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Category: Health

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Minister’s statement on treaty commissioner appointment

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    Christine Boyle, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, has released the following statement on a newly appointed commissioner to the BC Treaty Commission:

    “I wish to congratulate George Abbott on being appointed by the Government of British Columbia to a two-year term at the BC Treaty Commission as the commissioner.

    “In recent years, First Nations, Canada and B.C. have been focused on creating innovative agreements that are strong but flexible, and better suited to addressing the needs of individual Nations.

    “Abbott is a seasoned diplomat who has significant experience of working with First Nations, local governments, labour and business, and has a track record of engaging shoulder to shoulder with First Nations on agreements that advance reconciliation and self-determination to build a stronger province.

    “First elected in 1996, Abbott served with distinction as a member of the legislative assembly for 17 years, including 12 years as a cabinet minister. Over his many years of public service, Abbott led portfolios in Indigenous relations, sustainable resource management, health and education.

    “Throughout his time in elected office, Abbott had many notable achievements, including introducing the historic Haida Gwaii Reconciliation Act in 2010 and working with First Nations leaders to officially name the large area of coastal waters off the southern coast as the Salish Sea. During his role as minister of Aboriginal relations and reconciliation (now the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation), Abbott regularly engaged in the work of the Treaty Commission as the Province’s principal in the tripartite treaty negotiations process.

    “He served as chair for the Institute for Health System Transformation and Sustainability until December 2024. He is the current board chair at Technical Safety BC. He completed his doctorate in political science at the University of Victoria in April 2019.

    “I’d also like to acknowledge and thank Angela Wesley, who is serving her third term as the provincially appointed commissioner, for her important contributions to advancing reconciliation through treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements.

    “Since her initial appointment in December 2018, she has brought her wealth of knowledge and experience to the role of commissioner. Thanks to her years of service to the Treaty Commission, she has helped shape many significant moments in treaty negotiations in B.C., including the initialling of three treaties last summer with K’ómoks, Kitselas and Kitsumkalum First Nations.

    “The success of the treaty negotiations process is possible because of the hard work and dedication of individuals like Angela Wesley, George Abbott and all the other treaty commissioners.

    “I look forward to continuing the work of my predecessors, by working in partnership with the Treaty Commission and alongside my colleagues in the federal government and the First Nations Summit, to support progress in negotiations of modern treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements.”

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI USA:  Welch Provides Remarks at the Vermont Dairy Producers Conference 

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont)
    BURLINGTON, VT — U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) delivered remarks at the Vermont Dairy Producers Conference on Monday. He discussed the path forward to protect Vermont’s dairy industry from harmful policies put forth by the Trump Administration, including the Administration’s actions on immigration and the Trump Tariffs, which will raise prices for farms, businesses and families.
    “I’m fighting to strengthen Vermont’s dairy farms, but many of President Trump’s actions during his first month in office are hurting farms and rural communities. His policies—threatened and enacted through Executive Order—are already putting pressure on dairy farmers and the USDA. None of us want this to happen, and we have to resist,” said Senator Welch. “A strong dairy industry is a strong Vermont, and I’ll do everything I can to fight for Vermont’s dairy farmers in Washington.” 
    As Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development, Energy, and Credit, Senator Welch has led bipartisan efforts to support Vermont’s dairy farmers and strengthen the state’s dairy industry. 
    View photos from the event below: 
    In 2023, Vermont imported $76 million worth of livestock feed from Canada. New blanket tariffs proposed by the Trump Administration on Canada and Mexico would increase costs for dairy farmers by raising the cost of livestock feed and eventually reduce the size of their milk check. Additionally, President Trump’s actions on immigration risk limiting Vermont’s agricultural workforce, with farming communities across the state reporting increased presence from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, especially in Addison County. 
    The Trump Administration’s illegal freeze on programs across the federal government have caused serious harm to farmers and producers across Vermont. The unconstitutional funding freeze broke the government’s promise to reimburse farmers for projects funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, leaving farmers to foot the bill–sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. 
    Last Congress, Senator Welch introduced several bills to support Vermont’s dairy, organic, and specialty crop farmers; strengthen rural development and infrastructure; increase energy efficiency and renewable energy adoption; improve access to nutrition; strengthen our local food systems and expand markets; and make our communities more resilient to flooding—all of which were included in the Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act. Senator Welch plans to reintroduce many of these bills and policy provisions in the 119th Congress, including his bipartisan, bicameral Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which would bring nutritious whole milk back into schools. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Brighter Beginnings Event fun day at Eden Court

    Source: Scotland – Highland Council

    The Highland Council will be hosting a fun day at Eden Court Theatre, Inverness on Monday 3 March 2025.

    Cllr David Fraser, Chair of Highland Council’s Health Social Care and Wellbeing Committee said: “Brighter Beginnings is the first event held by Inverness Family Centre bringing together families and professionals to see what’s available for Highland’s youngest children. I hope that many families will take advantage of this great new opportunity.”

    Families with children under 5 years old are welcome to come along between 10.30am and 2.30pm and take part in free activities including messy play, scavenger hunt, outdoor play and puppet shows. There will also be a fire engine, police car and play bus on site. The first 100 parents/carers to come along will receive a free goodie bag!

    Image of Brighter Beginnings Event poster

    Gillian Forbes, PEEP Co-ordinator at the Inverness Family Centre said: “We are delighted to be hosting this event and are excited to welcome families along to meet services and enjoy the activities.  We recognise the importance of the Infant Pledge and working alongside families to give our youngest children the best possible start in life.”

    The event will run alongside the ‘Brighter Beginnings: Why early years matter’ Conference where there will be keynote speakers including Dan Wuori, Founder and President of Early Childhood Policy Solutions in the United States, and international author.

    Dan said: “I am looking forward to visiting the Highlands and meeting everyone. Learning starts before a baby is born and it’s vital that we recognise the importance of education in early years. This event is a great opportunity to talk about the role of parents/carers and professionals in giving our youngest children the best possible start in life.”

    Over 100 parents/carers and professionals will attend the Conference including children under 5.

    19 Feb 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: World Day of Social Justice – 20th February

    Source: Government of India (2)

    World Day of Social Justice – 20th February

    India’s Commitment to Equity and Inclusion

    Posted On: 19 FEB 2025 6:54PM by PIB Delhi

    Introduction

    World Day of Social Justice, observed annually on February 20th by the United Nations, serves as a global call to action for addressing poverty, exclusion, and unemployment while promoting solidarity, harmony, and equality of opportunity within and between societies.

    Aligned with the ethos of the World Day of Social Justice, India’s Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) has intensified efforts to bridge socio-economic gaps through legislative reforms, grassroots empowerment, and global partnerships.

    Background & Global Context

    Established by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) during the 62nd session on November 26, 2007, the World Day of Social Justice has been celebrated annually on 20th Feb since the 63rd session in 2009. This observance stems from the recognition that social development and social justice are indispensable for achieving and maintaining peace and security both within and among nations. The day emphasizes that social justice cannot be attained without peace, security, and respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

    In the face of global challenges such as financial crises, insecurity, and inequality, the day serves as a reminder of the ongoing need for social justice initiatives. It emphasizes the importance of creating opportunities through trade, investment, technological advancements, and economic growth while addressing the obstacles that hinder full participation in the global economy, particularly for developing countries and those in transition.

    The International Labour Organization (ILO) also plays a crucial role in promoting social justice through its Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization, adopted in 2008. This declaration builds upon previous ILO statements and places the Decent Work Agenda at the core of the organization’s policies.

    The day aligns closely with the United Nations’ broader mission to promote development and human dignity. Initiatives like the Social Protection Floor, launched in 2009, demonstrate the UN’s commitment to ensuring basic social guarantees for all.

    The World Day of Social Justice highlights several key principles and objectives:

    Evolution of Social Justice in India

    India has observed the World Day of Social Justice since 2009. The evolution of social justice and empowerment in India has been a gradual but progressive process influenced by historical struggles, constitutional mandates, and policy developments. The vision of social justice and empowerment has been deeply rooted in India’s independence movement and the vision laid down by the Constitution to ensure equality, dignity, and justice for all citizens, especially the marginalized communities.

    The Constitution of India lays a strong foundation for social justice and empowerment through various provisions that aim to eliminate social inequalities and promote the welfare of disadvantaged groups.

    Key Constitutional Provisions on Social Justice and Empowerment

    Preamble

    The Preamble ensures social, economic, and political justice, guarantees equality of status and opportunity, and promotes fraternity to uphold individual dignity and national unity. It establishes the foundation for a just and inclusive society free from discrimination.

    Fundamental Rights (Part III)

    Article 23 prohibits human trafficking and forced labour, making such practices punishable by law. Article 24 bans child labour in hazardous occupations, protecting children’s rights to safety and education. These rights safeguard vulnerable groups from exploitation.

    Directive Principles of State Policy (Part IV)

    Article 37 states that DPSPs, though not legally enforceable, are essential for governance. Article 38 directs the State to reduce social and economic inequalities. Article 39 ensures equal livelihood, fair wages, and protection from exploitation. Article 39A guarantees free legal aid for the disadvantaged. Article 46 mandates special educational and economic promotion for SCs, STs, and weaker sections to prevent discrimination.

    In 1985-86, the Ministry of Welfare was bifurcated into the Department of Women & Child Development and the Department of Welfare, incorporating divisions from the Ministries of Home Affairs and Law. It was later renamed the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment in May 1998.

    The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment envisions building an inclusive society where marginalized groups can lead productive, safe, and dignified lives with adequate support for their growth and development. It strives to empower these groups through educational, economic, and social development programs, along with rehabilitation initiatives where necessary.

    The Union Budget 2025-26 reflects this commitment, allocating Rs 13,611 crores to the MoSJE, a 6 percent increase from 2024-25, to ensure saturation coverage of welfare schemes.

    The department’s mandate focuses on uplifting socially, educationally, and economically marginalized communities, including Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes, Senior Citizens, Victims of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, Transgender Persons (under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019), individuals engaged in begging, Denotified and Nomadic Tribes (DNTs), Economically Backward Classes (EBCs), and the Economically Weaker Section (EWS). Through targeted policies and interventions, it aims to foster equity and inclusion in society.

    Key Initiatives by the Government of India

    1. Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jaati Abhyuday Yojana (PM-AJAY)

    The scheme launched in 2021-22, merges three schemes to uplift SC communities through skill development, income generation, and infrastructure in Schedule Caste dominated villages. It has three components: Adarsh Gram development, Grants-in-Aid for socio-economic projects, and hostel construction in higher education institutions. Since January 1, 2024, 5,051 villages have been declared Adarsh Gram, 1,655 projects benefiting 3,05,842 people have been sanctioned, and ₹26.31 crore allocated for 38 hostels.

    2. Scheme for Residential Education for Students in High Schools in Targeted Areas (SRESHTA)

    The SHRESHTA scheme aims to bridge service gaps in Schedule Caste dominant areas by supporting grant-in-aid institutions and high-quality residential schools. It provides financial assistance to top CBSE/State Board-affiliated private schools for SC students in classes 9 and 11, ensuring education till class 12. Additionally, it funds NGOs/VOs to run residential and non-residential schools and hostels with adequate infrastructure and strong academic standards, fostering socio-economic upliftment of SC communities.

     

    3. Purple Fests

    Purple Fests (Festival of Inclusion) have been organized by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, since 2023. In 2024, the event welcomed over 10,000 Divyangjan and their escorts, fostering a sense of solidarity and mutual respect. Purple Fest is a movement towards a more equitable society, championing the values of accessibility, dignity, and equal opportunity for all. The event also saw the launch of significant initiatives, including the India Neurodiversity Platform in collaboration with TATA POWER COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT TRUST, aimed at early intervention and home care support, a handbook on attitudinal barriers and disability-sensitive language to promote inclusive communication, and a nationwide series of 25 job fairs by the American Indian Foundation and DEPwD.

    Performances from the Purple Fest – 2024

    4. National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE)

    The National Action for Mechanized Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE) is a Central Sector Scheme launched in FY 2023-24 as a joint initiative of the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment (MoSJ&E) and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). It aims to ensure the safety, dignity, and sustainable livelihood of sanitation workers in urban India. The scheme has integrated components of the former Self-Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS) and expanded its coverage to include waste pickers as a target group from FY 2024-25.

