Dr. Oliver Wisco, President of PathFinderEX, also serves as Colonel (Select) in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, assigned as an academic faculty member at the Center for Strategic Deterrence Studies at the United States Air Force’s Air University, headquartered at Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery Ala.—which provides full-spectrum education for the U.S. Air Force, including Air War College, Air Command and Staff College, Air Force Institute of Technology, and more.
As agencies and businesses around the world are in the midst of COVID-19 preparations or response, Dr. Wisco, along with fellow subject matter experts at the USAF Air University, collaborated on a Strategic White Paper with which they hope to assist organizations in their planning for the worldwide pandemic.
To download the PDF document, click on this LINK
The impetus for this document is to provide strategic and operational direction for response to COVID-19 by collating expertise from thought leaders with domain expertise to provide tactics and strategies to respond to COVID-19. The goal is to minimize death and mitigate the spread of the disease by employing non-conventional medical/social/public/political infrastructure given current (and growing) limitations on resources.
To address these issues, this document provides strategic and operational direction for civic leaders, military leaders, and medical professionals in approaching this pandemic, focusing on four key areas: Contingency Response Leadership, Operational Management & Triage, Population Management, and Hospital Operations.
Key points include;
1. COVID-19 is a disaster response effort, not a medical condition treatment protocol
2. Isolation is the key to prevention
3. Constant triaging and re-triaging
4. Telemedicine must be instituted immediately
5. Air quality must be a priority for hospital care
6. Preparation for a patient surge and the creation of augmented hospital tents
The COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness & Disaster Response document is open-source, and should be utilized to its fullest extent to assist planners and responders in their COVID-19 mitigation and response efforts. The themes presented here are timeless, based upon established and accepted frameworks. The management recommendations are based upon best science available at the time of publication, and does not address clinical practice guidelines, development or deployment of testing, return to work for hospital workforce, or the quest for a vaccine or cure. These are important topics that deserve national attention and careful deliberation at all levels but are beyond the scope of this paper.
The paper’s foreword is authored by Retired Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Paul K. Carlton, Former U.S. Air Force Surgeon General (1999-2002). A special thanks to Air University and Auburn University for their support in the creation of this document.
This blog post and attached PDF document entitled COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness & Disaster Response was first published on the PathFinderEX blog on 26 March, 2020.