Photo By Sean Hall | Madigan Army Medical Center completed its annual, weeklong Capstone exercise....... read more read more
JOINT BASE LEWIS MCCHORD, WA – On Friday, May 16 Madigan Army Medical Center completed its annual, weeklong, Capstone exercise. Originally a series of lectures to finish off a Resident’s training time at the hospital, Capstone has evolved into a week of in-depth training and simulations to prepare our residents for what they may experience in a combat zone.
Retired Col. Imad Haque was one of the doctors who was instrumental in transforming Capstone into what it is today. “I came back here as staff in 2008 from fellowship and I trained here as a resident and promptly deployed three weeks after I graduated from residency, I was deployed and recognized that, hey, we've got to do better, we've got to do a better job as a training center to get residents ready to go out and do their deployed job” said Haque.
Prior to 2011, Capstone consisted primarily of lectures and classwork, but Dr. Haque and other Madigan staff who deployed during the early years of the War on Terror recognized the need for a dramatic change to prepare residents for the realities of the environments they would likely be deploying to. “By 2009 it was a very different time, it was right after the surge in Iraq, we had folks who were deploying immediately, and so we really had a need, a vast majority of our graduating residents were going and within a year they were being deployed” recalled Haque. “So we really felt strongly that we had to do something as part of graduate medical education towards the end of the year for any intern going into GMO assignments or graduating residents, especially if they're going to operational assignments that we were helping prepare them for deployment.”
Capstone now provides resident Soldiers with valuable opportunities to refine their skills as medical professionals, military leaders, and Soldiers operating in a field environment. It also fosters joint learning experiences by bringing together peers from across the armed services. Throughout the rigorous exercise, participants demonstrated adaptability and resilience by combining their medical expertise with critical Soldiering tasks. These included patrolling, administering Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC), conducting casualty evacuations and executing 9-Line Medical Evacuation Requests.
Despite being retired and working as a surgeon in Seattle, Dr. Haque still takes time to return to Madigan to assist with training residents during Capstone. “Madigan is very dear to me, I spent a lot of time here, and this is kind of a culmination of a lot of work for a number of years, and to be able to keep it going, I think speaks of its value, and I feel that I recognize the value of an exercise like this.”
For graduating residents, the event serves as a crucial learning experience, offering firsthand insight into the distinct challenges of providing medical care in a deployed setting versus a traditional hospital environment. It also deepened their understanding of their responsibilities at the battalion, brigade and field hospital levels where teamwork and coordination with seasoned Soldiers are essential to mission success.
| Date Taken: | 06.03.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.03.2025 13:53 |
| Story ID: | 499540 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 15 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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