Photo By Paul Lagasse | Participants in a medical simulation exercise at the U.S. Army Medical Research...... read more read more
FORT DETRICK, Md. – Dr. Daniel Nogee was working at his desk at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense’s Chemical Casualty Care Division one recent afternoon when his colleague, Daniel Boehm, messaged him inviting him to join a call from the field seeking advice on a casualty care question. It wasn’t an unusual request for Nogee, the chief of the consultation department at USAMRICD’s Chemical Casualty Care Division. However, this call turned out not to be the usual fare.
On the other end of the phone was an officer from a special operations unit calling from a live training exercise, seeking advice on medical planning and logistics for a particular type of chemical casualty that they were training on at that very moment.
“Often, we'll be contacted in advance to schedule a call and provide us with information in advance to help us prepare,” says Nogee. “But this was a totally out of the blue; we weren't expecting it. It’s a lot more exciting to get an unplanned call where we have to think on our feet a bit more and rely on the resources we have on hand.”
Nogee, Boehm, and their USAMRICD colleagues who responded were able to get the caller the information they needed, enabling them to plan the best possible course of action for the exercise scenario they faced. Not only did their timely response demonstrate USAMRICD’s operational readiness and contributions to Warfighter lethality and survivability, but it also highlights a unique way that the institute’s chemical casualty care experts provide real-time telemedicine consultations to deployed caregivers around the world 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The assistance they provided is typical of the types of questions that come to USAMRICD through the Advanced Virtual Support for Operational Forces telemedicine consultation system, nicknamed ADVISOR. Operated by the Defense Health Agency’s Virtual Medical Center, ADVISOR provides on-demand urgent medical, surgical, and dental consultation services to active duty, DOD, and government caregivers in operational settings. By providing real-time support and information to health care providers and leadership, ADVISOR facilitates informed decision-making and improves the provision of patient care in complex operational environments.
USAMRICD is one of two Defense Health Agency Research & Development-Medical Research and Development Command organizations that participate in ADVISOR. The other is the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research, which co-founded ADVISOR’s predecessor consultation service that was established to support special operations forces.
“The ADVISOR line is the highest profile and highest priority way for us to conduct our consultation mission of answering clinical and operational questions about chemical casualty care,” says Nogee. “It’s also a great way for us to fulfill our training and education mission as well.”
USAMRICD is renowned for its in-residence and offsite courses in chemical incident preparation and response, which it offers in conjunction with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases to first responders, medical practitioners, and hospital executives. The courses have been called the gold standard in training for medical management of chemical, biological, radiation, and nuclear casualties. When working with clients via the ADVISOR hotline who are planning a chemical casualty training event, USAMRICD invites them to take advantage of their courses to improve the fidelity of the training experience. Nogee says that this outreach has measurably increased the number of people taking the courses – thereby materially improving the readiness, adaptability, and resilience of the joint force.
An unexpected benefit of the ADVISOR hotline is that it also allows innovative ideas to flow into USAMRICD as well. Nogee recalls how a recent “out of the blue” call led to a series of discussions that eventually resulted in a new course on the advanced pharmacy management of CBRN casualties. The course was well received, and USAMRICD is working on a second iteration that can be offered more widely.
“We love calls like that, because they lead to a lot more work and business down the line,” says Nogee. “That one phone call benefitted dozens of people who attended the course, which in turn could benefit dozens of people who they end up treating. The benefits multiply pretty rapidly.”
Boehm, a field medical education specialist at USAMRICD, says that in addition to benefitting military readiness and leading to improved training outcomes, the ADVISOR service also has personal rewards for responders as well.
“I had one call that for me will always be a career highlight,” says Boehm. “We provided assistance to a unit while they were preparing for deployment and while they were on the deployment, and when they came back, they shared with us stories of how the help we provided had benefitted them. It was nice to hear right from the source that what we do matters. That call will always be something that I take with me.”
| Date Taken: | 06.12.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.12.2025 14:17 |
| Story ID: | 500472 |
| Location: | FORT DETRICK, MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 57 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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