KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia – During Pacific Partnership 2026 (PP26), the humanitarian and disaster management mission’s medical line of effort (LOE) personnel have bolstered host nations’ healthcare capacity and crisis readiness by hosting public health fairs, joint medical symposiums, and community outreach events, offering comprehensive health screenings and preventive care education in four national communities across the Indo-Pacific.
“Pacific Partnership is fundamentally about building capacity and trust long before a disaster occurs,” said U.S. Navy Capt. Robert Reyes, mission commander of Pacific Partnership 2026. “By strengthening local medical infrastructure and refining our shared clinical response standard operating procedures through these exchanges, we are ensuring that when a natural disaster strikes, our combined forces can integrate immediately to save lives and support regional stability.”
Central to this effort is Pacific Partnership’s multinational footprint. Medical personnel from partner nations, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, worked alongside host nation healthcare providers, military medical forces, and regional health authorities.
By integrating this vast coalition of international medical expertise into joint hospital rounds and subject matter expert exchanges, the combined teams shared clinical best practices, delivered community health education, and strengthened public health resilience across host nation communities.
“Our engagements this year were deliberately built around side-by-side training and subject matter expert exchanges (SMEE) that pass on vital disaster response knowledge and enhance clinical capacity,” said U.S. Navy Capt. Tiffany Uranga, director of medical operations and plans (DMOP) of Pacific Partnership 2026. “By embedding directly with our host nation colleagues during patient care, sharing evidence-based practices, and building relationships over months of planning, we’ve created a foundation of mutual trust and professional interoperability. Because medical needs are always at the forefront of any crisis, sharpening these clinical skills together now ensures we are aligned, reflexive, and fully ready to respond as a unified team when disaster strikes.”
Working with host nation healthcare providers, dental teams conducted side-by-side surgical observations and specialized health seminars, providing preventive oral health education and collaborative clinical care.
“Dental health is fundamental to overall health, quality of life, and operational readiness,” said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Benjamin Ricks, PP26 dental lead planner. “Working side-by-side with our host nation colleagues allows us to address immediate oral health needs while building long-term clinical capacity with local providers. Every clinical site is a true two-way exchange where we share techniques, learn from each other’s expertise, and deepen our collective capability across the Indo-Pacific.”
Specialized clinical care included maternal and child health and preventive medicine, bringing together a multidisciplinary multinational healthcare team to conduct hands-on training with local nursing students centered around routine maternal and child care, complicated deliveries, and bedside clinical exchanges.
Concurrently, public health and veterinary teams organized agricultural SMEEs, biosecurity classes, and poultry breeding workshops to address disease transmission and protect regional food systems through a comprehensive framework.
“Veterinary medicine brings a unique and often overlooked perspective to the medical LOE,” said U.S. Army Capt. Alicia Tutino, PP26 veterinary planner and co-lead. “It has been a great experience working alongside the different host nations throughout PP26. Each country has provided a unique experience, with each group engaging different topics and challenges they want to address.”
Rounding out the healthcare mission, biomedical equipment technicians partnered with local medical staff to evaluate, calibrate, and repair vital hospital machinery, while audiology specialists conducted diagnostic hearing assessments and hearing conservation seminars. These efforts supported wide-scale vision screenings and refractions designed to identify ocular pathologies and ensure optimal visual readiness across the community.
“Having optometry as part of Pacific Partnership’s medical line of effort highlights the importance of comprehensive eye care and overall visual readiness,” said U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Squires, PP26 optometry lead and planner. “Providing care in schools and community health engagements allows us to deliver preventive care while working side-by-side with our host nation partners. This collaboration demonstrates how much we can accomplish when we combine our diverse clinical experiences to build stronger relationships and support the health and readiness of the community.”
By bridging specialized healthcare skills with disaster response planning, the medical LOE serves as a critical pillar in Pacific Partnership’s overarching mission. The success of the mission’s regional medical training engagements highlights the heart of PP26: building trust, healthcare capacity, and disaster preparedness long before a crisis occurs. By training together, refining combined medical capabilities, and establishing strong connections, PP26 medical personnel alongside host nations’ healthcare professionals, aim to bolster the effectiveness of collective healthcare capacity throughout the region.
Now in its 22nd iteration, the Pacific Partnership series is the largest annual multinational humanitarian assistance and disaster management preparedness mission conducted in the Indo-Pacific. Pacific Partnership works collaboratively with host and partner nations to enhance regional interoperability and disaster response capabilities, increase security in the region, and foster enduring friendships.
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