ABSTRACT
Disease and non-battle injury (DNBI) have been the predominant causes of presentation to deployed medical services throughout military history, and disease represents the greatest challenge to overall operational effectiveness. The practice of medicine on deployment has largely been reliant on the clinical skills and training of the consultant physician cadre supplemented by limited diagnostic support in the form of basic radiology and simple laboratory services. The main clinical challenges for all physicians on deployment are the breadth of possible clinical presentations and the constraints imposed by relatively limited diagnostic support in the form of imaging and laboratory services. Operation Herrick presented the predictable clinical challenges, with infectious diarrhoea and heat illness again topping the list of presentations admitted under physicians. The key medical challenges of the future operational space will arise from the environment including the climate, flora and fauna and endemic disease.
