Medical Corps (United States Army)
The Medical Corps of the U. S. Army is a staff corps of the U. S. Army Medical Department consisting of commissioned medical officers – physicians with either an M. D. or a D. O. degree, at least one year of post-graduate clinical training, a state medical license. The MC traces its earliest origins to the first physicians recruited by the Medical Department of the Army, created by the Continental Congress in 1775; the US Congress made official the designation "Medical Corps" in 1908, although the term had long been in use informally among the Medical Department's regular physicians. The MC consists of over 4,400 active duty physicians representing all the specialties and subspecialties of civilian medicine, they may be assigned to fixed military medical facilities, to deployable combat units or to military medical research and development duties. They are considered deployable soldiers; the Chief of the Medical Corps Branch is a colonel and the senior-most Medical Corps officer in the Army is the U.
S. Army Surgeon General, a lieutenant general. Both the Army Medical Department and the Medical Corps trace their origins to 27 July 1775, when the Continental Congress established the first Army Hospital to be headed by a "Director General and Chief Physician"; the language of the Congressional resolution spoke of “an Hospital” which in those days meant a hospital system or medical department. Among the accomplishments of Army surgeons during the years of the Revolution was completion of the first pharmacopoeia printed in America. In 1789, the Department of the Hospital was disbanded and a system of "Regimental Surgeons" was established in its place. During the period that followed Congress provided for a medical organization for the Army only in time of war or emergency. For example, in 1812 Congress established the Medical Department of the Northern Army as a response to the need for medical support during operations in the War of 1812. In 1816, medical officers were given uniforms for the first time.
A permanent and continuous Medical Department was not established until 1818. That year a “Surgeon General” was appointed and since a succession of Surgeons General and a permanent Corps organization in the Army Medical Department have followed. Physicians assigned to the U. S. Army were accorded military rank in 1847, although the old Regimental Surgeon system of additional designations was retained until 1908. In 1862, Surgeon General William Alexander Hammond proposed establishment of an "Army Medical School" in which medical cadets and others seeking admission to the MC could receive such post-graduate instruction as would better fit them for military commissions, it was over 30 years, before Surgeon General George M. Sternberg would found the Army Medical School, the precursor institution to today’s Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Congress made official the designation "Medical Corps" in 1908, although the term had long been in use informally among the Medical Department's regular physicians.
World War I brought a realization of the need to provide more than the “finishing school” approach of the AMS to military medical education and indoctrination and in 1920, the Medical Department first established hospital internships as a method of acquiring new officers for the MC. Meanwhile, part of the role of the AMS was taken over by the new Medical Field Service School which opened at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania in 1921, its purpose was to train both new medical officers and newly enlisted medics in the practice of field medicine.. The first woman to receive a Regular Army commission in the MC was Major Margaret D. Craighill in 1943, she was assigned as Chief Surgeon to the Women’s Army Corps. In 1946, Army residency programs for MC officers were introduced into the Medical Department, providing for the first time the full spectrum of graduate medical education to prospective MC officers. In 1954, a prominent thoracic surgeon and Harvard graduate, Frank Berry, was appointed as the second Assistant Secretary of Defense.
Upon assuming office one of his first acts was to propose a plan for young military physicians to follow one of three pathways after completing their internship: Enter the armed services and return to their residencies after fulfilling their obligated service. The “Berry Plan” deferred doctors who were taking their residency, so that the Army would get the benefit of their advanced education. GME became both a recruiting and a retention tool for the AMEDD, board-certified specialists were attracted in steady numbers; those MC officers who did not elect Option 1, or who were not needed were “deferred.” Some were allowed Option 3, to complete their residency training and entered active duty as a trained specialist. Those who were deferred for only one year of residency were termed “partially trained specialists” and were given military assignments that allowed them to work within their specialty. Many residency programs would give a year’s credit toward completion of residency for their time in military service to physicians who served under Option 2.