     

    5. Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood & Enterprise (SMILE)

    The Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise (SMILE) Scheme is a comprehensive initiative aimed at the rehabilitation of transgender individuals and persons engaged in begging. Its primary objective is to create a ‘Bhiksha Vritti Mukt Bharat’ (Begging-free India) by ensuring the reintegration of beggars into mainstream society. The scheme focuses on area-specific surveys, awareness campaigns, mobilization and rescue operations, access to shelter homes and basic services, skills training, alternative livelihood options, and the formation of Self-Help Groups (SHGs). Currently, it is active in 81 cities and towns, including key pilgrimage, historical, and tourist locations, with plans to expand to 50 more cities in the next phase.

      

    As of November 15, 2024, 7,660 individuals engaged in begging have been identified, out of which 970 have been successfully rehabilitated. The scheme continues to work towards its goal by providing shelter, vocational training, and employment opportunities, helping marginalized individuals regain dignity and self-sufficiency.

    6. PM-DAKSH Yojana

    The PM-DAKSH Yojana launched on 7th August, 2021, aims to enhance the skill levels of marginalized communities, including SCs, OBCs, EBCs, DNTs, and Safai Karamcharis, for economic empowerment through free skill training. The scheme, with a budget of ₹450.25 crore (2021-26), provides short-term and long-term training to facilitate wage and self-employment, ensuring at least 70% placement. Training is conducted through Government and reputed Private Training Institutes, aligned with NSQF and Common Norms of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), targeting individuals aged 18-45 years.

    7. Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyan

    Launched on 15th August 2020, the Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan (NMBA) aims to make India drug-free by targeting 272 high-risk districts, identified through a national survey and NCB inputs. The campaign follows a three-pronged approach: curbing supply (Narcotics Control Bureau), awareness and demand reduction (Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment), and treatment (Health Department). Since its inception, NMBA has reached 13.57 crore people, including 4.42 crore youth and 2.71 crore women, with participation from 3.85 lakh educational institutions.

    Conclusion

    As the world grapples with economic challenges, the World Day of Social Justice renews commitments to equity and inclusion, reminding us that injustice anywhere affects all of humanity. While progress has been made, much remains to be done. India has embraced this vision through legislative reforms, grassroots programs, and targeted welfare initiatives. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) plays a key role in uplifting marginalized communities, aligning its efforts with global frameworks like the Decent Work Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to uphold justice and equality.

    Through initiatives like PM-AJAY, NAMASTE, SMILE, PM-DAKSH Yojana, and Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan, MoSJE has empowered disadvantaged groups with education, skills, and economic opportunities. Increased budget allocations, inclusive platforms like Purple Fests, and expanded social protection measures highlight the government’s commitment to fostering justice and inclusion. As India observes the World Day of Social Justice, these efforts reaffirm its dedication to bridging socio-economic gaps and ensuring dignity and opportunity for all.

    References

     

    Click here to see PDF:

    Santosh Kumar/Ritu Kataria/ Vatsla Srivastava

    (Release ID: 2104798) Visitor Counter : 73

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: RELEASE: Mullin, Cortez Masto Reintroduce Bipartisan Bill to Make it Easier for Indian Health Services to Recruit and Retain Doctors

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator MarkWayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma)

    RELEASE: Mullin, Cortez Masto Reintroduce Bipartisan Bill to Make it Easier for Indian Health Services to Recruit and Retain Doctors

    Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) reintroduced their bipartisan legislation to make it easier for Indian Health Services (IHS) to recruit and retain medical workers. Specifically, this legislation, the IHS Workforce Parity Act, improves health care in Tribal communities by allowing providers working part-time to access IHS scholarship and loan repayment programs. Last Congress, this bill passed the Senate unanimously but did not receive a vote in the House of Representatives.
    Historically, IHS has a 25% vacancy rate for health care providers, and the IHS Workforce Parity Act would help attract new doctors and nurses to both the agency and Tribal health facilities that serve over 2.5 million American Indian and Alaskan Native Tribal members.
    “I am confident our legislation will help address the current difficulty IHS is facing in recruiting and retaining health care professionals,” said Senator Mullin. “Rural health care providers like IHS have unique staffing needs, and our bill offers a flexible, cost-effective solution to ensure IHS maintains a competitive edge when considering new recruits. In strengthening the workforce, IHS can ensure a proper quality of care to their patients and improve patient outcomes.”
    “The severe shortage of IHS health care providers poses a threat to the quality of care that Nevadans in Tribal communities receive. That is unacceptable,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “It is time for Congress to come together to pass my common sense, bipartisan legislation and provide real solutions for Indian Country.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Influenza, COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments Available to Book; COVID Testing Requirements Change

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    Nova Scotians can now book appointments for the COVID-19 and influenza vaccines. These safe, effective and free vaccines are recommended for everyone aged six months and older.

    “Getting vaccinated against respiratory illnesses like influenza and COVID-19 can help prevent serious illness and unnecessary hospital visits,” said Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s Chief Medical Officer of Health. “It is particularly important for people at increased risk of severe disease to get vaccinated, including older adults, young infants and toddlers, and people with chronic health conditions. Anyone who is in regular contact with someone from any of these groups should also get vaccinated.”

    Nova Scotians can get the influenza and COVID-19 vaccines from participating family doctors, nurse practitioners, family practice nurses, pharmacies, public health offices and mobile units. People have several options for booking an appointment:

    This year, family booking is available, which allows someone to book up to six people for a single appointment.

    If people find their preferred time and location are not available, they are encouraged to check back in a few days, as appointments will be added regularly. People using the toll-free number in the next few days should also be aware that there may be a wait because of large call volumes.

    During this respiratory illness season, Nova Scotia has additional focus on older adults. An enhanced influenza vaccine, which is shown to provide better protection for older adults, is available to people aged 65 and older. And in November, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines will be available to Nova Scotians aged 60 and older living in licensed long-term care facilities, as well as hospital inpatients that age who are awaiting placement in long-term care.

    This fall, COVID-19 testing guidance is changing to align with eligibility for COVID-19 medications, which benefit people at higher risk for severe disease or hospitalization. Both polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and rapid testing will be focused on those at higher risk, such as people who are 65 years of age and older or immunocompromised.

    People at higher risk can access rapid and PCR tests by booking an appointment online at https://covidbooking.nshealth.ca or by calling 1-833-797-7772. Full details of the testing eligibility criteria and availability can be found at: https://www.nshealth.ca/coronavirustesting

    Influenza and COVID-19 symptoms can include a sudden high fever, headache, general aches and pains, fatigue and weakness, a runny, stuffy nose, sneezing and sore throat.

    Quotes:

    “Now that COVID-19 is part of our everyday lives, we need to prioritize testing and treatment for those who need it most, as we do with all infectious diseases. The goal is to reduce the number of vulnerable patients seeking primary care, visiting emergency departments and needing hospitalization. People who need a test will be able to access them, but for most people, having COVID-19 should be treated like any other respiratory virus.”
    — Dr. Shelly McNeil, Medical Director, Emerging and Re-Emerging Infections Network (ERIN), Nova Scotia Health

    Quick Facts:

    • the influenza and COVID-19 vaccines are updated annually to protect against the latest strains of influenza and COVID-19
    • children younger than nine years old who have never had an influenza vaccine should receive two doses four weeks apart
    • it is recommended to wait six months after having a COVID-19 infection or vaccine before receiving the updated vaccine, though people may get it after three months if they wish
    • Nova Scotians can access their vaccine records via the YourHealthNS app and online at https://vaxrecordns.nshealth.ca

    Additional Resources:

    More information on vaccines and bookings for both influenza and COVID-19 is available at: https://www.nshealth.ca/seasonal-vaccines

    More information on influenza: https://novascotia.ca/flu

    More information on COVID-19 and testing: https://www.nshealth.ca/coronavirusvaccine

    Other than cropping, CNS photos are not to be altered in any way

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Bolsonaro’s indictment over alleged coup plot signals shift in Brazil’s approach to political accountability

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Felipe Tirado, PhD Candidate in Law, King’s College London

    Brazil’s top prosecutor has filed federal charges against Jair Bolsonaro, alleging that the former president attempted a coup in 2023. Focus Pix / Shutterstock

    The Brazilian attorney-general has charged the country’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, with participating in a plot to cling to power through a coup d’etat in 2022. If Bolsonaro is convicted, he could spend between 38 and 43 years in prison.

    Bolsonaro, who governed Brazil between 2019 and 2022 but lost his attempt at re-election to current president Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, is one of 34 people to be formally charged for offences related to the alleged coup. These include high-ranking serving and retired members of the military, as well as former ministers and politicians.

    The charges levelled against them are involvement in an attempted coup d’etat, violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, and criminal organisation.

    According to the attorney-general’s 272-page indictment, Bolsonaro became increasingly inclined to pursue anti-democratic measures in the months before the election. He allegedly considered taking steps to retain power even before the first round of voting.

    Then, after his defeat by an extremely narrow margin, the indictment claims that Bolsonaro and his alleged accomplices decided to implement the plan before Lula took office in January 2023.

    An investigation by Brazil’s federal police in November found that the insurrection in the country’s capital Brasília on January 8 2023, where rioters invaded the presidential palace, congress and supreme court, was part of this plan. The same investigation suggested the plan also included a plot to assassinate Lula and his vice-president Geraldo Alckmin, as well as supreme court judge Alexandre de Moraes.

    Bolsonaro denies any wrongdoing and – at least in public – is bullish about his fate. Speaking to journalists hours before the charges were filed, he said: “I have no concerns about the accusations, zero.”

    The case will now be considered by the Supreme Court, whose judges will decide whether to initiate criminal proceedings against Bolsonaro and the other defendants. This is expected to happen over the coming weeks. If the judges accept the charges and proceedings are established, the defendants will be called to answer them.

    This is the first time in Brazilian history that high-ranking members of the armed forces have been indicted and charged with crimes associated with a coup d’etat. According to the indictment, the intention was for the armed forces to be called upon to act as a “moderating power”, with the aim of overturning the election result.

    Army generals Augusto Heleno, Walter Braga Netto and Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira are among those who have been charged. These men served as ministers in the Bolsonaro government, with Braga Netto also running as the vice-president on Bolsonaro’s ticket in 2022.

    Another high-ranking member of the armed forces charged by the attorney-general is Almir Garnier Santos, the commander of the Brazilian navy. These four men were allegedly part of the inner nuclei that planned and prepared the attempted coup.

    Several other servicemen, including generals, colonels and other officers, were charged with crimes related to the planning and execution of the initial phases of the coup. The sentences for all of these men could amount to up to 30 years in prison.

    Like Bolsonaro, Braga Netto denies any guilt. In a statement released on February 18, his lawyers called the charges a “fantasy”. Lawyers for Garnier Santos and Heleno have chosen not to comment until having fully reviewed the charges.

    Unlike those in the military, some of the political figures charged by the attorney general had criminal antecedents. One of the politicians named in the indictment is Filipe Martins, Bolsonaro’s former international affairs adviser and a “disciple” of the deceased far-right polemicist, Olavo de Carvalho. Martins’ lawyers released a statement on February 18 calling the accusations “unfounded”.

    In December 2024, Martins was convicted of making a gesture alluding to white supremacy during a virtual session of the senate. He initially received a sentence of two years and four months in prison for inciting racial prejudice, which was replaced by 850 hours of community service.

    Far-right commentator Paulo Figueiredo Filho, the grandson of Brazil’s last military dictator, João Figueiredo, was also charged. He appeared on a podcast on February 19 to criticise the charge. Figueiredo lives in the US, where he was arrested in 2019 because of problems with his immigration status.

    Lessons from and to Brazil

    Brazil has already offered some lessons to other countries facing similar authoritarian challenges. Its response to the insurrection in Brasília was swift and robust. Within days, hundreds of rioters had been arrested and the state governor of the federal district was suspended for his sluggish response.

    Then, in 2023, Bolsonaro was banned from running for office for eight years over false claims that the electronic ballots used in the previous year’s election were vulnerable to hacking and fraud. Those involved with the attempted military coup have also been investigated and some subsequently arrested.

    But the coup plot case can also serve as a lesson to the country. Brazil has a history both of successful and unsuccessful military coups. The last successful military coup led to a dictatorship that lasted from 1964 until 1985.

