Non-combat Medical Care for Deployed Military Personnel

IDA has devoted considerable research to issues surrounding medical care of U.S. military personnel injured in combat. Although also of great importance, delivery of care to the same personnel for dayto-day, non-battle medical issues has garnered less attention. To address this disparity, IDA researchers examined data from U.S. military experiences in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and in Afghanistan and surrounding areas during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). IDA found that disease and non-battle injury (DNBI) resulted in more deaths during these operations than would be expected if the same-sized population experienced peacetime mortality rates. Further, we found that dayto-day medical problems may require different medical specialties than typically needed for battle injuries.