(This triple option program continued for 19 years until the US military d
Caduceus as a symbol of medicine
The caduceus is the traditional symbol of Hermes and features two snakes winding around an winged staff. It is mistakenly used as a symbol of medicine instead of the Rod of Asclepius in the United States; the two-snake caduceus design has ancient and consistent associations with trade, negotiation, alchemy and controversially, thievery and the passage into the underworld. The modern use of the caduceus as a symbol of medicine became established in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century as a result of documented mistakes, misunderstandings and confusion. Before the ancient Romans and Greeks, older representations from Syria and India of sticks and animals looking like serpents or worms are interpreted as a direct representation of traditional treatment of dracunculiasis, the Guinea worm disease. While there is ample historical evidence of the use of the caduceus, or herald's staff, to represent Hermes or Mercury, early evidence of any symbolic association between the caduceus and medicine or medical practice is scarce and ambiguous.
It is linked to the alchemical "universal solvent", the symbol of, the caduceus. The Guildhall Museum in London holds a 3rd-century oculist's seal with caduceus symbols both top and bottom; the seal was used to mark preparations of eye medicine. It is believed that rather than being evidence of a medical association per se, this is rather an allusion to the words of the Greek poet Homer who described the caduceus as "possessing the ability to charm the eyes of men", which relates to the business of an oculist. Walter Friedlander proposed that early association of the caduceus with medicine might have derived from the association of Hermes Trismegistus with early chemistry and medicine as aspects of alchemy as an esoteric practice, he notes however, that "although these various factors may link Hermes/Mercury, along with his caduceus, with alchemical medicine, they may just as well link all the other non-medical aspects of alchemy with Hermes/Mercury and the caduceus."Beginning with the 16th century there is limited evidence of the use of the caduceus in what is arguably a medical context.
However, this evidence is ambiguous. In some cases it is clear that the caduceus symbolized wisdom, without any specific medical connotations; the caduceus appears in a general medical context in the printer's device used by the Swiss medical printer Johann Frobenius, who depicted the staff entwined with serpents and surmounted by a dove, with a biblical epigraph in Greek, "Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves", in keeping with the connotations of the caduceus as a symbol of messengers and publishers based on the association of Hermes or Mercury with eloquence and negotiation. Friedlander observed that Frobenius could hardly be considered a medical printer, as had been asserted, noting that in a review of 257 of the works bearing this printer's device only one was related to medicine. Similar use of the caduceus in printers' marks continues to the present day, with companies including F. A. Davis Company still using the symbol as an element of their insignia. There are a few other examples of use in this period.
It may have been used as a symbol by Sir William Butts, physician to Henry VIII. Physician John Caius, founder of Caius College, at the time President of the Royal College of Physicians, during official visits to his eponymous college, had carried before him a silver caduceus on a cushion, presented this artefact to the college, where it remains in the College's possession; this use was adduced by the medical historian Fielding Garrison to support his argument that the caduceus was used as a symbol of medicine as far back as the 16th century. However, as Walter Friedlander noted, "what Caius used was a non-specific herald's wand, rather than the caduceus of Hermes." In support of this assertion he quotes Caius's own words on why he chose a herald's wand as a symbol, making it clear that he chose it as a symbol of prudence. This same passage was earlier referenced by Engle in refuting Garrison's claim. Engle and Friedlander are not the only ones to have noted that the use of the Caduceus by Caius had nothing to do with supposed medical symbolism.
