WARSAW, Poland - U.S. Command Surgeons from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Army Europe and Africa, U.S. Air Force Europe, V Corps, 30th Medical Brigade, and Illinois Army and Air National Guard toured the Polish Military Institute of Medicine in Warsaw, Poland, on 29 July. The tour was the first time key U.S. leaders visited and interacted with the Institute’s leadership. This engagement greatly strengthened mutual trust amongst military medical leaders, and created possibilities for future opportunities to collaborate on military medical initiatives and activities.
The visit began with the WIM staff presenting briefings on the Institute’s capabilities and current projects. Some of the WIM’s capabilities include Poland’s premier military medical school, a research center, and a world-class simulation center to train both military and civilian medical personnel. Clinically the WIM functions as the primary trauma cardiac and stroke-receiving center in Warsaw. The hospital contains 38 departments, and is the primary medical center able to provide complex medical care to the city with a population of more than six million people.
Ariadna Bednarz, project manager in the Project Management Office at the Military Institute of Medicine, offered insight on the quality of research conducted at the facility.
“We have 62 projects in progress,” she said. “Our projects have a very strong core. The Polish Military Institute of Medicine is registered as a research organization. We are subject to the National Evaluation System conducted by our Ministry of Science every few years. We received Category A, which means we are at the top.”
The WIM Commander, Polish Maj. Gen. Grzegorz Gielerak, and his chief deputies guided the U.S. delegation on their tour through various WIM facilities, including the purpose built COVID-19 hospital, emergency department, interventional radiology suite - for both stroke and cardiology cases, and their growing robotics surgery department. The tour concluded with a demonstration by Polish paramedic teams conducting pre-hospital emergency care on simulated causalities in the WIM’s simulation center.
“Generally speaking, we teach advanced medicine,” said Mr. Michal Madeysk, the director of military training at the WIM. “We mostly go into higher level based on four levels of TCCC [Tactical Combat Casualty Care]. We concentrate on teamwork in a critical environment. We want them to be not only the best medics, but also the best soldiers.”
The Polish Minister of Defence, Mariusz Błaszczak, recently requested Poland’s Military Institute of Medicine to be included in the Combat Medicine Interoperability Memorandum of Agreement between the United States Army Europe and Africa and Poland’s Ministry of Defense. In near future events, Polish partners plan to integrate U.S. Soldiers into training programs at the facility in order to improve interoperable teamwork and deepen medical alliances.
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