10/26/2016 -- MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- The Warrior Care in the 21st Century Coalition (WC21) is a group of more than 16 nations that facilitates global sharing of warrior care best practices and lessons learned. It also enables partner nations to collaborate to identify viable and innovative solutions to current and future challenges facing wounded, ill and injured service members.
At the second annual WC21 Symposium at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, Karen Guice, acting assistant secretary of defense for Health Affairs, along with James Rodriguez, deputy assistant secretary of defense, Office of Warrior Care Policy, opened the event with praise for the work WC21 has done in its first year.
“We’re all here because we share a common goal, and that is to provide the best care for our wounded warriors,” said Guice. “Caring doesn’t stop when the wounds heal— it extends fully into recovery and rehabilitation. We’ve learned after almost 15 years of war, how to save lives on the battlefield. Our ability to quickly adopt and adapt, to find better ways of stopping hemorrhaging, more rapid evacuation and a tiered system of medical response teams has increased survival rates. We fight together, and we heal together.”
The WC21 Symposium provides a forum for participating nations to elevate and address key topics such as telehealth and international/interagency relationships and adjust the coalition’s strategy as needed. The WC21 coalition originated in large part from conversations that began with the United States - United Kingdom Task Force Working Group and the 2014 Recovery Summit, at which 27 nations came together to share best practices, lessons learned and fact-based evidence gathered on warrior care during the previous 14 years of sustained conflicts.
The event precedes Warrior Care month in November. Throughout the month, the Army will host events highlighting the resilience and strength of service members and their families. This year’s theme is "Show of Strength."
Guice also praised the collaborative spirit which has enabled WC21 to make rapid advancements in warrior care. “Sharing our approaches and our research to solve problems leads to making this coalition stronger. Now is not the time to become complacent or reduce our focus; nor is it the time to limit investment,” she said
Rodriguez shared similar sentiments to those of Guice, stressing the importance of WC21 continuing to work together. “This is important work that we have to do, but it’s also important that we do this work together as an international coalition,” he said. “I’m glad we are able to gather once again, exchange information and continue to have these important conversations. This shows that we are very committed to doing what’s necessary to provide the best care possible for our service members.”