Friedlander has examined this subject in detail, shows that Churchill was well aware that the rod of Asclepius was the accepted symbol of medicine. He is, it seems, inclined to think that the adoption of the caduceus in this context had something to do with the relation between publishing and the role of Mercury as a messenger and scribe, he notes, however That John Churchill adopted the caduceus as his printer's device independent of any idea that it symbolized medicine does not mean that, once having adopted it, it did not play some role in the caduceus coming to be accepted as a symbol of medicine, at least in the United States. During the remaining part of the nineteenth century several United States publishers appear to have copied or modified Churchill's caduce
Preventive healthcare
Preventive healthcare consists of measures taken for disease prevention, as opposed to disease treatment. Just as health comprises a variety of physical and mental states, so do disease and disability, which are affected by environmental factors, genetic predisposition, disease agents, lifestyle choices. Health and disability are dynamic processes which begin before individuals realize they are affected. Disease prevention relies on anticipatory actions that can be categorized as primal, primary and tertiary prevention; each year, millions of people die of preventable deaths. A 2004 study showed that about half of all deaths in the United States in 2000 were due to preventable behaviors and exposures. Leading causes included cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, unintentional injuries and certain infectious diseases; this same study estimates that 400,000 people die each year in the United States due to poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle. According to estimates made by the World Health Organization, about 55 million people died worldwide in 2011, two thirds of this group from non-communicable diseases, including cancer and chronic cardiovascular and lung diseases.
This is an increase from the year 2000, during which 60% of deaths were attributed to these diseases. Preventive healthcare is important given the worldwide rise in prevalence of chronic diseases and deaths from these diseases. There are many methods for prevention of disease, it is recommended that adults and children aim to visit their doctor for regular check-ups if they feel healthy, to perform disease screening, identify risk factors for disease, discuss tips for a healthy and balanced lifestyle, stay up to date with immunizations and boosters, maintain a good relationship with a healthcare provider. Some common disease screenings include checking for hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, screening for colon cancer, depression, HIV and other common types of sexually transmitted disease such as chlamydia and gonorrhea, colorectal cancer screening, a Pap test, screening for osteoporosis. Genetic testing can be performed to screen for mutations that cause genetic disorders or predisposition to certain diseases such as breast or ovarian cancer.
However, these measures are not affordable for every individual and the cost effectiveness of preventive healthcare is still a topic of debate. Preventive healthcare strategies are described as taking place at the primal, primary and tertiary prevention levels. In the 1940s, Hugh R. Leavell and E. Gurney Clark coined the term primary prevention, they worked at the Harvard and Columbia University Schools of Public Health and expanded the levels to include secondary and tertiary prevention. Goldston notes that these levels might be better described as "prevention and rehabilitation", though the terms primary and tertiary prevention are still in use today; the concept of primal prevention has been created much more in relation to the new developments in molecular biology over the last fifty years, more in epigenetics, which point to the paramount importance of environmental conditions - both physical and affective - on the organism during its fetal and newborn life. Primal prevention has been propounded as a separate category of "health promotion".
This health promotion par excellence is based on the'new knowledge' in molecular biology, in particular on epigenetic knowledge, which points to how much affective - as well as physical - environment during fetal and newborn life may determine each and every aspect of adult health. This new way of promoting health consists in providing future parents with pertinent, unbiased information on primal health and supporting them during their child's primal period of life; this includes adequate parental leave - ideally for both parents - with kin caregiving and financial help where needed. Another related concept is primordial prevention which refers to all measures designed to prevent the development of risk factors in the first place, early in life. Primary prevention consists of traditional "health promotion" and "specific protection." Health promotion activities are non-clinical life choices. For example, eating nutritious meals and exercising daily, that both prevent disease and create a sense of overall well-being.
Preventing disease and creating overall well-being, prolongs our life expectancy. Health-promotional activities do not target a specific disease or condition but rather promote health and well-being on a general level. On the other hand, specific protection targets a type or group of diseases and complements the goals of health promotion. Food is much the most basic tool in preventive health care; the 2011 National Health Interview Survey performed by the Centers for Disease Control was the first national survey to include questions about ability to pay for food. Difficulty with paying for food, medicine, or both is a problem facing 1 out of 3 Americans. If better food options were available through food banks, soup kitchens, other resources for low-income people and the chronic conditions that come along with it would be better controlled A "food desert" is an area with restricted access to healthy foods due to a lack of supermarkets within a reasonable distance; these are ofte
Army Medical Department (United States)
The Army Medical Department of the U. S. Army the Army Medical Service, encompasses the Army's six medical Special Branches, it was established as the "Army Hospital" in July 1775 to coordinate the medical care required by the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. The AMEDD is led by the Surgeon General of the U. S. Army, a lieutenant general; the AMEDD is the U. S. Army's healthcare organization, is present in the Active Army, the U. S. Army Reserve, the Army National Guard components, it is headquartered at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, which hosts the AMEDD Center and School. Large numbers of AMEDD senior leaders can be found in the Washington D. C. area, divided between the Pentagon and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The Academy of Health Sciences, within the AMEDDC&S, provides training to the officers and enlisted service members of the AMEDD; as a result of BRAC 2005, enlisted medical training was transferred to the new Medical Education and Training Campus, consolidating the majority of military-enlisted medical training in Fort Sam Houston.
