A New Paradigm for Military Humanitarian Medical Operations: Mission-Generic Metrics

Abstract

We report the history of military humanitarian medical operations, define the current science of process and outcome evaluation, and propose a set of generic metrics for monitoring and evaluation in military humanitarian operations. We comprehensively reviewed the unclassified literature and used our own experiences in military humanitarian activities. Our literature review shows that efforts to evaluate the relative quality or cost-effectiveness of military humanitarian missions have been largely unsuccessful. In response to this finding, the authors propose a monitoring and evaluation checklist system with generic metrics, which are broadly applicable but also can be customized specifically for the user. Military humanitarian operations can provide substantial security value to their many different stakeholders. Refinement of our proposed mission-generic metrics list is one method to measure performance and relative quality. Better assessment of outcomes can clarify decisions about the utilization of limited military medical humanitarian funds and personnel.