1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs

Courtesy Story

AL ASAD AIRBASE, Iraq – Medics with a U.S. Army advise and assist brigade here recently took a major step forward in normalizing the training of Iraqi medical personnel at the 7th Iraqi Army Division's Camp Mejid clinic by matching the training curriculum to the clinic's real-time needs.

"I looked through the [Iraqi] clinic's records and noticed 90 percent of their patients were diagnosed with influenza," said Staff Sgt. Tiari Ventura, non-commissioned officer in charge of a medical training team, part of the "Team Partner" advise and assist initiative of 307th Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division (Advise and Assist Brigade), with Iraqi security forces.

Previous medical training teams focused almost exclusively on trauma injuries such as those sustained from improvised explosive devices, said 1st Lt. Jessica Larson, officer in charge of the MTT.

Although trauma is important for Iraqi medics to understand, 98 percent of healthcare demand at the Iraqi medical clinic will be for common conditions such as colds and minor injuries, said Larson.

Al Asad is located in Al Anbar province, once a hotbed for the Sunni insurgency and site of some of the most intense fighting following the fall of the Baathist regime. Since the drop in violence from the realignment of local tribes from al-Qaida to U.S. forces, the need to treat trauma injuries at local Iraqi clinics is far less.

"We're devoting more time to give [7th Army Division medics] the skill sets they'll need once we leave Iraq," said Lt. Col. Andrew Danwin, commander of 307th BSB.

Pfc. Mohammad Shaker, a MTT member fluent in Arabic, recently taught a class to Iraqi medical personnel on diabetes.

"The Iraqis were very interested and asked lots of questions. Some had family members affected by diabetes," said Shaker.

On one occasion, an Iraqi soldier with a foot injury visited the clinic for a followup and was used as a teaching point by Larson. The soldier's toe had been infected for more than three weeks because Iraqi medics prescribed the wrong treatment. Larson explained how to properly treat infections with antibiotics.

"[Iraqi medics] have a stocked pharmacy but don't understand how to best use their medicine," said Larson.

"After our first few classes, the Iraqis grabbed medicine from their pharmacy to ask us what it was used to treat," said Ventura.

Begun Sept. 9, the medical training is ongoing, said Larson.

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