The current Surgeon General of the U. S. Army and U. S. Army Medical Command commander is LTG Nadja West. Both the AMEDD and the Army Medical Corps trace their origins back to July 27, 1775, when the Continental Congress established the "Army Hospital", at that time overseen by the "Director General and Chief Physician". Congress provided an Army medical organization only in times of war or emergency until 1818, at which point it created a permanent "Medical Department"; the Army Nurse Corps originated in 1901, the Dental Corps began in 1911, the Veterinary Corps in 1916. The Army Organization Act of 1950 renamed the Medical Department the "Army Medical Service," and on June 4, 1968, the Army Medical Service was renamed the Army Medical Department. A regimental coat of arms was devised for the Medical Department, was most first used in 1818; the 20 white stars on a blue background and the red and white stripes represent the U. S. flag of 1818. The green staff entwined with a green serpent combined two symbols: the rod of Asclepius from classical mythology, symbolic of medicine and healing.
The colors Argent and Gules are those associated with the flag of the United States. The rooster is associated with Roman god of healing and medicine, Aesculapius; the Ancient Greeks believed that the rooster's crowing at dawn drove away the evil disease spreading demons from the temples so that it could be a place of healing. The torse below the rooster shows alternating blue and silver colors which were the colors of the Army in 1818; the Latin motto Experientia et Progressus, is meant to convey the steady and unfailing progress of the Army Medical Department since 1775. The design of the AMEDD regimental insignia is derived from the regimental coat of arms, it is one of the US Army's 14 regimental corps insignias. These insignias are worn over the right breast pocket on the Army Service Uniform and signify the service member's branch of service; the "new" AMEDD insignia was approved on 27 October 2014. See also: Rod of Asclepius and Caduceus as a symbol of medicineIn 1851, "a caduceus embroidered in yellow silk on a half chevron of emerald green silk" was first authorized and worn by hospital stewards of the Medical Department.
The caduceus in its present form was approved in 1902. Today, the AMEDD branch corps insignia is 1 inch in height. With the exception of the Medical Corps, each Corps is identified by a black enamel letter centered on the caduceus indicative of the specific branch; the insignia for Medical Service Corps is silver. Rooted in classical mythology and associated with the Greek god Hermes, the US Army's long-standing use of the caduceus has made it a well known emblem of physicians and medical skill throughout the world. There are six special officer branches in the AMEDD; the Medical Corps consists of commissioned medical officers who are physicians who have completed at least one year of post-graduate training or have been promoted from O-1 to O-3 following completion of medical school through USUHS or the HPSP. The MC traces its origins to 27 July 1775, when the Continental Congress created “a Hospital” a Medical Department and corps of physicians, for the Continental Army. Medical officers in the United States Army were authorized uniforms only in 1816 and were accorded military rank only in 1847.
