Abu Dhabi hosts 46th World Congress of Military Medicine, as visitors react to new technology on opening day

Abu Dhabi: Within minutes of the doors opening on Tuesday, the halls of ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi began to fill with white coats, uniforms and delegates comparing notes. The exhibition accompanies the 46th World Congress of Military Medicine, running from 9 to 13 November and organised by the UAE Ministry of Defence with ADNEC Group.

Held every two years since 1921, the congress is being hosted in the UAE for the first time. The organisers say it brings together delegates from more than 120 countries.

For many visitors, though, the story was not in the numbers. It was in the products on the floor, and in the chance to touch them.

Gauzes, stretchers and local pride

Two young UAE doctors, Alya Khalid Ali Ayeh, emergency medicine resident at SSMC and Aahad Abdullah Al Ali, preventive medicine resident at AHS, had come to see what was new.

The first thing that caught Alya's eye was a hemostatic gauze, a material used in pre-hospital care to control bleeding.

“It can be put in a wound for up to 72 hours,” she said. It was the first time she had seen it, and she handled the material herself. Its value, she explained, lies in delays: “Sometimes it takes a long time to evacuate casualties, so this can be used as a temporizing measure.”

Her colleague Aahad went to an ambulance developed in the UAE. Inside, she said, were technologies she had not seen before, including a stretcher that can lengthen, bend or fold depending on the patient. “Some patients can’t bend their backs, and sometimes it’s hard to put patients in elevators,” she said. “Instead of taking the patient somewhere else, we can just fold it or make it smaller.”

Both said they were proud that so many of the products on display are made in the UAE.

Bleeding control and the questions of cost

Bleeding was also the focus for Mark Ereth, a physcian at the Mayo Clinc in Rochester, Minnesota. He came to look at the next generation of topical hemostats, the materials used to stop bleeding, and to see what is on offer in the GCC region.

Cost, he argued, is what turns a battlefield tool into a public health one. “Irrespective of wars, 75 million life years are lost every year on the planet to excessive bleeding,” he said. “Developing simple and inexpensive techniques to reduce those deaths would be very important.”

Ereth said the most striking thing in the halls was the mix of old and new: “All the robots, all the exotic ambulances and other types of devices, and then simply bandages and regular breathing tubes.”

He also drew a direct line between the exhibition’s military focus and everyday medicine. “Emergency rooms are literally miniaturized or localized military operations,” he said. “You’ve got a forward hospital in an emergency room, so there’s so much cross-link between what they both do.”

His main concern was separating real progress from enthusiasm. “The biggest challenge that I see is trying to weed through some of the excitement that may not represent reality as far as effectiveness of treatment,” he said. “It’s how you find the best treatment that’s really going to work.”

A global meeting point

For defence officials, the draw is also the guest list. A representative of Japan’s Ministry of Defense, Eiji HINOSHITA said the security environment has changed greatly over the past two decades, and the equipment, vehicles and medicines used to respond to it must be updated. Japan is looking for the equipment and facilities it expects to need in the near future, he said, especially for critical situations where there is no chance to react immediately.

He said the value of the congress lies in its reach. Officials usually meet at regional gatherings, he explained, but “in this meeting, we can meet with each other globally,” rather than focusing on one region.

Ahmed Al Nayeli, Advisor at Edge said: “It’s good to have this kind of congress, and hopefully it’s repeatable, so we can follow the technology and the advancement in this field,” he said. His message to people who stayed away was simple: “They should come and see the exhibition, so they understand what kind of technology is there, and how it will help them and provide a better life.”

Ereth, who has been visiting the UAE for 20 years, said the country has grown into “an important cultural, educational, military and finance center for the globe,” which is why he wanted to be in Abu Dhabi.

The Congress opens tomorrow and the programme continues through Friday, with sessions on battlefield trauma and burn care, disaster response and mass-casualty care, and innovation in military medicine.