OPERATIONAL MEDICINE - AN IMPORTANT BRANCH OF ROMANIAN MILITARY MEDICINE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE EVOLUTION OF ARMED CONFLICTS

Abstract

Operational medicine is a concept born from the necessity to adapt medicine to the new progressions in the evolution of conflicts. Taking into account the fact that the forces involved in current conflicts are aware of the new dimensions of warfare, it has also becomenecessary to reconfigure the medical services provided in an operations theatre or in a real battlefield. Therefore, the tacticians, doctors and other American specialists have penciled operational medicine as a sub-branch of military medicine and,respectively, classified itaccording to the type of conflict in which it is engaged, but also according to the military unit it serves. A careful analysis of this concept in its evolution clearly demonstrates that operational medicine has been welcomed by all the parties involved, as the concept was quickly understood and implemented as such, progressively by NATO member states followed by others. Sprung fromnecessity and emerging as a characteristic of an extremely vast field (that of national and globalsecurity),employing dedicated and highly trained people, operational medicine always proves its effectiveness, achieving the best results by saving human lives.