Congress made the designation of "Medical Corps" official in 1908, although the term had long been in use informally among the AMEDD's regular physicians. Today, members of the MC work around the world at all echelons of the Army; the Chief of the MC is a major general, whereas the senior Army Medical Department officer is the Surgeon General. Military physicians serve in one of several general career fields; the three main fields are operational field, clinical field, research field. Operational Medicine is the field of Army medicine that provides medical support to the soldier and his/her Chain of Command. Many operational physicians serve as Division and Battalion level surgeons (the word "surgeon" is used to identify a physician, assigned to a unit as a primary care provider a
United States National Guard
The United States National Guard commonly referred to as just the National Guard, is part of the reserve components of the United States Armed Forces. It is a reserve military force, composed of National Guard military members or units of each state and the territories of Guam, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, for a total of 54 separate organizations. All members of the National Guard of the United States are members of the militia of the United States as defined by 10 U. S. C. § 246. National Guard units are under the dual control of the federal government; the majority of National Guard soldiers and airmen hold a civilian job full-time while serving part-time as a National Guard member. These part-time guardsmen are augmented by a full-time cadre of Active Guard & Reserve personnel in both the Army National Guard and Air National Guard, plus Army Reserve Technicians in the Army National Guard and Air Reserve Technicians in the Air National Guard; the National Guard is a joint activity of the United States Department of Defense composed of reserve components of the United States Army and the United States Air Force: the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard respectively.
Local militias were formed from the earliest English colonization of the Americas in 1607. The first colony-wide militia was formed by Massachusetts in 1636 by merging small older local units, several National Guard units can be traced back to this militia; the various colonial militias became state militias. The title "National Guard" was used in 1824 by some New York State militia units, named after the French National Guard in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette. "National Guard" became a standard nationwide militia title in 1903, indicated reserve forces under mixed state and federal control since 1933. The first muster of militia forces in what is today the United States took place on September 16, 1565, in the newly established Spanish military town of St. Augustine; the militia men were assigned to guard the expedition's supplies while their leader, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, took the regular troops north to attack the French settlement at Fort Caroline on the St. Johns River; this Spanish militia tradition and the English tradition that would be established to the north would provide the basic nucleus for Colonial defense in the New World.
The militia tradition continued with the first permanent English settlements in the New World. Jamestown Colony and Plymouth Colony both had militia forces, which consisted of every able bodied adult male. By the mid-1600s every town had at least one militia company and the militia companies of a county formed a regiment. From the nation's founding through the early 1900s, the United States maintained only a minimal army and relied on state militias, directly related to the earlier Colonial militias to supply the majority of its troops; as a result of the Spanish–American War, Congress was called upon to reform and regulate the training and qualification of state militias. The first national laws regulating the militia were the Militia acts of 1792. In 1903, with passage of the Dick Act, the predecessor to the modern-day National Guard was formed, it required the states to divide their militias into two sections. The law recommended the title "National Guard" for the first section, known as the organized militia, "Reserve Militia" for all others.
During World War I, Congress passed the National Defense Act of 1916, which required the use of the term "National Guard" for the state militias and further regulated them. Congress authorized the states to maintain Home Guards, which were reserve forces outside the National Guards being deployed by the Federal Government. In 1933, with passage of the National Guard Mobilization Act, Congress finalized the split between the National Guard and the traditional state militias by mandating that all federally funded soldiers take a dual enlistment/commission and thus enter both the state National Guard and the National Guard of the United States, a newly created federal reserve force; the National Defense Act of 1947 created the Air Force as a separate branch of the Armed Forces and concurrently created the Air National Guard of the United States as one of its reserve components, mirroring the Army's structure. The National Guard of the several states and the District of Columbia serves as part of the first-line of defense for the United States.
The state National Guard is organized into units stationed in each of the 50 states, three territories, the District of Columbia, operates under their respective state or territorial governor, except in the instance of Washington, D. C. where the National Guard operates under the President of his designee. The governors exercise control through the state adjutants general; the National Guard may be called up for active duty by the governors to help respond to domestic emergencies and disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes. The National Guard is administered by the National Guard Bureau, a joint activity of the Army and Air Force under the DoD; the National Guard Bureau provides a communication channel for state National Guards to the DoD. The National Guard Bureau provides policies and requirements for training and funds for state Army National Guard and state Air National Guard units, the allocation of federal funds to the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard, other administrative responsibilities prescribed under 10 U.
