach to bin collections. The named individual faces £100 fines and a criminal record if their household then puts the wrong rubbish in its wheelie bins, puts them out too soon, or puts them in the wrong place. They will also be told to give officials a breakdown of everyone who lives in their home, together with intimate information including details of medical conditions. The strict questionnaire that residents will be forced to fill out about their rubbish They will even...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq – During a morning visit to Taha Naji Deyad’s house, 1st Lt. Michael Kendrick sits at the family table, eating flatbread with jam and fried eggs, and sipping chai tea. “I eat a lot of meals here,” Kendrick says. It’s clear he is a welcome guest and a family friend, and not just because he’s the leader of the platoon responsible for this neighborhood in al-Buaytha. As he sits at the table talking to Taha, Taha’s 5-year old daughter Noor insists on sitting next to him. She often holds his hand; sometimes she whispers in...

Dr. (Maj.) Angela Uy, of Company C, 626th Brigade Support Battalion , examines a child during the medical-care portion of a mission in al-Betra on May 20. U.S. Army photo. PATROL BASE KEMPLE — For the first time in recent history, the government of Iraq came to the aid of local residents requiring medical care in al-Betra and Owesat, about 25 kilometers southwest of Baghdad, on May 20.Assisted by Soldiers of Company A, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), GoI officials and Iraqi doctors flew to a school in the remote community...

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, May 23, 2008 – When Army Command Sgt. Maj. Mark Cornejo was wounded in Iraq, he had to return stateside for medical treatment, reluctantly leaving his comrades and mission behind. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Mark Cornejo, who was injured in Iraq in 2007, speaks at his change of responsibility ceremony May 13, 2008, at the 187th Medical Battalion headquarters at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Photo by Elaine Wilson, Fort Sam Houston Public Information Office  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. But one thing that never left him was his desire to serve. After three months...

Capt. Frederico Gomez, a dentist with the Salvadoran Cuscatlan Battalion, extracts a tooth during a medical assistance mission in the Zuwarijat district of al-Kut, Iraq, May 19. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Daniel T. West. FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA — Coalition forces provided medical care and supplies to more than 200 people during a medical assistance visit (MEDAV) in the Zuwarijat district of al-Kut, Iraq, May 19.Medical care was provided by local Iraqi doctors, Georgian doctors from the 1st Georgian Infantry Brigade, a Salvadoran doctor and dentist, along with paramedics from the Cuscatlan Battalion and medics from Company C, 26th...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2008 – Psychological health issues and traumatic brain injuries are primary areas of study in military medicine, a senior Department of Defense medical official said. “What we are learning in studies will lead to some major breakthroughs in the world of medicine,” Dr. Michael E. Kilpatrick, deputy director for force health protection and readiness programs in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, said in an interview on the “Dot Mil Docs” program on BlogTalkRadio.com. Kilpatrick said that the better they understand how to prevent both psychological health issues and traumatic brain injuries...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — Soldiers from Company C, 47th Forward Support Battalion, performed a simulated mass casualty drill at the troop medical clinic on FOB Hammer, May 6. A mass casualty (MASSCAL) event is any situation where there are more casualties than the aid station can normally handle. “When a mass casualty call comes in, all physicians, from dentists to surgeons, are called in,” said Capt. Aaron Mallory, of Panama City, Fla., Company C commander. “Those who cannot help on the treatment floor are sent to help with triage.” The 47th FSB used the training to rehearse procedures conducted...

BAGRAM, Afghanistan, May 8, 2008 – Medical leaders from coalition forces and international medical organizations gathered at the Jirga Center here May 5 for an all-day seminar to discuss infectious diseases that plague the Afghan population. Army Lt. Col. (Dr.) Mark McGrail, a surgeon with Combined Task Force 101, gives the opening remarks at an infectious disease seminar at the Jirga Center in Bagram, Afghanistan, May 5, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Pvt. Tamara Gabbard  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The seminar featured presentations by experts from Afghanistan’s Public Health Ministry and the World Health Organization. “The purpose...