CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. –
The 192nd Medical Group, 192nd Wing, Virginia Air National Guard, provided operational support to the medical thread during Bold Quest 2024 from Oct. 21 to Nov. 2, 2024, at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
Bold Quest is an international joint training capability demonstration. The first Bold Quest was held in 2003 with the United States and five nations including Australia, Canada, Denmark, France and Great Britain. This year, more than 1,000 military personnel and civilians from the U.S. and 22 allied and NATO countries participated in the event. Previously, Bold Quest 2023 was held at Camp Pendleton, California.
The purpose of the capability demonstration is to work with coalition and NATO partners in order to integrate innovative technology and tracking mechanisms to receive, analyze and transmit data. In the case of the medical thread, data is collected from the point of injury and moved through the continuum of patient care without data loss to ensure interoperability between nations.
“It is an effort for U.S. joint forces and partner nations to work together to test their new technologies to make sure they work and can talk to each other from nation to nation,” said Col. Frank Y. Yang, 192nd MDG commander. “On the medical thread, for example, we anticipate that a casualty might be from one nation, the responder might be from another nation, and then the receiving hospital may be yet a different nation.”
One of the scenarios Yang proposed was to demonstrate and test how patient data would move through different nations’ devices to the treating facility and how the treating facility sends medical treatment instructions back to the field medic.
For the majority of the demonstration, 192nd MDG technicians collaborated with other nations, serving as testers for wearable sensors, collecting vital signs such as heart rate variability, breathing rate, oxygen content and blood pressure from both simulated causalities and first responders. These vitals were then transmitted to the Battlefield Assisted Trauma Distributed Observation Kit, a bridge that connects the wearable devices to a viewable screen where several vitals can be read and then sent over a global network.
Another aim of the BATDOK system is to ultimately replace pen and paper when collecting vital information at the primary point of injury and throughout transport.
The 192nd MDG originally got involved during Bold Quest 2020, designing COVID mitigation methods to prevent that year’s Bold Quest from being canceled. In 2021, they were invited back to start and lead a medical thread, in addition to Force Help Protection. Each subsequent demonstration resulted in expanded capabilities.
“I would say we’re becoming more vital in the thread,” said Master Sgt. Stephen Legge, 192nd MDG Detachment 1 flight superintendent, biomedical equipment technologist and medical material specialist. “I think we’re slowly growing into that position of having a more credible seat at the table.”
Legge also added that sharing information when appropriate, as well as growing together as a coalition force, and the credibility of international partners being able to get in the same field are some of the biggest benefits of the group’s participation.
Bold Quest 2025 will be hosted by the Virginia National Guard at Fort Barfoot, Virginia