    Brazil also has a history of amnesties, whereby crimes committed during these coups and authoritarian regimes have been pardoned. There have been 48 amnesties in Brazil since 1889, with the most recent one, in 1979, allowing the dictatorship to self-amnesty its crimes.

    For over 45 years, this amnesty hindered criminal accountability for the perpetrators of crimes. This included the murder of politician Rubens Paiva, whose disappearance was the focus of the 2024 Oscar-nominated film, I’m Still Here. The amnesty was declared void by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2011.

    Bolsonaro and other individuals charged, as well as their supporters and aligned politicians, have been demanding a “humanitarian amnesty” for those who allegedly participated in the coup plot.

    Given Bolsonaro’s history, this seems paradoxical. Throughout his decades-long public career, Bolsonaro has consistently celebrated the crimes of the military dictatorship and supported violations of human rights. At the same time, he has also opposed individuals and organisations that advocate for victims of the dictatorship.

    If Bolsonaro and his alleged accomplices are found guilty, it could be an unparalleled lesson for Brazil. Punishing anyone convicted would be an opportunity to step away from the country’s tradition of impunity and move towards addressing systemic injustices.

    Felipe Tirado receives funding from the Centre for Doctoral Studies – King’s College London.

    – ref. Bolsonaro’s indictment over alleged coup plot signals shift in Brazil’s approach to political accountability – https://theconversation.com/bolsonaros-indictment-over-alleged-coup-plot-signals-shift-in-brazils-approach-to-political-accountability-250300

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How satellites revolutionised climate change science

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Will de Freitas, Environment + Energy Editor, UK edition

    aappp / shutterstock

    Until relatively recently, humans were limited by the horizon. Climate scientists of the early 20th century could gather data from the world around them and perhaps what they were able to see from a hot air balloon or plane. But the really big picture – the global snapshot – remained out of sight.

    This roundup of The Conversation’s climate coverage comes from our award-winning weekly climate action newsletter. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who’ve subscribed.

    The first satellite of any kind was the USSR’s Sputnik 1, launched in 1957. But it wasn’t until the 1960s that satellites designed specifically to observe the Earth and its climate made it into orbit and gave us the first overview of weather patterns. By the 1970s Nasa’s Landsat satellites were able to monitor things like tree cover.

    Jonathan Bamber, a climate scientist at the University of Bristol, says this “revolutionised our ability to carry out a comprehensive and timely health check on the planetary systems we rely on for our survival”. Data that once required months or even years of fieldwork was suddenly available in the time it took a satellite to orbit the planet.

    These days, this data can be remarkably precise and detailed. Bamber says: “We can measure changes in sea level down to a single millimetre, changes in how much water is stored in underground rocks, the temperature of the land and ocean and the spread of atmospheric pollutants and greenhouse gases, all from space.”

    Here’s a map of sea level rise, from Bamber’s article highlighting five satellite images that show how fast our planet is changing:

    The sea is rising quickly – but not evenly.
    ESA/CLS/LEGOS, CC BY-SA

    “This image,” writes Bamber, “shows mean sea level trends over 13 years in which the global average rise was about 3.2mm a year. But the rate was three or four times faster in some places, like the south western Pacific to the east of Indonesia and New Zealand, where there are numerous small islands and atolls that are already very vulnerable to sea level rise.”



    Read more:
    Five satellite images that show how fast our planet is changing

    In recent years, scientists have used AI to sift through and analyse satellite data. Bamber’s latest research, published in January this year, illustrates this nicely.

    A team of scientists, lead by Tian Li also of the University of Bristol, gathered millions of satellite images of glaciers in Svalbard, a remote and icy archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. In their write up, they note that human researchers once painstakingly looked through this sort of data.

    “This process”, they write, “is highly labour-intensive, inefficient and particularly unreproducible as different people can spot different things even in the same satellite image. Given the number of satellite images available nowadays, we may not have the human resources to map every region for every year.”

    Their solution was to use AI to “quickly identify glacier patterns across large areas”. The satellite-AI combo meant they could examine Svalbard’s retreating glaciers – surely among the least accessible places on the planet – in “unprecedented scale and scope”.

    They found that 91% of the many glaciers that flow into the sea around the archipelago have been “shrinking significantly”. They note that the same types of glacier can be found across the Arctic, and “what happens to glaciers in Svalbard is likely to be repeated elsewhere”.



    Read more:
    We built an AI model that analysed millions of images of retreating glaciers – what it found is alarming

    Many of those glaciers can be found in Greenland, home of the northern hemisphere’s largest ice sheet. In research published earlier this month, Tom Chudley of Durham University used satellite images to assess crevasses (cracks in the glaciers) in Greenland.

    A large glacier in west Greenland flows into the sea. That iceberg filled fjord is several miles wide.
    Copernicus Sentinel / lavizzara / shutterstock

    Chudley also combined satellite images with computerised analysis. His work made use of “ArcticDEM”, three dimensional maps of the polar regions based on high resolution satellite images.

    “By applying image-processing techniques to over 8,000 maps, we could estimate how much water, snow or air would be needed to “fill” each crevasse across the ice sheet. This enabled us to calculate their depth and volume, and examine how they evolved.“

    His conclusion was very blunt: the Greenland ice sheet is falling apart.



    Read more:
    The Greenland ice sheet is falling apart – new study

    Health watchdogs

    Many of you will be well aware that satellites are being used to monitor the health of the planet. What’s less well known is the role they can play in monitoring human health.

    Dhritiraj Sengupta, a satellite scientist at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, says satellites have become Earth’s new health and nature watchdog. His article details how satellites can map mosquito breeding sites to combat malaria, for instance, or can identify air pollution hotspots in cities.

    In his own research, he’s used satellite-derived chlorophyll data to assess the risk of cholera. Chlorophyll is the green pigment in plants that helps them use sunlight to make their food and grow.

    “Many bacteria like Vibrio cholerae which causes cholera, thrive in stagnant water,” Sengupta writes. “My team worked with the European Space Agency to show that its presence can be modelled using the concentration of chlorophyll found on the surface of bodies of water.”



    Read more:
    How satellites have become Earth’s new health and nature watchdogs

    So far, so good. Satellites have undeniably been useful for climate scientists. But in the longer-term, the satellites themselves may have an unforeseen effect on the climate.

    Last year, SpaceX announced it would “deorbit” 100 of its Starlink satellites to burn up in the atmosphere. Fionagh Thomson is a space expert, also at Durham University. She says that “atmospheric scientists are increasingly concerned that this sort of apparent fly-tipping by the space sector will cause further climate change down on Earth.”

    Particles from the satellites themselves won’t have a huge effect compared to the “440 tonnes of meteoroids that enter the atmosphere daily, along with volcanic ash and human-made pollution from industrial processes on Earth.”

    But one team “recently, and unexpectedly, found potential ozone-depleting metals from spacecraft in the stratosphere, the atmospheric layer where the ozone layer is formed.” The worry is that satellite debris may help form certain types of clouds that lead to ozone loss and may add to the greenhouse effect.

    She notes that this is all uncertain and needs more research. “But,” she writes, “we’ve also learnt that if we wait until indisputable evidence is available, it may be too late, as with the loss of ozone. It’s a constant dilemma.”

    Something for SpaceX scientists to look into, perhaps, once they’ve finished rescuing stranded astronauts from the International Space Station.



    Read more:
    Satellites are burning up in the upper atmosphere – and we still don’t know what impact this will have on the Earth’s climate

    – ref. How satellites revolutionised climate change science – https://theconversation.com/how-satellites-revolutionised-climate-change-science-250312

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Halifax Infirmary Expansion Project Update, Video

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    Health and Wellness Minister Michelle Thompson (left) and Dr. Christine Short, Senior Medical Director, QEII Healthcare Redevelopment, Central Zone, Nova Scotia Health, share an update on the Halifax Infirmary expansion project in the media room at One Government Place in Halifax today, February 19. (Province of Nova Scotia)

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senator Murray Presses VA Deputy Secretary Nominee on Mass Firings of VA Researchers, Holding Oracle Accountable to Get EHR Right for Veterans

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray
    ICYMI: Senator Murray: Trump Must Reverse Firing of VA Researchers Across the Country, Threatens to Decimate Lifesaving Work on Veterans’ Medical Care, Prosthetics, and More
    ICYMI: Murray, Colleagues Request Information on Elon Musk’s Access to VA Medical Records
    ***VIDEO of Murray’s Q&A at nomination hearing HERE**
    Washington, D.C. – Today at a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing on Dr. Paul Lawrence’s nomination to be Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, questioned Dr. Lawrence—who will oversee the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system—on what he will do differently to hold Oracle accountable and get the EHR system right for veterans in Washington state. Murray also pressed him on whether he supports the decision by Trump and Musk last week to fire en masse VA researchers in the middle of research on everything from burn pit exposure to mental health, opioid addiction, and preventing veteran suicide, among much else.
    “EHR started in 2018 under President Trump and in 2020, it deployed to two Washington state VA hospitals. Instead of helping to improve our veterans’ health care, the rollout ending up being a complete disaster, and it endangered veteran patients,” Murray said at today’s hearing. “Unfortunately, the system still is not working the way that the VA doctors and nurses need—and veterans are continuing  to suffer. Last month, the VA announced that it would be moving forward with pre-deployment activities at the next four sites for this Electronic Health Record.”
    “You will oversee the EHR program—so if confirmed, I want to know what you are going to do differently to hold Oracle accountable and to make sure we get this system right for our veterans?”
    Dr. Lawrence replied that he would aim to better understand why VA did not listen to employees earlier when they raised issued with the EHR system, and that he would work with the team Secretary Collins plans to convene with “everybody involved” to figure out the best path going forward for EHR. “If confirmed, I want to work on that and figure out what the plan should be in terms of holding everybody accountable for what’s supposed to take place, right, to get the most benefits as quickly as possible to our veterans within the amount of money we have,” Dr. Lawrence said.
    “Well let me make this very clear: we have heard that answer from every VA person that’s come before this committee for a number of years now,” Murray pushed back. “Everybody’s looked at it, everybody’s considered it, everybody’s talked about it, everybody’s convened panels. It is not working. So, I need your commitment that it’s not just—convene people and take a look at, but that you are going to make changes to it and demand changes, and get those fixed. Because we have spent, literally, millions and millions of dollars—and worse, veterans are still in jeopardy in their care, and doctors and nurses and VA facilities are really frustrated.”
    “I asked you a really important question: what are you going to do differently? The answer you gave me—I understand where you’re coming from—but it is the same one I’ve heard over and over,” Murray said.
    Dr. Lawrence responded that the Secretary conveyed a “strong sense of urgency that it should be done much sooner than later,” and that, in his previous tenure at VA as Under Secretary for Benefits, he dealt with technology problems around the GI Bill, appeals modernization, and other issues, and implemented technology: “I’ve actually done this, and so that’s the difference I will bring to this. And I understand the frustration, and I pledge to work as best, as hard as I can to get this done,” said Dr. Lawrence.
    “Well I don’t want to be sitting here again, two years from now, same conversation, new person,” Murray said.
    Murray continued her questioning by pressing Dr. Lawrence on Trump and Elon Musk’s unprecedented firings of VA researchers—last week the administration abruptly refused to honor researchers’ three-year “Not to Exceed” term limits (NTEs) by rolling them over as is standard. Instead, the Trump administration immediately dismissing researchers, including at VA Puget Sound, who were in the middle of research on topics including mental health, alcohol and opioid withdrawal, cancer treatments, burn pit exposure, prosthetics, diabetic ulcers, and so much else.
    “Last week, my office’s phones were ringing off the hook—as I assume a lot of people’s were—with really panicked calls from researchers at the VA. They had been laid off with ZERO justification, ZERO warning,” Murray said.
    “And in fact, up until then, the VA had assured them that they were protected from Trump and Musk’s mass firings. VA research shouldn’t be political. And firing VA researchers who are in the middle of a process to find life-saving treatment for veterans with conditions like PTSD, or opioid addiction, or cancer from toxic exposure is really cruel and wasteful. Some veterans are literally in the middle of receiving breakthrough treatment through these clinical trials. What will happen to them and their care when their lead researcher was just fired?”
    “Were you aware of the Trump Administration’s decision to fire these VA researchers?,” Murray asked.Dr. Lawrence responded that he was “not engaged” in anything at the Department now.
    “Do you support it?,” Murray pressed.Dr. Lawrence replied: “If confirmed, I will look into this to better understand what took place—I don’t have enough information to comment on that.”
    “So you won’t commit to restoring these VA researchers’ positions so they can continue that research on PTSD, and opioid addiction, and cancer that was caused by their exposure to toxic chemicals?” Murray pressed again.
    “If confirmed, I commit to looking in to understand what happened and why,” said Dr. Lawrence. “Well, I hope that’s not like every other answer we get from people that we are hearing from that they’ll look into it and no action is taken—you’ve just promised to look into it; this is critical,” said Senator Murray.
    “I understand,” said Dr. Lawrence.
    Senator Murray was the first woman to join the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the first woman to chair the Committee—as the daughter of a World War II veteran, supporting veterans and their families has always been an important priority for her. Senator Murray has fought throughout her career for increased benefits for veterans, housing assistance, better access to veterans’ clinics throughout Washington state, and more accountability from the VA.
    Senator Murray has spoken out forcefully against President Trump and Elon Musk’s mass firing of VA employees across the country. Just yesterday, Murray and her colleagues sent a letter to VA Secretary Doug Collins pressing him to protect veterans, their families, and VA staff from unprecedented access to sensitive information by Elon Musk and his “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). Earlier this month, Senator Murray sounded the alarm over reports of DOGE at the VA and voted against Doug Collins’s nomination to be VA Secretary, making clear that the Trump administration’s lawlessness was putting our national security and our veterans at risk. Alongside 25 of her colleagues, Murray sent another letter earlier this month to Secretary Collins, demanding that he deny and sever Musk and DOGE’s access to any VA or other government system with information about veterans, and to delete any veterans’ information in their possession.
    Senator Murray has been conducting oversight on the flawed EHR rollout in Washington state since the Trump Administration first negotiated the contract with Cerner (later acquired by Oracle), and at every point in the process since then. Murray has consistently pushed VA on its failed implementation of EHR—conducting oversight, holding the administration accountable, and calling on VA to halt deployment of EHR until they get it right in Washington state. In March 2023, Murray introduced comprehensive legislation that would require VA to implement a series of EHR reforms to better serve veterans, medical personnel, and taxpayers. In the Fiscal Year 2024 funding bills, Senator Murray negotiated and passed as Chair of the Appropriations Committee stronger language to hold VA and Cerner accountable for the rollout of the EHR system, and in May 2024, she sent a letter urging VA to consider feedback on the system from providers and veterans in Spokane and Walla Walla and reiterating that VA must not move forward on the rollout of EHR until the myriad issues that have plagued the system in the locations where it has been launched are fixed.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: VATICAN/GENERAL AUDIENCE – From Gemelli Hospital the Pope continues his Magisterium: “The the poor and foreigners are invited among the first to meet God made child”

