“One Front and One Battle”: Civilian Professional Medical Support of Military Surgeons

Abstract

Although a dedicated corps of full-time active-duty and eserve component military physicians now provide most S battlefield medical and surgical care, the military serices have continued to benefit from close collaborations nd interaction with civilian counterparts. In addition to he individual service and facility-specific relationships ith civilian trauma experts and trauma centers described lsewhere, there has been a concerted effort to establish, aintain, and expand programs that promote professional nteractions and exchange of information between military nd civilian surgeons and surgical leadership. These interactions are not new. The history of civilian rofessional medical support for the military can be traced ack nearly a century. In 1916, foreseeing the possibility hat American involvement in the European hostilities of orld War I might become a reality, The Committee of merican Physicians for Medical Preparedness, chaired by