11th Annual Force Health Protection Conference
Deployment Healthcare Track
Sponsored by DoD Deployment Health Clinical Center
August 2008

Deployment Healthcare Track (DHCT) Information

The 2008 Deployment Healthcare Track's focus was on Soldier-centered care for returning combat warriors and their families. The target audience was healthcare providers who are the first to assess and treat Soldiers: primary care and family practice providers, nurses, behavioral health, and physician assistants, as well as occupational and environmental medicine, clinical epidemiologists and health service researchers. Special areas of interest included:

1. Improving, measuring and evaluating war-related care
2. Fostering trust between Soldiers and healthcare providers (clinical risk communication)
3. Developing best practices for war-related diseases: traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) , depression, grief, trauma, PTSD
4. Improving continuity of care with coordinated aftercare between the DoD, the VA and other federal/private agencies
5. Initiating new information systems and clinical automation for war-related care

2008 Deployment Healthcare Track Presentations

To view the Schedule of all the 2008 DHCT presentations, click here.

To view the 2008 DHCT presentations for which consent has been given to post the slides on PDHealth, click here or click on the title of each session listed below.

August 11, 2008

Posters for Deployment Healthcare Track Plenary Presentations

• Improving Care to Returning Warfighters: The Defense Centers of Excellence (DCoE) for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury
  - BG Loree K. Sutton, MD



• VA Update on Post-Deployment Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury Clinical Initiatives
  - Sonja V. Batten PhD



• "...to care for him who shall have borne the battle.": A Collaborative DoD/VA Research Agenda Imperative for Veterans with War Wounds
  - Seth Eisen, MD, MSc



• Traumatic Brain Injury in OIF/OEF
  - Col (S) Michael S. Jaffee, MD



• Focusing Care on Populations and Systems: Deployment Health Seen Through a Progressive Lens
  - COL Charles C. Engel, MD, MPH

Deployment Healthcare Workshop: RESPECT-Mil

The Deployment Healthcare Track sponsored all day workshop on Monday 11 Aug entitled "RESPECT-Mil: Re-engineering Systems for the Primary Care Treatment of Depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the Military". The Army Surgeon General has authorized the implementation of RESPECT-Mil, a worldwide program designed to involve system changes leading to enhanced recognition and evidence-based management of depression and PTSD for soldiers in primary care settings. The program has been implemented in 15 sites including 43 clinics in the US and Europe. The workshop targeted primary care physicians and other healthcare providers interested in learning the tools and strategies needed to initiate RESPECT-Mil or participate in it in military primary care clinics. The workshop included updates from an overall program level perspective, as well as updates from specific discipline/role perspectives (i.e., primary care and behavioral health providers, NCMs, and administrative assistants). Best practice presentations were offered for major processes to include screening, provider treatment, care management, quality assurance/program adherence strategies, working relationships with specialty care, and program evaluation. Problem-solving discussions on program implementation challenges/obstacles were conducted.