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Wednesday, 19 February 2025

    Vatican Media

    Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – While Pope Francis is being treated for bilateral pneumonia at the Agostino Gemelli Hospital in Rome, the Holy See Press Office has released the text of the catechism prepared by the Holy Father for the general audience of 19 February 2025.As part of the cycle of catechisms on the life of Jesus, in the catechism published today, after speaking of the birth of the Son of God, the Pope speaks of the visit of the Magi, “people who do not belong to the people of the covenant “. They are “foreigners, who immediately arrive to pay homage to the Son of God who entered into history with an entirely precedented kingship”. After the shepherds, then the Magi. From the Gospels it is clear “that the poor and foreigners are invited among the first to meet God made child, the Saviour of the world”.The Magi, as the text says, ” are men who do not stay still but, like the great chosen ones of biblical history, feel the need to move, to go forth. They are men who are able to look beyond themselves, who know how to look upwards”.Once they arrive in Jerusalem, “their naivety and trust in asking for information about the newborn king of the Jews clashes with the shrewdness of Herod, who, troubled by the fear of losing his throne, immediately tries to obtain a better view, contacting the scribes and asking them to investigate”. In these lines “the earthly ruler thus shows all his weakness”. And not just that of the king.The experts know the Scriptures and refer to the king “the place where, according to Micah’s prophecy, the leader and shepherd of the people of Israel should be born: little Bethlehem, and not great Jerusalem! Indeed, as Paul reminds the Corinthians, “God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor 1:27). The scribes, “who are able to identify the Messiah’s birthplace exactly, show the way to others, but they themselves do not move! Indeed, it is not enough to know the prophetic texts to tune in to the divine frequencies; one must let them to enter within and allow the Word of God to revive the yearning to seek, the kindle to desire to see God”.Herod asks the wise men who have come from far away to inform him when they find the child. The king, however, acts ” as do the deceitful and violent” because “for those attached to power, Jesus is not the hope to be welcomed, but a threat to be eliminated!”. But as soon as they leave Jerusalem, “the star reappears and leads them to Jesus, the sign that creation and the prophetic word represent the alphabet with which God speaks and lets Himself be found. The sight of the star inspires an irrepressible joy in those men, because the Holy Spirit, who stirs the heart of whoever sincerely seeks God, also fills it with joy”.So they reached the place where the child was and “they prostrate themselves, adore Jesus and offer Him precious gifts, worthy of a king, worthy of God”. Pope Francis describes the reason for this gesture by quoting Chromatius of Aquileia, who in commenting on the Gospel of Matthew, about the Magi, writes: they see “a humble little body that the Word has assumed; but the glory of divinity is not hidden from them. They see an infant child; but they worship God”.”The Magi thus become the first believers among the pagans, the image of the Church drawn together from every language and nation. Let us, too, follow in the footsteps of the Magi, these “pilgrims of hope” who, with great courage, turned their steps, hearts and goods towards the One who is the hope not only of Israel but of all peoples. Let us learn to adore God in His smallness, in His kingship that does not crush but rather sets us free and enables us to serve with dignity”, the Pontiff concludes. (F.B.) (Agenzia Fides, 19/2/2025)
    Share:

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Oregon Man Pleads Guilty in Swatting and Bomb Threats Scheme That Targeted Jewish Hospitals in New York City and Long Island

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    One Hospital Entered Lockdown and Partially Evacuated After Defendant’s Bomb Hoax

    Earlier today in federal court in Brooklyn, Domagoj Patkovic pleaded guilty to conspiring to make threats concerning explosives and conveying false information concerning explosives.  The proceeding was held before United States District Judge Ramon E. Reyes.  When sentenced, Patkovic faces up to 15 years in prison.  Patkovic was charged in August 2024. 

    John J. Durham, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and James E. Dennehy, Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the guilty plea.

    “As he admitted today, the defendant intentionally targeted Jewish hospitals and care centers in our District with bomb threats.  In doing so, he needlessly endangered patients and staff and diverted critical law enforcement resources from their core mission of keeping our community safe,” stated United States Attorney Durham.  “We will prosecute dangerous bomb threats and swatting schemes to the fullest extent of the law.”

    Mr. Durham expressed his appreciation to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office, the New York City Police Department, Nassau County Police Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon for their assistance on the case.

    As set forth in the indictment and in court filings, beginning at least as early as May 2021, the defendant and others made anonymous phone calls in which they made violent threats, including threats to detonate explosive devices, to Jewish hospitals and care centers within the Eastern District of New York, among other targets throughout the United States.

    The defendant himself made threats in at least six separate calls to hospitals and on a call with local law enforcement who had responded to a 911 notification from one of the hospitals.  The defendant livestreamed the calls to others on an online social media and electronic communications service.  On several occasions, local police responded to the scene and conducted bomb sweeps. On at least one occasion in September 2021, the hoax bomb threat resulted in a partial evacuation and lockdown of an entire hospital on Long Island.  No explosive devices were ultimately found in any of the locations.

    The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s National Security & Cybercrime Section.  Assistant United States  Attorneys Alexander A. Solomon, Laura Zuckerwise and Andrew D. Reich are in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Trial Attorney James Donnelly of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section and Paralegal Specialist Wayne Colon. 

    The Defendant:

    DOMAGOJ PATKOVIC 
    Age: 31
    Portland, Oregon

    E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 24-CR-317 (RER)

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Driving Innovation and Reducing Waste: Cherry Point Service Members, Civilians Complete Lean Six Sigma Training

    Source: United States Navy (Medical)

    Members of the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point community are now better prepared to improve processes and reduce waste after attending a weeklong course held aboard the base in late January 2025.

    Sailors, Marines and civilians serving aboard MCAS Cherry Point graduated Friday, January 31 from the five-day Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course held aboard Naval Health Clinic Cherry Point.

    “These individuals acquire valuable skills to improve operational efficiency, reduce waste and enhance the quality of care,” said Commander Brendon Tillman, who helped organize the class. “Lean Six Sigma Green Belt-trained Sailors bring practical tools and strategies that drive continuous improvements.”

    A clinic staff member with a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification will focus on small-scale process improvements within Naval Health Clinic Cherry Point using tools like the Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control framework, commonly referred to as DMAIC. A team of LSS-trained Green Belts will work together under the supervision of an LSS-trained Black Belt.

    Green Belt projects in the clinic have improved lab specimen handling protocols, streamlined the Limited Duty completion process, enhanced the Ambulatory Procedure Unit and Dental supply inventory management process and increased the usage rate of evidence-based treatments for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression.

    “The continuous improvement mindset instilled by LSS helps clinics develop stronger organizational resilience, enabling them to adapt to changing demands,” said Tillman. “These sailors become valuable leaders who can mentor others, drive process improvement initiatives, and contribute to the overall mission readiness of the clinic.”

    To earn their Green Belt certification, graduates from the course must prove their knowledge by completing two process improvement projects. An LSS certification, according to Tillman, demonstrates a Sailor and staff member’s drive towards professional development and innovation, setting them apart from their peers.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Everyone deserves access to healthcare without harassment

    Source: Scottish Greens

    19 Feb 2025 Health Buffer Zones

    Abortion rights are human rights.

    More in Health

    Scottish Green MSP Gillian Mackay has condemned anti-choice protests taking place today outside the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow, with the first arrest reported under the Safe Access Zones legislation.

    Ms Mackay introduced the bill that secured 200 metre wide safe access zones, or buffer zones, around abortion service providers to stop the intimidating anti-choice protests that have taken place across Scotland. 

    The Daily Record has also reported that US anti-choice campaign group 40 Days for Life have listed protests in Glasgow starting next month.

    Ms Mckay said:

    “The protests that have taken place outside Queen Elizabeth have been utterly shameful and I am grateful to Police Scotland for acting so quickly.

    “This kind of intimidation has no place in a modern or progressive Scotland. Everybody deserves to have access to healthcare without harassment. That is why I introduced my Act, and why these disgraceful protests are now illegal.

    “We know the awful impact that these protests have had. Some of the testimonies from women who have had to endure them have been heartbreaking.

    “I urge 40 Days For Life and anyone else who is planning to protest in a safe access zone to think again, as they will be stopped and there will be consequences.”

    Ms Mackay added:

    “It’s no coincidence that this has happened so soon after JD Vance and his supporters have spread toxic misinformation about Scotland, it is vital that we stand up for reproductive rights and against those who are working to undermine them.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Legislative Changes to Create Administrative Efficiency, Modernize Healthcare System

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    The Province is repealing two acts and amending two more to remove outdated and redundant functions that are, or will be, part of other pieces of legislation.

    The acts to be repealed include the Anatomy Act and the Emergency Department Accountability Act. The Health Services and Insurance Act and the Human Organ and Tissue Donation Act will be amended.

    “We have legislation that is outdated, redundant and no longer reflect the realities of our healthcare system,” said Health and Wellness Minister Michelle Thompson. “We’re modernizing healthcare in Nova Scotia with innovative ways to access care, new infrastructure, technology and updated legislation.”

    Repealing the Anatomy Act and amending the Human Organ and Tissue Donation Act will modernize the Province’s approach to the donation of bodies for medical education. The first Anatomy Act was developed in the late 1800s based on historical concerns about the illegal procurement of cadavers for medical training.

    An amendment to the Health Services Insurance Act will clarify that healthcare professionals can bill private insurers and federal government programs, and allow them to bill more than the provincial tariff rate where permitted. Patients cannot be billed for an insured service.

    Advances in public reporting of healthcare data will see the Emergency Department Accountability Act be repealed. The act requires the Minister of Health and Wellness to submit annually, a report on the status of emergency departments, based on the previous year, including closure hours and wait times.

