NMCP Focuses on Training and Readiness with Surgical Courses

Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Kris Lindstrom | PORTSMOUTH, Va. (Aug. 6, 2020) – Surgeons participate in the inaugural Combat Orthopaedic Trauma Surgical Skills (COTS+) course at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (NMCP) on Aug.6. COTS+ is designed to provide deploying orthopaedic surgeons the skills necessary to manage extremity trauma. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kris R. Lindstrom/Released)  

PORTSMOUTH, VA, UNITED STATES

08.10.2020

Story by Petty Officer 2nd Class Kris Lindstrom 

Naval Medical Center - Portsmouth

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (Aug. 10, 2019) – In a day and age where the U.S. Navy’s focus is on readiness, Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (NMCP) hosts two surgical courses on Aug. 4-7 that are vital to exposing surgeons to combat trauma.
The inaugural Combat Orthopedic Trauma Surgical Skills (COTS+) course followed the long tenured Advanced Surgical Skill Exposures for Trauma (ASSET+) course at NMCP, training surgeons on life-changing trauma standards that they need to operate while deployed.
Dr. Mark Bowyer, retired Air Force Colonel, Trauma Surgeon, and founder of the ASSET+ course, brought the course to 180 sites in 20 countries for civilians and military, as well as NATO partners. Now at NMCP, Bowyer explains that the courses are not only crucial for the development of surgeons to handle combat related injuries, they are required.
“The COTS+ course is based on an expansion of the ASSET+ course which was developed for general surgeons to teach them how to do vascular exposures,” Bowyer said. “It has become a requirement of all the general surgeons in the U.S. military. It will be mandated and required to be done every two years.”
COTS+ is an adaptation of the essential-to-deploy course held at NMCP annually called the Combat Extremity Surgery Course (CESC). It is designed to provide deploying orthopedic surgeons the skills necessary to manage extremity trauma. In addition to fractures, it is not uncommon for battlefield extremity injuries to also have complex soft tissue injuries, vascular injuries, and/or burns.
“What we have done with the COTS+ course, and this is the first iteration thereof, is to take the existing extremity war surgery course, which has been in existence for a while, and to beef it up and use some of the same educational principles that we are using for the ASSET+ course to enhance their training,” Bowyer said. “Get exposure to things that they would not normally do in their civilian practice that they might be called to do or assist while deployed.”
The main difference that Bowyer thinks makes the courses stand apart from previous courses like it is the assessment portion.
“The other key piece of this whole project, both the ASSET+ course and COTS+ course, is that we have built in an assessment piece. As the students do the procedures, they are evaluated by experts using a tablet-based application,” Bowyer said. “This allows us to provide them immediate feedback as to if they are meeting the standard or not. The advantage of that is if someone is not meeting the standard, I can identify where they are struggling, what the specific issues are and I can remediate them so that they do meet the standard and now they are deployable to provide the best care possible to our troops downrange.”
Bowyer said that medical assets are like any weapons system in the military. Resources and improvements are poured in to make the most precise and effective weapon possible, so when the trigger is pulled, the weapon does exactly what you need it to do. He believes that this course is part of a continued effort to produce and deploy the best surgeons possible.
“This course is important because people who haven’t taken these courses may not have the skills to provide life, limb and eyesight saving training downrange when they are called upon to do so,” Bowyer said. “What this course does is that it measures and confirms the ability of those individuals to perform as advertised. That’s the whole goal. We deploy surgeons. You can be a breast surgeon and be sent to theater and be asked to act as a trauma surgeon. That’s a far stretch but if that breast surgeon has gone through a course like this, been exposed to these procedures and has shown they can do them, then I can send that person with confidence that they can perform those skills.”
As the U.S. Navy's oldest, continuously-operating military hospital since 1830, Naval Medical Center Portsmouth proudly serves past and present military members and their families. The nationally-acclaimed, state-of-the-art medical center, along with the area's 10 branch health and TRICARE Prime Clinics, provide care for the Hampton Roads area. The medical center also supports premier research and teaching programs designed to prepare new doctors, nurses and hospital corpsman for future roles in healing and wellness.

• Date Taken: 08.10.2020
• Date Posted: 08.28.2020 13:00
• Story ID: 377014
• Location: PORTSMOUTH, VA, US