Joint Capability Technology Demonstrations

Joint Combat Casualty Care System (JCCCS)

The United States Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) is conducting the Joint Medical Distance Support and Evacuation (JMDSE), Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) to enable military precision logistical delivery of critical, mission specific combat casualty care support packages to include telemedicine, enhanced digital patient encounter documentation capture, and transmission capabilities for medical first responders. Dubbed, the Joint Combat Casualty Care System (JCCCS), these enhanced capabilities will be air-dropped by a lightweight version of the Joint Precision Airdrop System (JPADS) from manned and/or Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) to augment and extend in-place combat casualty care within forward Army, Marine Corps and Special Operations ground forces, Air Force Para-rescue teams, and Navy ships that have limited organic medical support. Within these combatant organizations, medics or corpsmen will be provided an on-demand capability to capture and transmit digital physiological monitoring data (i.e. blood pressure, pulse, temperature, respirations, ECG, ECO2, SP02, ventilator treatment, intracranial bleeding data and other elements common to the Tactical Combat Casualty Care and Field Medical Cards) and digital voice recordings of patient encounters to enable immediate telementoring and to facilitate incorporation of more accurate and more complete point-of-injury data within the patient's permanent medical record. A set of ruggedized combat casualty care equipment and a lightweight digitally enabled physiological monitoring system are being integrated with military radios and soldier headset voice data capture technologies, and will be packaged for just-in-time air delivery via JPADS. The amount and type of support will vary by mission and unit needs. A series of three 2010-11 Operational Demonstrations involving six operational scenarios involving land, air and maritime forces will be used to determine the utility of JMDSE capabilities.

Joint Unmanned Casualty Evacuation Capability (JUMC)

The Joint Medical Distance Support and Evacuation (JMDSE) Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstration (JCTD) will provide improved combat casualty support capabilities and be a force multiplier for casualty evacuation (CASEVAC). JMDSE will integrate proven casualty support technology and rapidly deliver critical medical support packages to dispersed locations via precision parafoil from fixed wing, rotary wing, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) from high altitudes. As a collateral activity, the JMDSE includes observation of several Marine Corps and Army proof-of-concept demonstrations of casualty extraction and short-distance CASEVAC via UAVs. Deliverables include assessments of enabling UAV technologies and their operational potential for CASEVAC as well as an initial Concept of Operations called the Joint Unmanned Casualty Evacuation Capability (JUMC). A critical component of a deployable JUMC would be end-to-end telemedicine connectivity enabling in-flight telemonitoring and intervention. After initial treatment and stabilization by combat medics, a casualty will be connected to a portable, closed-loop, critical care device which will monitor, record and transmit casualty status to the receiving medical facility throughout the evacuation via interconnection to the air vehicle communications and flight management systems. Medical personnel at the receiving facility can adjust the system via the communications link based on changes in casualty status and monitoring data can be input to the casualty's electronic health record. Additionally, casualty status will be fed to the UAV flight control management system so the mission computer can appropriately adjust the air vehicle's flight performance and internal environment to preclude further injury during evacuation. In the initial JUMC demonstration conducted in 2009 during a Marine Corps Limited Objective Exercise, a UAV flew successfully but command and control technologies, terrain, and environmental aspects of the mission clearly needed more planning and operational integration.