Articles
Centre of Excellence for Military Medicine
The main purpose of the new MILMED COE is the facilitation of capacity and capability building within NATO’s military medical community. This purpose will be achieved by strengthening standardization of training, equipment and procedures pre-, during and post-deployment of multinational contingencies – or, to say it short, by strengthening interoperability in military medicine.
It was an impressive gathering of the Minister of Defence of Hungary, NATO dignitaries, Chiefs of Medical Services of NATO-countries, Generals of the Hungarian Armed Forces and other distinguished international and national guests, who had come together for this very special occasion in the dedicated building of the COE.
Medical Corps International Forum, as the new media partner of MILMED COE ,had been invited to attend with the publisher, Mrs. Heike Lange, the Editor-in chief, Major General (ret) Dr. Gianpiero Lupi, MD and the Chairman of the International Editorial Advisory Group, Vice Admiral (ret) Dr. Karsten Ocker, MD. Even though the Secretary of NATO, Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who had arrived in the morning to address the guests attending the opening ceremony, had to leave shortly prior to the beginning due to an unforeseeable need to return to NATO in Brussels and thus could not be present, the Minister of Defence of Hungary, Dr. Imre Szekeres, as the guest of honor underlined in his opening speech the great importance and benefit for NATO through the future work of the MILMED COE and the great and significant esteem and trust NATO had given to his country, by locating the COE in Budapest.In his opinion the COE could lay the foundation for common doctrines, plans and strategies as well as for promoting new scienti¬fic developments and a better interoperability among the military medical Services of NATO and thus meet the expectation and purpose mentioned above.
Lieutenant General Karlheinz Viereck,Deputy Chief of Staff Joint Forces Trainer, Supreme Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk USA, congratulated the Hungarian Armed Forces, its Medical Service and the new director and his staff for the dedication and the efforts, that had been invested into its creation of the MILMED COE. He stressed above all the many benefits for NATO and its soldiers, that would come out of a successful work of the COE. Especially the improvement of cooperation, coordination and interoperability among national military medical services are topics with the highest importance for future mission support on NATO deployments abroad and which were looked upon by the NATO leadership with great interest. LtGen Viereck then handed over the official NATO-flag to the Director of the COE and thus performed the formal inauguration and transfer of authority for the COE from Hungary as host nation to NATO. The flag was then positioned in front of the flags of the other supporting nations of the COE, which are besides Hungary as the framework nation, Romania, Germany, Czech Republic, Italy and The Netherlands. In his acceptance speech Colonel Dr. Kopcso, MD, described the way the COE had taken from the first idea in COMEDS to the inauguration on the present day. In a very personal statement he said, that with this NATO-Centre in Budapest his very own dream had become true. In this context he also expressed his gratitude to all the countries and NATO-Institutions that helped to succeed in this great task. He pledged for his staff and for himself, that the MILMED COE would very soon take its active place among the 13 already activated COE of NATO and strive for a continuous improvement in all the fields 150 of Military Medicine in the Alliance. The following reception was opened by General Laszlo Tömböl, Chief of Hungarian Defence Staff, who besides expressing his best wishes and his expectations for future inputs of the COE for military medicine, also mentioned Lieutenant General (ret) Laszlo Sved MD, who during his time as Chairman of COMEDS was the ¬ first promoter of the idea of setting up such a high NATO installation in Hungary three years ago and who therefore was one of the most distinguished guests present at this inauguration.
Medical Corps International Forum also wishes to join the long line of congratulators and offers to the MILMED COE its full support in media coverage and by publishing the new ¬ findings and developments in this important medical field, as they are brought forward by the COE.
Karsten Ocker, MD
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