Medics hail app ‘worth its weight in gold’ in battlefield hospitals
MEDICS TAKING part in the UK’s biggest military exercise for almost two decades are trialing a cutting-edge app that has been hailed as “worth its weight in gold”.
Exercise Saif Sareea 3 officially began on October 5 and will see more than 5,500 UK personnel and 65,000 of their Omani counterparts take part over the coming month.
Lieutenant Colonel David Wilson, of the Royal Medical Corps, based in Camp Shafa for the exercise, said they have been testing and using a new app called Proximie.
He revealed that telemedicine technology allows medics to overlay X-rays onto a patient, and that a camera is linked up back to the UK to a consultant in the relevant medical field.
This allows the consultant, who is often miles away, to see what is being done and offer precision instruction and advice during a procedure.
“It is huge,” 41-year-old Lt Col Wilson from Aldershot, Hampshire, said when asked about the impact of the app.
“This is the next century coming into where we are now, this is what we have been hoping for,” he said.
“Even though computers are evolving twice the speed every year, they haven’t necessarily delivered us the advantages we had hoped.
“This thing could genuinely be a leap forward in an operation... it has proved itself out here, it is worth its weight in gold.”
Lt Col Wilson revealed that for exercise Saif Sareea 3 a tented medical facility, covering an area of 75 metres by 75 metres, has been deployed for the first time in almost 20 years.
Inside there is a two-bed intensive care unit, 12 low dependency ward beds, a twobed emergency department and one surgical table available for use.
He said during the exercise they have been training with mock patients who have injuries that mimic battle-related trauma.
And with more than 40 real casualties so far, Lt Col Wilson said most of the health issues among troops are “non battle related diseases” and “lower level stuff ”.