U.S. and Vietnam Co-host Military Medical Conference

From Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery Public Affairs

HANOI, Vietnam (NNS) -- U.S. and Vietnamese military officers participated in a bilateral military-medical conference Aug. 2 at Vietnam's Ministry of Defense guest house.

The conference was co-hosted by U.S. Navy Surgeon General Vice Adm. Adam M. Robinson, Jr., and Sr. Col. Vu Quoc Binh, director general of the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense's Military Medical Department. It brought government and civilian health industry leaders from both countries together to discuss ways to integrate efforts to bolster public health programs and areas of expanded military-medical cooperation.

The conference follows the signing of a statement of intent Aug. 1 by the two military healthcare leaders that builds on a long trend of cooperation between the U.S. and Vietnamese militaries.

"[The SOI] is a very important document between our two military departments and is fundamental to our future cooperation," said Binh. "Today's conference will map out the details of our future cooperation in many areas to include combating infectious disease, HIV infection, undersea medicine and others areas."

Conference attendees included medical and healthcare experts from the U.S. Embassy, U.S. Navy and U.S. Army, as well as several Vietnamese military commands from throughout the country.

"This conference will go a long way to strengthening our growing medical work with the people of Vietnam," said U.S. Embassy's Health Affairs Attaché, Navy Capt. Charles Baxter. "It was significant for us to co-host such a noteworthy gathering of so many leading military experts in the field of force health, medicine and research from both our nations."

Many areas of common interest were discussed in depth during the conference including disease surveillance and ways of combating a multitude of public health issues including zoonotic infections, avian influenza, dengue, malaria, and HIV. Additional topics addressed best practices in Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Response missions, search and rescue, as well as, aerospace and undersea medicine.

"These areas of discussion are of key interest to people throughout the world and our work in facing these health challenges will be of great benefit to our military personnel, our citizens and the world," said Robinson. "Our military-medical partnership with Vietnam is a good example of high-level diplomatic exchanges building stronger and enduring bilateral partnerships to advance the cause of global health."

As the Navy Surgeon General and Chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Robinson leads 63,000 Navy Medicine personnel that provide healthcare support to the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, their families and veterans in high operational tempo environments, at expeditionary medical facilities, medical treatment facilities, hospitals, clinics, hospital ships and research units around the world.

Don't forget the history and sacrifices of American heroes; discover these Vietnam Veteran books where our heroes tell you their story.