    Nova Scotians have access to this data in real time through the Nova Scotia Health service interruptions website, the Nova Scotia Health emergency care website, the Action for Health public reporting dashboard and the YourHealthNS app, which provides real-time information on emergency department closures and predicted wait times.

    Additional Resources:

    Bills tabled in the legislature are available at: https://nslegislature.ca/legislative-business/bills-statutes/bills/assembly-65-session-1

    Action for Health public reporting dashboard: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/nova.scotia.health/viz/ActionforHealth-PublicReporting/Overview

    Nova Scotia Health service interruptions website: https://www.nshealth.ca/service-interruptions

    Nova Scotia Health emergency care website: https://www.nshealth.ca/emergency-care#service-statuses

    Nova Scotia Health emergency department wait times website: https://www.nshealth.ca/emergency-care/emergency-department-wait-times

    Anatomy Act: https://nslegislature.ca/sites/default/files/legc/statutes/anatomy.pdf

    Emergency Department Accountability Act: https://nslegislature.ca/sites/default/files/legc/statutes/emergency%20department%20accountability.pdf

    Health Services Insurance Act: https://nslegislature.ca/sites/default/files/legc/statutes/health%20services%20and%20insurance.pdf

    Human Organ and Tissue Donation Act: https://nslegislature.ca/sites/default/files/legc/statutes/human%20organ%20and%20tissue%20donation.pdf

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: UN to continue Gaza vaccination campaign against polio

    Source: United Nations 2

    Peace and Security

    The UN World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday that the mass polio vaccination campaign in Gaza which began successfully last year, will continue in the coming days.

    WHO said in a news release that more than 591,000 children under 10 years old will receive the vaccine to protect them from the highly infectious disease, beginning this weekend for an anticipated period of five days.

    The campaign follows the recent detection of poliovirus in wastewater samples in the shattered enclave which signal that the infection is still circulating in the enclave and putting children at risk.

    “Individuals with low or no immunity provide the virus an opportunity to continue spreading and potentially cause disease,” WHO said.

    The UN health agency added that dreadful sanitary conditions in Gaza which include overcrowding in shelters and severely damaged water and sewer networks had created “ideal conditions for further spread of poliovirus”.

    The mass return of people to north and south Gaza during the ongoing ceasefire is also likely to increase the spread of polio, WHO warned.

    The campaign will be led by the Palestinian Ministry of Health with support from WHO, UN children’s agency UNICEF, the Palestine refugee relief agency (UNRWA) and other partners.

    The agency stressed that polio vaccines are safe and there is no maximum number of times a child should be vaccinated, with each dose providing extra protection. An additional round of shots is planned for April.

    More to come…

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: expert reaction to study looking at aspartame artificial sweetener and insulin levels and blood vessel inflammation in mice

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    A study published in Cell Metabolism looks at the artificial sweetener aspartame, insulin levels and blood inflammation in mice. 

    Prof Naveed Sattar, Professor of Cardiometabolic Medicine/Honorary Consultant, University of Glasgow, said:

    “This seems like worrying findings but of course, before it can taken seriously, the findings have to be replicated in man.  There is no good evidence from trials that exogenous insulin increases cardiovascular risks in people with prior cardiovascular disease AND in people with type 1, by improving glucose levels, exogenous insulin lowers many risks.  Whether excess pancreatic insulin occurs with aspartame in amounts regularly consumed occurs and then accelerates vascular risks in man is also not proven.  For now, I remain happy to take sweeteners and related diet beverages instead of sugar filled drinks as the former limits excess calorie intake.”

    Prof James Leiper, Director of Research, British Heart Foundation, said:

    “This study has revealed much more about the known potential risks of artificial sweeteners.  In these mice, a diet that included an artificially high level of aspartame did exacerbate the size and number of fatty plaques in their arteries.  The effect of these plaques was not measured here, but they are known to greatly increase the risk of a heart attack or stroke.

    “While it is important to note that these findings have not yet been seen in humans, the results highlight the importance of further research to determine whether these additions to our food, and their effect on insulin levels, are contributing to an increased risk of cardiovascular events.

    “These sweeteners are now found in many foods and drinks, and people are probably consuming more than they realise.  But this research is not a green light to have more sugar instead.  We all need to reduce our intake of the processed foods and beverages that contain high levels of fat, sugars, sweeteners and salt.  This is the best way of ensuring a healthy diet and a lowered risk of heart and circulatory disease.”

    Prof Oliver Jones, Professor of Chemistry, RMIT University in Melbourne, said:

    “I have several concerns about this study.

    “The authors claim that the consumption of Aspartame by adults and children “often exceeds those levels recommended by the FDA” – this is extremely unlikely in my view.  The FDA-acceptable daily intake of Aspartame is 50 mg per kg of body weight per day.  I weigh 80 kg, so this means this means the FDA-based safe dose for me is 4000 mg (or 4 grams) of Aspartame per day, every day, for life.  Given a diet drink contains about 200 mg of Aspartame, I would have to drink the equivalent of 20 cans of diet soda a day to get this dose.  A child of 40 kg would have to drink 10 cans a day, every day.  Even then, the 50 mg/kg dose has a safety factor of 100 built-in.

    “The study design also has some issues.  The main one is that the authors used a particular type of lab mouse called an ApoE mouse, which is bred to be prone to heart disease.  They also fed it a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet, which itself increases the risk of heart disease.  They also don’t seem to have measured how much of the Aspartame water the mice drank, or the Aspartame level in the blood, so it is unknown what the mice actually received.

    “To my mind, the authors’ admission that feeding mice that are already genetically susceptible to heart disease with a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet that is known to cause heart disease “diminishes clinical relevance” is somewhat of an understatement.

    “Contrary to the paper’s claims, it is quite well-established that Aspartame doesn’t stimulate glucose or insulin levels in humans [1, 2].

    “Aspartame is essentially just two common amino acids (aspartic acid and phenylalanine) joined together.  In the gut, it is broken down to aspartic acid and phenylalanine.  There is no reason to think amino acids from Aspartame would be worse than those from any other source.

    “The authors would appear to think little work has been done on safety testing in Aspartame; this is just not true.  All food ingredients are rigorously tested and safety assessed before they are approved for use.  Aspartame is one of the most researched ingredients in the world.  It is just that a lot of the data is in safety assessments for regulatory approval, not the academic literature.

    “Finally, even if Aspartame did cause some increase in cardiovascular risk (which this study does not prove), then that risk would likely be very small compared to things like high fat/high sugar diets and lack of exercise, etc.

    “In short, I don’t think this study itself gives us more reason to worry about diet drinks or aspartame.”

    References

    1 Santos, N. C., de Araujo, L. M., De Luca Canto, G., Guerra, E. N. S., Coelho, M. S., Borin, M. de F. (2017). Metabolic effects of aspartame in adulthood: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 58(12), 2068-2081. https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2017.1304358

    2 Stern S.B., Bleicher S.J., Flores A., Gombos G., Recitas D., Shu J. Administration of aspartame in non-insulin-dependent diabetics. (1976) Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health,. 2(2):429-39. https:// 10.1080/15287397609529444

    ‘Sweetener aspartame aggravates atherosclerosis through insulin-triggered inflammation’ by Weijie Wu et al. was published in Cell Metabolism at 16:00 UK time on Wednesday 19 February 2025. 

    DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2025.01.006

    Declared interests

    Prof Naveed Sattar: “Takes occasional diet drinks.

    Has consulted for several companies that make diabetes medicines but also contributed to several lifestyle trials.

    “For Novo Nordisk: have consulted for company in advisory boards but not on any of their weight loss drug trial committees; am on steering committee for ZEUS trial but this is not a weight loss trial product but anti-inflammatory.  Do not have any shares either for any product in health etc.

    “N.S. declares consulting fees and/or speaker honoraria from Abbott Laboratories, Afimmune, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, Hanmi Pharmaceuticals, Janssen, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, and Sanofi; and grant support paid to his university from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis, and Roche Diagnostics.”

    Prof James Leiper: “No conflicts of interest to declare.”

    Prof Oliver Jones: “I have no conflicts of interest to declare.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI USA: The Inaugural World Congress on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    On Jan. 30 to Feb. 2 for the first time, The World Congress on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities convened in St. Lucia.

    The Honorable Philip J. Pierre, Prime Minister of St. Lucia, opening the scientific sessions.

    The event was hosted by the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities and the Connecticut Imhotep NMA Society. The Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering at UConn was also a sponsor of the event. The World Congress was the brainchild of Dr. Cato T. Laurencin at UConn who also served as chair of the meeting. Additional sponsors of the event included the National Medical Association, the St. Lucia Medical and Dental Association, the W. Montague Cobb/NMA Health Institute, and the government of St. Lucia. The scientific sessions were opened by The Honorable Philip J. Pierre, Prime Minister of St. Lucia.

    “This event was a huge milestone and brought the world’s experts on racial and ethnic disparities together,” shared UConn’s University Professor Dr. Cato T. Laurencin, CEO of The Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering at UConn School of Medicine.

    “UConn had a great presence at the first-ever World Congress,” applauds Laurencin.

    Invited speakers from UConn School of Medicine included Dr. Biree Andemariam, professor of medicine, who directs the highly successful New England Sickle Cell Institute and Connecticut Bleeding Disorders Center at UConn Health. She spoke about the need for breaking down more barriers for sickle cell disease patients worldwide and shared the success of the innovative Institute she founded in 2009 which has grown to care for the majority of adult at sickle cell patients in Connecticut.

    Dr. Cato T. Laurencin

    “The Congress gave me a unique opportunity to learn from the greatest cross-disciplinary minds whose work dissects the pervasive influence of racialized societal frameworks on global health outcomes,” shared Andemariam, the American Red Cross Endowed Chair at UConn School of Medicine.

    Helen Wu, Ph.D. from UConn’s medical school was also an invited speaker. She is associate professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Public Health Sciences and is part of The Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering at UConn. She shared her work helping create healthier communities via successful initiatives like UConn’s JUMP (Just Us Moving Program) which is a sustainable community engagement approach to lifestyle changes. The program of The Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering educates the community on the importance of increased physical activity.

    “At the first World Congress on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities we were like a big family gathering. People who are in health disparities research and practice are passionate about what we do,” shared Wu. “The Congress fostered new alliances between practitioners and researchers in the field of health disparities research and policy reform.”

    Dr. Cato T. Laurencin leading a panel discussion at the World Congress.

    Other invited speakers with a UConn connection included UConn Health Board of Directors member Dr. Kenneth Alleyne, an orthopaedic surgeon with Eastern Orthopedics who spoke about the benefits of community health workers empowering communities; Raja Staggers-Hakim, Ph.D., assistant professor in UConn’s Department of Sociology discussed racism trauma health theory; and Dierdre Cooper Owens, Ph.D., associate professor of History and Africana Studies at UConn shared the history of the Black birthing crisis.

    The proceedings of the meeting will be published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.

    Learn more about the inaugural World Congress on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Jury Convicts Winnebago Woman for Second Degree Murder

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    Acting United States Attorney Matthew R. Molsen announced that on February 7, 2025, a jury found Michelle Lee Marr, 49, of Winnebago, Nebraska, guilty of second-degree murder and tampering with documents or evidence after an almost five-day federal trial in Omaha, Nebraska. United States District Judge Brian C. Buescher presided over the trial. Marr faces a maximum sentence of life in prison for the second-degree murder charge and a maximum 20 years in prison for the tampering with documents or evidence charge.

    On March 12, 2022, Marr contacted Winnebago EMS to report the victim was not waking up and requested an ambulance respond to her residence. EMS transported the victim to Twelve Clans Unity hospital. Due to the severity of his injuries, the victim was taken by helicopter to Mercy One Medical Center in Sioux City, Iowa.  The medical treatment team at Mercy determined the victim had brain trauma and swelling. Nurses also noted significant amounts of makeup applied to the victim’s face, which revealed bruising when removed, as well as numerous bruises on the victim’s body. On March 13, 2022, the victim succumbed to his injuries. A subsequent autopsy determined the victim’s cause of death to be blunt force trauma and the manner of death to be homicide. The pathologist testified the victim’s injuries were consistent with inflicted trauma as opposed to trauma which might result from some type of fall.