S. C. § 10503. The National Guard Bureau is
Humanitarianism
Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans, in order to better humanity for moral and logical reasons. It is the philosophical belief in movement toward the improvement of the human race in a variety of areas, used to describe a wide number of activities relating to human welfare. A practitioner is known as a humanitarian. Humanitarianism is an informal ideology of practice. Therefore, humanitarians work towards advancing the well-being of humanity as a whole, it is the antithesis of the "us vs. them" mentality that characterizes tribalism and ethnic nationalism. Humanitarians abhor slavery, violation of basic and human rights, discrimination on the basis of features such as skin colour, ancestry, or place of birth. Humanitarianism drives people to save lives, alleviate suffering, promote human dignity in the middle of man-made or natural disasters. Humanitarianism is embraced by people across the political spectrum.
The informal ideology can be summed up by a quote from Albert Schweitzer: "Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose." Jean Pictet, in his commentary on The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross, argues for the universal characteristics of humanitarianism: The wellspring of the principle of humanity is in the essence of social morality which can be summed up in a single sentence, Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye so to them. This fundamental precept can be found, in identical form, in all the great religions, Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam and Taoism, it is the golden rule of the positivists, who do not commit themselves to any religion but only to the data of experience, in the name of reason alone. It is indeed not at all necessary to resort to affective or transcendental concepts to recognize the advantage for men to work together to improve their lot. Humanitarianism was publicly seen in the social reforms of the late 1800s and early 1900s, following the economic turmoil of the Industrial Revolution in England.
Many of the women in Great Britain who were involved with feminism during the 1900s pushed humanitarianism. The atrocious hours and working conditions of children and unskilled laborers were made illegal by pressure on Parliament by humanitarians; the Factory Act of 1833 and the Factory Act of 1844 were some of the most significant humanitarian bills passed in Parliament following the Industrial Revolution. In the middle of the 19th century, humanitarianism was central to the work of Florence Nightingale and Henry Dunant in emergency response and in the latter case led to the founding of the Red Cross. Today, humanitarianism is used to describe the thinking and doctrines behind the emergency response to humanitarian crises. In such cases it argues for a humanitarian response based on humanitarian principles the principle of humanity. Nicholas de Torrente, Executive Director of MSF-USA writes: "The most important principles of humanitarian action are humanity, neutrality and impartiality, which posits the conviction that all people have equal dignity by virtue of their being human based on need, without discrimination among recipients.
Humanitarian organizations must refrain from taking part in hostilities or taking actions that advantage one side of the conflict over another, the §action serves the interests of political, religious, or other agendas. "These fundamental principles serve two essential purposes. They embody humanitarian action’s single-minded purpose of alleviating suffering and without any ulterior motive, they serve as background document to develop operational tools that help in obtaining both the consent of communities for the presence and activities of humanitarian organizations in volatile contexts. Patrick Meier, first started using the term'digital humanitarianism' after crowdmapping for the 2010 Haiti earthquake. In 2011, Paul Conneally gave a TED talk on digital humanitarianism in which he states that humanitarianism's "origins are routed in the analogue age" with "a major shift coming". In 2015 he authored the book Digital Humanitarians: How Big Data Is Changing the Face of Humanitarian Response. Vincent Fevrier notes that "social media can benefit the humanitarian sector by providing information to give better situational awareness to organisations for broad strategic planning and logistics" and that "crisis mapping emerged in 2010 during the Haiti earthquake" with "software and digital humanitarian platforms such as Standby Task Force, OpenStreetMap, many others" being active during many disasters since then.
In fact, the role of social media in digital humanitarian efforts is a considerable one. During the summer of 2010, when open fires raged across Russia, causing many to die from smog inhalation, the use of social media allowed digital humanitarians to map the areas in need of support; this is because Russians who were hoping to be evacuated were posting online about the conditions they were in which prompted thousands of Russian bloggers to coordinate relief efforts online. The digital humanitarian efforts in Russia were crucial to responding to the fires in 2010 considering the Russian government was vastly unprepared to deal with such a large-scale disaster. Within digital humanitarianism, big data has featured in efforts to improve digital humanitarian work and produces a limited understanding of how a crisis is unfolding, it has been argued tha