    Marr claimed to have been passed out from approximately 5:00 PM on March 11, 2022, until finding the victim on March 12, 2022. Social media evidence and evidence from Marr’s phone, found during the investigation, contradicted Marr’s claims. During the trial, witnesses testified to observing previous incidents of Marr physically assaulting the victim. 

    Marr will be sentenced on June 5, 2025, at 10:00 AM, before Judge Buescher in Omaha.

    This case was prosecuted in federal court because the offense was a felony and occurred on the Winnebago Indian Reservation in Nebraska.

    This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: QEII Halifax Infirmary Expansion Enters Main Construction Phase

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    Nova Scotians are another step closer to a new, modern acute care tower with more beds and operating rooms and a larger emergency department at the QEII Halifax Infirmary, delivering more care, faster for generations.

    The next phase of construction will soon begin, with the government finalizing an agreement with Plenary PCL Health to build the tower. The new tower is expected to be fully complete and open to patients and providers in the fall of 2031.

    “This is an exciting milestone for the future of healthcare in our province. This is the largest healthcare infrastructure project ever undertaken in Atlantic Canada,” said Health and Wellness Minister Michelle Thompson. “It will ensure generations of Nova Scotians get the cutting-edge care they deserve, provide a modern workplace for the dedicated staff at the QEII, and help us attract and hire the healthcare staff we need.”

    The Province’s agreement with Plenary PCL Health includes construction of the 14-floor tower and its maintenance over 30 years, beginning at substantial completion in the fall of 2030. The project’s total cost between now and 2061 will be $7.4 billion.

    Enabling work to prepare the site for construction has been underway since last spring and the project is on schedule. In May, tower cranes will be erected and work on the foundation will begin.

    When complete, the new tower will add 216 beds, 16 operating rooms, a 48-bed intensive care unit and an emergency department that is nearly twice the size of the current one. It will also have state-of-the-art equipment, a satellite diagnostic imaging department in the emergency department, new and upgraded lab spaces and additional treatment spaces.

    Some health services now delivered at the QEII Victoria General site will move to new and renovated spaces at the Halifax Infirmary site when they open.

    The QEII Halifax Infirmary expansion is one element of More, Faster: The Action for Health Build, the government’s comprehensive plan for improving healthcare services for Nova Scotians.

    Developing modern healthcare infrastructure will help Nova Scotia become a magnet for health providers, provide the care Nova Scotians need and deserve, and cultivate excellence on the front lines, all of which are solutions under Action for Health.

    Quotes:

    “This is another transformative step forward for Nova Scotia Health. The QEII Halifax Infirmary’s new acute care tower will decrease wait times and improve access to care for all Nova Scotians.”
    — Karen Oldfield, interim President and CEO, Nova Scotia Health

    “The QEII Halifax Infirmary expansion will strengthen our healthcare system in many ways, including state-of-the-art, efficient new care spaces that better meet the needs of our staff and physicians. This new facility will enhance our physical capacity to provide care, while also equipping our teams with advanced tools and technology to deliver high-quality services to Nova Scotians.”
    — Dr. Christine Short, Senior Medical Director, QEII Healthcare Redevelopment, Central Zone, Nova Scotia Health

    “PCL Construction is excited to move forward with the next stage of the Halifax Infirmary expansion project. We remain dedicated to helping the Province build this new healthcare facility designed specifically to meet the needs of Nova Scotians. We’re looking forward to bringing the province’s vision for the project to life.”
    — Paul Knowles, Senior Vice-President and District Manager, PCL Construction

    “This project reflects our unwavering commitment at Build Nova Scotia to provide a top-quality healthcare facility that delivers value for money while prioritizing the well-being of the people it serves and the dedicated people who work there.”
    — David Benoit, President and CEO, Build Nova Scotia

    “We are proud to have reached this milestone on the QEII Halifax Infirmary Expansion Project, which will expand and modernize this healthcare facility and improve patient care. We’d like to thank our provincial partners for their dedication to this project, and we look forward to delivering a contemporary, welcoming space for patients, health professionals and visitors.”
    — Brian Budden, President and CEO, Plenary Americas

    Quick Facts:

    • work completed to date includes:
      • moving the main entrance to Summer Street
      • moving the emergency department driveway and parking to Bell Road
      • building a new, expanded magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) suite
      • demolishing the parkade on Robie Street
      • building a new parkade on Summer Street
      • doing preliminary site excavation and preparation and rock removal
    • the new tower’s foundation and concrete structure for the main floor are expected to be complete by the end of the year
    • Nova Scotia Health staff and physicians have provided input on the new facility’s design
    • through the More, Faster: Action for Health Build plan, construction of various healthcare projects are happening at the same time by breaking them into more manageable pieces

    Additional Resources:

    More information on the Halifax Infirmary expansion project is available at: https://buildns.ca/healthcare/hiep/

    More information on other healthcare infrastructure projects: https://buildns.ca/healthcare/more-faster-the-action-for-health-build/

    News release – Major Healthcare Expansion Includes More Services, More Locations: https://news.novascotia.ca/en/2022/12/15/major-healthcare-expansion-includes-more-services-more-locations

    Action for Health: https://novascotia.ca/actionforhealth/

    Other than cropping, Province of Nova Scotia photos are not to be altered in any way.

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How medical treatments devised for war can quickly be implemented in US hospitals to save lives

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Vikhyat Bebarta, Professor of Emergency Medicine and Medical Toxicology, Pharmacology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

    Military medicine moves faster than traditional research. Tech. Sgt. Darius Sostre-Miroir/920th Rescue Wing

    For decades, military doctors faced a critical challenge: What’s the best way to safely and effectively deliver oxygen to patients in remote combat zones, rural hospitals or disaster-stricken areas?

    Oxygen tanks are heavy, costly and dangerous in combat zones. A direct hit from a missile or a bullet can turn a lifesaving resource into a deadly hazard.

    Marine Corps Gen. Ernest T. Cook once said, “Logistics is the hard part of fighting a war.” It goes beyond oxygen. For deployed U.S. troops, the supplies available during combat for treating wounded soldiers can mean the difference between life and death.

    The Department of Defense turned to us, military physicians and academic researchers in military medicine at the University of Colorado Center for COMBAT Research, to study whether the military needs to bring oxygen to the battlefield for soldiers – and, if so, how much.

    This approach to research is known as a military-civilian partnership. These partnerships aim to save lives on the battlefield. But they also save lives across the U.S. by turning military medical gains into better health care for all.

    Innovation and agility

    In the civilian world, it takes 17 years on average for a research discovery to change medical practice. One of the most well-known examples of this is the use of tranexamic acid for trauma patients. Tranexamic acid is injected to stop bleeding during surgery or after trauma. It was discovered in 1962 but not approved by the FDA until 1986. It wasn’t used for traumatic bleeding until 2012.

    The changing nature of war and threats against U.S. forces require military medicine to move faster. Injuries and infections in combat push researchers to find better ways to save lives, often faster than in civilian health care.

    Military medicine must move quickly to keep up with the pace of war.
    Contributor/Anadolu via GettyImages

    At the center, scientists work side by side with military medical teams to study, develop and test solutions tailored for the battlefield.

    Whether it’s addressing oxygen use, traumatic brain injuries, burn treatments or trauma care, these partnerships allow military and civilian researchers to translate discoveries into practice rapidly.

    Rethinking oxygen

    The immediate administration of oxygen to an injured or ill patient has long been a cornerstone of trauma and burn care. The logic seemed simple: When patients are in shock or have severe injuries, their bodies struggle to get enough oxygen, so doctors provided extra.

    Our research, and that of others, found that too much oxygen can actually be harmful. Excess oxygen triggers oxidative stress – an overload of unstable molecules called free radicals that can damage healthy cells. That can lead to more inflammation, slower healing and even organ failure.

    In short, while oxygen is essential, more isn’t always better.

    We conducted a series of military-civilian collaborative trials called Strategy to Avoid Excessive Oxygen, or SAVE-O2. We discovered that severely injured patients often require less oxygen than previously believed. In fact, little or no supplemental oxygen is needed to safely care for 95% of these patients.

    This finding challenges decades of conventional medical wisdom. It will reshape how medical professionals approach critical care in not only military settings, but civilian hospitals as well.

    Within a year of presenting our findings to military medical leaders, these insights have already influenced changes and updates to patient care guidelines, medic training and even decisions on medical equipment purchases.

    To build on our findings, we’ve launched a trial to study the use of artificial intelligence to automate oxygen delivery. This military-funded study could provide better care for wounded soldiers in remote combat zones and for injured civilians in ambulances or rural hospitals before they reach large referral and trauma centers.

    An oxygen mask that uses artificial intelligence could help medics in rural combat zones and rural U.S. hospitals.
    John Moore/GettyImages

    In rural or remote areas of the U.S., access to supplemental oxygen can be limited due to supply chain challenges, high costs and shortages. This is particularly true in small hospitals and affects first responders after a natural disaster or accident. In the intensive care units of these hospitals, using oxygen more efficiently could preserve limited oxygen supplies for patients who need it.

    Prolonged casualty care: A new frontier

    While researching oxygen needs in combat zones, we realized another pressing issue: the challenges of prolonged casualty care. During a conflict, military medics often need to treat critically injured soldiers for hours or even days before the wounded person can be evacuated.

    In a future conflict with a “near-peer” adversary such as China or Russia, the U.S. may not have the ability to evacuate wounded troops quickly. Without reliable helicopter or airplane transport, many casualties may not reach trauma care within the “golden hour.” This is the critical first 60 minutes after a severe injury, when rapid treatment is essential.

    The ongoing war in Ukraine illustrates the challenge of prolonged casualty care. In hospitals across Ukraine, doctors are increasingly having trouble treating the wounds of civilian and military patients because of rising antibiotic resistance.

    Future military conflicts in the Indo-Pacific regions will present similar challenges, including long patient transport times and concerns about wound infections due to prolonged casualty care.

    However, this challenge isn’t unique to the battlefield. Prolonged casualty care also happens in civilian crises. For example, during a natural disaster, emergency responders must manage patients without quick access to hospitals.

    Once patients are treated in the field or in disaster scenarios, providers must often sustain care with limited resources. They have to prioritize essential interventions, minimize resource use and stabilize patients for eventual transfer to higher levels of care.

    Innovation in health care thrives on collaboration. Military-civilian partnerships are one way to advance medical solutions faster and more effectively. These innovations save lives in combat, improve care and allow us to apply our 98% survival rate in war to our trauma centers, rural hospitals and disaster zones in the U.S.

    The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense (DoD), the United States Government, or any of its agencies. The appearance of external links or mention of specific commercial products does not constitute endorsement by the DoD.

    Adit Ginde receives research funding from the U.S. Department of Defense. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense (DoD), the United States Government, or any of its agencies. The appearance of external links or mention of specific commercial products does not constitute endorsement by the DoD.

    Arthur Kellermann previously served as dean of the school of medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. His views are his own and do not neccessarily represent those of the U.S. Department of Defense.

    – ref. How medical treatments devised for war can quickly be implemented in US hospitals to save lives – https://theconversation.com/how-medical-treatments-devised-for-war-can-quickly-be-implemented-in-us-hospitals-to-save-lives-247752

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI: Ataccama and Concord Partner to Accelerate Data Modernization in Regulated Industries

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    BOSTON, Feb. 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ataccama, the data trust company, today announced a strategic partnership with Concord USA, LLC (“Concord”), a leading technology consultancy, to tackle the complex challenges of data modernization in highly regulated industries. This partnership builds on Ataccama’s Solution Partner Program to support joint enterprise clients to accelerate data-driven digital transformation and deliver measurable business value.

    Many organizations struggle to achieve high-quality, trusted data due to siloes created by legacy systems and fragmented data environments. This creates unstructured, inconsistent data that complicates analytics. These issues are magnified in highly regulated sectors like healthcare and financial services where inaccuracies can have costly—even critical—consequences. For example, healthcare requires 99.9% data accuracy to support confident decision-making and meet stringent regulatory standards, far exceeding the 80% threshold acceptable in other industries.

    Ataccama’s unified data trust platform tackles these challenges by enabling organizations to catalog and classify their data, giving them clarity on its health and origin, and allowing them to improve the quality of their data by fixing all identified issues. With data cleansed, standardized, and consolidated into a single, trusted source of truth, organizations are empowered to make informed, compliant decisions and drive meaningful outcomes.

    Concord brings a proven track record in healthcare and financial services, specializing in digital transformation and seamless data migration for Fortune 500 clients. Together, Ataccama and Concord help organizations modernize data ecosystems, and achieve digital transformation with the confidence that comes from trusted, high-quality data.

    “Healthcare and insurance organizations face some of the most complex data challenges, from fragmented legacy systems to meeting stringent regulatory requirements,” said Florin Ibrani, Chief Executive Officer at Concord. “Our partnership with Ataccama better enables highly-regulated organizations to future-proof their data infrastructure and achieve the data accuracy and availability required to advance their modernization goals confidently.”

    “Data trust is non-negotiable in healthcare and insurance—where inaccuracies can have costly, even critical, consequences,” said Jessica Goulart, vice president of Partnerships at Ataccama. “Our solution partner program supports consultancies and system integrators to provide the implementation services to support our joint clients to implement the Ataccama unified data trust platform for data quality, catalog, lineage, observability and master data management. Through our partnership with Concord, we help organizations overcome their regulated industry challenges and advance their digital transformation initiatives to drive success.”

    For more information about the Ataccama Partner Program, visit the Ataccama Partner Hub.

    About Ataccama
    Ataccama is the data trust company. Organizations worldwide rely on Ataccama ONE, the unified data trust platform, to ensure data is accurate, accessible, and actionable. By integrating data quality, lineage, observability, governance, and master data management into a single solution, Ataccama enables businesses to unlock value from their data for AI, analytics, and operations. Trusted by hundreds of global enterprises, Ataccama helps organizations drive innovation, reduce costs, and mitigate risk. Recognized as a Leader in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Augmented Data Quality and the 2025 Magic Quadrant for Data and Analytics Governance, Ataccama continues to set the standard for trusted data at scale. Learn more at www.ataccama.com.

    About Concord
    Concord USA, LLC (“Concord”) is a next-generation technology consultancy focused on experience, data, and cloud engineering & modernization. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with supporting operations across the United States, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and India, Concord serves leading enterprises and innovators in the healthcare, technology, consumer, manufacturing, distribution, and financial services industries. With a unique combination of industry expertise, technology know-how, and project execution reliability, Concord helps customers unlock business value by solving their most difficult data and technology problems. For more information, visit concordusa.com.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Electronic muscle stimulators are supposed to boost blood flow to your legs – here’s what the evidence says

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By John Houghton, Clinical Lecturer in Vascular Surgery, University of Leicester

    vebboy/Shutterstock

    Google “improve leg circulation” and you may see sponsored ads for electronic muscle stimulators that claim to boost blood flow to your feet. But is there any evidence they work?

    Peripheral artery disease is a surprisingly common condition affecting more than one in ten people aged over 65 in the UK. Caused by narrowings and blockages in the arteries of the legs, it can lead to intermittent claudication – calf pain while walking – what the Dutch call “window-shopping legs”.

    Leg pain during walking significantly affects the everyday life of those with peripheral artery disease. It limits their ability to take part in social activities, daily tasks such as shopping and it may even impact on a person’s employment. Unsurprisingly, those with shorter pain-free walking distances report worse quality of life and major impacts on their mental wellbeing.

    Peripheral artery disease is not a benign condition. Five years from diagnosis, four in ten people will have died and another one in ten will have had a major leg amputation.

    So, the aims of treatment for peripheral artery disease are to reduce both the risk of heart attacks – the biggest cause of death – and progression to the end-stage of the disease where amputation is necessary unless surgery is performed to restore blood flow. The most important elements to optimal medical treatment are blood-thinning medications such as aspirin, cholesterol-lowering medications such as statins, and stopping smoking.

    For those with pain when walking the treatment with one of the biggest effects on walking distance and quality of life is, well… walking. The best results are seen in those who take part in a supervised exercise programme which has consistently been shown to be more cost effective than surgery for claudication. In fact, one large randomised trial demonstrated similar results from supervised exercise to stenting a blocked artery in improving walking distance and quality of life.

    Unfortunately supervised exercise therapy is only available to about half of UK peripheral artery disease patients despite it being recommended by Nice.

    What about electrical muscle stimulation?

    These devices work by using electronic impulses to cause the muscles of the calf to repeatedly contract. Usually this is by indirect stimulation through the feet using an electronic footplate, somewhat resembling a foot spa – although no water needed is used. These devices appear to be safe and well tolerated, with no adverse events reported.

    Studies have demonstrated they do indeed increase arterial blood flow in the calf, both in healthy people and in those with peripheral artery disease. However, these increases in blood flow are present only while using the device.

    A 2023 trial of 200 patients with peripheral artery disease assessed the effect of electrical muscle stimulation on walking distance. The study recruited half of the participants from centres with supervised exercise programmes and half from those without. All patients received optimal medical therapy.

    The researchers randomly allocated half of the participants to receive electrical muscle stimulation. These patients were given the device and told to use it for 30 minutes at least once a day for three months.

    After three months there was no difference in the maximum walking distance between those that did and did not receive electrical muscle stimulation.

    However, there was an improvement in walking distance in those that received electrical muscle stimulation in addition to supervised exercise therapy compared to those that received supervised exercise alone.

    Additionally, patients who received electrical muscle stimulation reported lower pain scores and better scores for the health domain in quality of life questionnaires – although they recorded no overall quality of life benefit. This demonstrates that while there may be benefit of the device on symptoms, it may only be small or experienced by a limited proportion of patients.

    Transcutaneous nerve stimulation (Tens) has also been used in people with peripheral artery disease. This uses weaker electrical impulses to stimulate nerve fibres and block the transmission of pain signals.

    A review of published studies highlighted that Tens may have some benefit in improving walking distance. The included studies were relatively small though and not all were randomised trials. This means the findings may not be just due to the effect of Tens or applicable to a wider group of patients.

    While these electrical stimulation devices show some promise, it is not clear if they are cost effective nor are they currently recommended in guidelines for treating peripheral artery disease.

    Certainly, some people with peripheral artery disease do report benefit from using these devices. But they should only be used in addition to the cornerstones of peripheral artery disease treatment: medication, stopping smoking and walking as much as possible.

    John Houghton receives funding from the George Davies Charitable Trust and the National Institute for Health and Care Research. He is the trainee representative for the Vascular Surgery Specialist Advisory Committee and is a member of the UK Labour Party.

    – ref. Electronic muscle stimulators are supposed to boost blood flow to your legs – here’s what the evidence says – https://theconversation.com/electronic-muscle-stimulators-are-supposed-to-boost-blood-flow-to-your-legs-heres-what-the-evidence-says-248340

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: LCQ13: Electric wheelchairs

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

         Following is a question by the Hon Rock Chen and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Ms Mable Chan, in the Legislative Council today (February 19):Question:     It is learnt that in recent years, more and more people with disabilities and elderly people with impaired mobility have chosen to use electric wheelchairs as a substitute for traditional manual wheelchairs. However, it has been reported that an electric wheelchair user collided with a motorcycle in July last year, arousing public concern about the safety of electric wheelchairs. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:(1) of the number of cases in which the Police (i) issued advice to electric wheelchair users and (ii) instituted prosecutions against electric wheelchair users for contravening traffic regulations in each of the past three years, as well as the respective reasons for issuing such advice and instituting such prosecutions;(2) as the Consumer Council has earlier on recommended that the Government tighten regulation of the use of electric wheelchairs, including limiting their maximum travelling speed, requiring users to take out insurance, etc, whether the Government will, in accordance with the Road Traffic Ordinance (Cap. 374), formulate regulations on the use of electric wheelchairs for outdoor travel (e.g. restrictions on the modification of electric wheelchairs, loading requirements, insurance requirements, fire safety standards, prohibition on the carriage of passengers, and maximum speed limits), so as to protect the safety of electric wheelchair users and other road users; if so, of the specific details and timetable; if not, the reasons for that; and(3) as there are views that pavements in many districts in Hong Kong are so narrow that electric wheelchair users may easily come into conflict with pedestrians due to competition for road space, whether relevant government departments will provide additional barrier-free facilities for electric wheelchair users when planning and constructing roads for new towns and new development areas in the future; if so, of the specific details and timetable; if not, the reasons for that?Reply:President,     Having consulted the Health Bureau, the Hong Kong Police Force (Police) and the Transport Department (TD) in respect of electric wheelchair, my reply to the various parts of the question raised by the Hon Rock Chen is as follows:(1) The Police does not maintain statistics on enforcement against electric wheelchair users.(2) Proper use of electric wheelchairs can help ensure the safety of both the wheelchair users and others. The allied health professionals of Hospital Authority (HA) hospitals, when prescribing electric wheelchairs, will teach patients how to use the wheelchairs safely and correctly according to the needs of individual patients. In addition, the Community Rehabilitation Service Support Centre under the HA provides systematic group training for electric wheelchair users so that they could familiarise the skills and attitudes of using the wheelchairs safely in order to cope with different situations including using public transport and public facilities and handling outdoor obstacles.     Under section 4(8) of the Summary Offences Ordinance (Cap. 228), it is an offence if any person, in any public place, drives recklessly or negligently or at a speed or in a manner which is dangerous to the public. As regards the Road Traffic Ordinance (Cap. 374), as it seeks to regulate road traffic and the use of vehicles, it is not suitable for further regulation of electric wheelchairs. Nevertheless, the TD will continue to help promoting the safe use of electric wheelchairs to enhance the safety of road users (including pedestrians).(3) It is the Government’s established policy objective to provide barrier-free environment for people in need (including manual or electric wheelchair users) with a view to enabling them to access premises and make use of the facilities and services therein on an equal basis with others, thereby facilitating them to live independently and integrate into the community.     In planning the pedestrian network in new towns and new development areas, the Government will fully consider the needs of pedestrians (including wheelchair users and other people in need), provide footpaths of sufficient width and set up appropriate pedestrian crossing facilities to enhance the travel experience of wheelchair users and other pedestrians.     The Government will keep in contact with organisations of persons with disabilities, and pay heed to their views on the circumstances which they encounter in the daily use of barrier-free access and facilities.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: LCQ20: Quality of lunch boxes of primary school lunch suppliers

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    LCQ20: Quality of lunch boxes of primary school lunch suppliers
    LCQ20: Quality of lunch boxes of primary school lunch suppliers
    ***************************************************************

         Following is a question by Dr the Hon So Cheung-wing and a written reply by the Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin, in the Legislative Council today (February 19): Question:      It is learnt that as most primary schools in Hong Kong are whole-day schools now, students of these schools have to have lunch at school, and many students eat lunch boxes pre-ordered by schools from lunch suppliers (pre-‍ordered lunch boxes). However, many parents have relayed that the quality of pre-ordered lunch boxes varies, and some students find them unpalatable or discard them just after having a few bites, causing worries about inadequate nutrition uptake in students. There are views that while requiring lunch suppliers to provide nutritious lunches, the Nutritional Guidelines on Lunch for Students published by the Department of Health provide no specific recommendations on the overall food quality of the lunches. On the other hand, it has been reported by Mainland media that many primary schools on the Mainland are equipped with their own canteens, providing students with lunches prepared by cooks on site that are both nutritious and delicious. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council: (1) whether it will consider formulating guidelines on the overall food quality of pre-ordered lunch boxes to ensure that students can enjoy lunches that are both nutritious and delicious; (2) in the past three years, whether it received complaints from parents about the food quality of pre-ordered lunch boxes; if so, how the complaints were dealt with; and (3) whether it will consider emulating the practice of some primary schools in our country and set up canteens at subsidised schools to provide students with nutritious and delicious lunches prepared on site? Reply: President,      The Government attaches great importance to healthy eating among children and has been encouraging schools to formulate a policy on healthy eating conducive to promoting students’ good eating habits and healthy lifestyle. Schools generally take into account factors like scales of suppliers, food quality and hygiene, prices, views of parents holistically when choosing school lunch suppliers.      In consultation with the Health Bureau, the Department of Health (DH), and the Environment and Ecology Bureau, our consolidated reply to the question raised by Dr the Hon So Cheung-wing is as follows: (1) The current Nutritional Guidelines on Lunch for Students was published by the DH in 2006 and has been updated ever since. The main objectives of the Guidelines are to ensure that primary and secondary school students can have nutritionally balanced school lunches that meet the needs of their growth and development, and serve as a reference for the quantity and quality of food as stipulated in the contracts signed between schools and lunch suppliers. The Guidelines also recommend the use of ingredients low in oil, salt, and sugar, and more natural ingredients, herbs, and spices to enhance the flavour of dishes, making lunches more appetising. The Education Bureau (EDB) has also issued circulars to call on schools to refer to relevant guidelines when arranging lunch for students and observe the principles of healthy eating such as the suggested ratio of grains, vegetables and meat in a lunch box, and reducing intake of fat, salt and sugar by students. Moreover, it was announced in the Chief Executive’s 2024 Policy Address that the Whole School Health Programme launched by the DH will be strengthened. Health reports will be compiled for each participating school to recommend targeted school-based health promotion measures, which will include diet arrangements focusing on nutrition, growth and development needs. (2) The EDB has been promoting home-school co-operation to encourage schools to explain to parents the schools’ policy on healthy eating and encourage parents to echo with schools’ efforts by guiding their children to consume food with high nutritional value and having the meals with them in order to help children develop healthy eating habits. Schools are also encouraged to engage parents in the discussion of lunch arrangements such as inviting them to join the lunch supplier selection team to formulate lunch requirements, selection criteria and marking scheme. Schools should also maintain communication with parents on the nutritional value and quality of the lunch provided, collect views from parents and students regularly and provide timely feedback to the lunch suppliers so as to jointly monitor and improve the quality of school lunch. If necessary, parents may prepare healthy lunchboxes for their children. From the 2022/23 school year up to January of the current school year, the EDB received a total of two complaints about the food quality of school lunch boxes from parents. The cases were found unsubstantiated after investigation.  (3) Given the different conditions and needs of schools, schools may opt for lunchboxes prepacked by lunch suppliers, or adopt on-site meal portioning as encouraged by the EDB. In on-site meal portioning, school lunch suppliers may cook rice and vegetables on-site and reheat other food (e.g. meat) at the school campuses. Schools built according to the EDB’s Schedule of Accommodation updated in 2009/10 are provided with a tuck shop-cum-central portioning area as part of the standard provision of school facilities for implementation of on-site meal portioning.

     
    Ends/Wednesday, February 19, 2025Issued at HKT 11:40

    NNNN

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: LCQ8: Guidance Notes on Prevention of Heat Stroke at Work

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

         Following is a question by the Hon Lam So-wai and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun, in the Legislative Council today (February 19):

    Question:

         The Labour Department (LD) launched on May 2 last year the revised “Guidance Notes on Prevention of Heat Stroke at Work” (GN) and introduced the optimised Heat Stress at Work Warning system. However, some labour unions have relayed that GN and the optimised measures are virtually non-existent (including the fact that some companies still do not arrange rest time or shaded areas for rest breaks for their employees), failing to help employees in preventing heat stroke. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

    (1) of the number of cases of heat stroke-related work injury cases registered at LD in the past three years; whether it has reviewed if the number of heat stroke-related work injury cases registered has decreased after the revision of GN; if it has reviewed and the outcome is in the affirmative, of the details; if the outcome of the review is in the negative, whether it has studied the reasons for that;

    (2) after the revision of GN, of the respective numbers of advice or warnings given by the authorities against employers who have not taken sufficient measures to prevent heat stroke; as the Secretary for Labour and Welfare indicated in a media interview in May last year that for employers who deliberately do not follow GN, the authorities will invoke the provision of general responsibility of employers under the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance (Cap. 509) to institute prosecutions, of the number of such prosecutions so far; and

    (3) of the specific timetable for reviewing GN; whether the authorities will consider legislating to mandate employers to conduct workplace heat stress risk assessment for their employees so as to further ensure the safety of employees; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

    Reply:

    President,
     
         My reply to the Hon Lam So-wai’s question is as follows:
     
    (1) The number of work injury cases related to heat stress in the past three years is listed below:
     

    Year
    2022
    2023
    2024

    Total number of cases
    16
    31
    29*

    * As some suspected cases are still under investigation, the number of cases in 2024 is provisional and subject to change based on the investigation outcome.

         The increase in the number of cases is probably related to the issuance of the “Guidance Notes on Prevention of Heat Stroke at Work” (GN) by the Labour Department (LD) in 2023 and the extensive publicity carried out in collaboration with the Occupational Safety and Health Council. The GN raised employers’ and employees’ awareness and concern about heat stroke at work, as well as their understanding that heat stroke at work can be considered and handled as work injuries, thus resulting in an increase in the reporting of relevant cases in 2023 and 2024.

    (2) In the summer of 2024, the LD conducted a total of 23 620 inspections related to risk control measures against heat stress and issued 1 031 warnings to relevant stakeholders. The warnings were mainly related to failure to conduct a heat stress risk assessment in accordance with the GN to ensure the implemented heat stroke preventive measures are appropriate and effective, failure to keep records of heat stress risk assessment, or failure to take adequate preventive measures to reduce the risk of heat stroke at work. We did not find any serious contravention in the period of inspection that warranted prosecution under the general duty provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance (OSHO). We believe that most employers recognise the need to prevent their employees from getting heat stroke at work and are willing to take necessary measures against heat stress in accordance with the recommendations in the GN.

    (3) In 2023, the LD issued the GN and introduced the Heat Stress at Work Warning (HSWW) based on the Hong Kong Heat Index to enable employers and employees to formulate, with reference to the GN and according to the heat stress level, appropriate and risk-based control measures to reduce the risk of heat stroke posed to employees at work.

         Taking into account the views of various stakeholders, the LD expedited the review in May 2024 with parts of the GN revised and strengthened in order to enhance the employers’ and employees’ understanding of the criteria and recommendations provided in the GN. At the same time, the HSWW system was optimised by linking its warning with the Hong Kong Observatory’s “Extremely Hot” special alert and adjusting the cancellation mechanism of HSWW further so that the re-issuance of warning within a short time after cancellation was significantly reduced in 2024.

         Under the general duty clauses of section 6 of the OSHO, every employer must, so far as reasonably practicable, ensure the safety and health at work of all the employer’s employees, including the provision or maintenance of a working environment and systems of work that are safe and without risks to health of the employees. Employers are required to conduct heat stress risk assessments for employees working in hot environment, and take necessary risk control measures based on the assessment results to prevent employees from getting heat stroke at work. The LD will conduct inspection and law enforcement work. In particular, inspection of workplaces with a higher risk of heat stroke will be stepped up during summer time to ensure that employers have taken appropriate measures to safeguard employees against heat stroke at work. If irregularities are found during inspection, relevant law enforcement actions will be taken based on the seriousness of the circumstances and the evidence available.

         We believe that the GN can raise the awareness and capacity of employers and employees in preventing heat stroke at work, and we will continue to conduct various publicity and promotional activities as well as education and training work to remind and assist them to take appropriate heat stroke preventive measures in accordance with the GN. Moreover, the LD will continue to perform inspection and law enforcement work to monitor the implementation of heat stroke prevention measures in high-risk industries and ensure that employers have taken appropriate measures to prevent employees from getting heat stroke at work.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: NASA Sets Briefings for Next International Space Station Crew Missions

    Source: NASA

    NASA and its partners will discuss the upcoming Expedition 73 mission aboard the International Space Station during a pair of news conferences on Monday, Feb. 24, from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
    Mission leadership will participate in an overview news conference at 2 p.m. EST live on NASA+, covering preparations for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 launch in March and the agency’s crew member rotation launch on Soyuz in April. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
    NASA also will host a crew news conference at 4 p.m. and provide coverage on NASA+, followed by individual crew member interviews beginning at 5 p.m. This is the final media opportunity with Crew-10 before the crew members travel to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch.
    The Crew-10 mission, targeted to launch Wednesday, March 12, will carry NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov to the orbiting laboratory.
    NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, scheduled to launch to the space station on the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft no earlier than April 8, also will participate in the crew briefing and interviews. Kim will be available again on Tuesday, March 18, for limited virtual interviews prior to launch. NASA will provide additional details on that opportunity when available.
    For the Crew-10 mission, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft will launch from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy. The three-person crew of Soyuz MS-27, including Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
    United States-based media seeking to attend in person must contact the NASA Johnson newsroom no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 21, at 281-483-5111 or at jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov. U.S. and international media interested in participating by phone must contact NASA Johnson by 9:45 a.m. the day of the event.
    U.S. and international media seeking remote interviews with the crew must submit requests to the NASA Johnson newsroom by 5 p.m. on Feb. 21. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online.
    Briefing participants include (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):
    2 p.m.: Expedition 73 Overview News Conference

    Ken Bowersox, associate administrator, Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington

    Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, NASA Kennedy
    Bill Spetch, operations integration manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program, NASA Johnson
    William Gerstenmaier, vice president, Build & Flight Reliability, SpaceX
    Mayumi Matsuura, vice president and director general, Human Spaceflight Technology Directorate, JAXA

    4 p.m.: Expedition 73 Crew News Conference

    Jonny Kim, Soyuz MS-27 flight engineer, NASA
    Anne McClain, Crew-10 spacecraft commander, NASA
    Nichole Ayers, Crew-10 pilot, NASA
    Takuya Onishi, Crew-10 mission specialist, JAXA
    Kirill Peskov, Crew-10 mission specialist, Roscosmos

    5 p.m.: Crew Individual Interview Opportunities

    Crew-10 members and Kim available for a limited number of interviews

    Kim is making his first spaceflight after selection as part of the 2017 NASA astronaut class. A native of Los Angeles, Kim is a U.S. Navy lieutenant commander and dual designated naval aviator and flight surgeon. Kim also served as an enlisted Navy SEAL. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of San Diego and a medical degree from Harvard Medical School in Boston. He completed his internship with the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. After completing the initial astronaut candidate training, Kim supported mission and crew operations in various roles, including the Expedition 65 lead operations officer, T-38 operations liaison, and space station capcom chief engineer. Follow @jonnykimusa on X and @jonnykimusa on Instagram.
    Selected by NASA as an astronaut in 2013, this will be McClain’s second spaceflight. A colonel in the U.S. Army, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and holds master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering, International Security, and Strategic Studies. The Spokane, Washington, native was an instructor pilot in the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter and is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland. McClain has more than 2,300 flight hours in 24 rotary and fixed-wing aircraft, including more than 800 in combat, and was a member of the U.S. Women’s National Rugby Team. On her first spaceflight, McClain spent 204 days as a flight engineer during Expeditions 58 and 59, and completed two spacewalks, totaling 13 hours and 8 minutes. Since then, she has served in various roles, including branch chief and space station assistant to the chief of NASA’s Astronaut Office. Follow @astroannimal on X and @astro_annimal on Instagram.
    The Crew-10 mission will be the first spaceflight for Ayers, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021. Ayers is a major in the U.S. Air Force and the first member of NASA’s 2021 astronaut class named to a crew. The Colorado native graduated from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs with a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a minor in Russian, where she was a member of the academy’s varsity volleyball team. She later earned a master’s in Computational and Applied Mathematics from Rice University in Houston. Ayers served as an instructor pilot and mission commander in the T-38 ADAIR and F-22 Raptor, leading multinational and multiservice missions worldwide. She has more than 1,400 total flight hours, including more than 200 in combat. Follow @astro_ayers on X and @astro_ayers on Instagram.
    With 113 days in space, this mission also will mark Onishi’s second trip to the space station. After being selected as an astronaut by JAXA in 2009, he flew as a flight engineer for Expeditions 48 and 49, becoming the first Japanese astronaut to robotically capture the Cygnus spacecraft. He also constructed a new experimental environment aboard Kibo, the station’s Japanese experiment module. After his first spaceflight, Onishi became certified as a JAXA flight director, leading the team responsible for operating Kibo from JAXA Mission Control in Tsukuba, Japan. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Tokyo, and was a pilot for All Nippon Airways, flying more than 3,700 flight hours in the Boeing 767. Follow astro_onishi on X.
    The Crew-10 mission will also be Peskov’s first spaceflight. Before his selection as a cosmonaut in 2018, he earned a degree in Engineering from the Ulyanovsk Civil Aviation School and was a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft for airlines Nordwind and Ikar. Assigned as a test cosmonaut in 2020, he has additional experience in skydiving, zero-gravity training, scuba diving, and wilderness survival.
    Learn more about how NASA innovates for the benefit of humanity through NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at:
    https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
    -end-
    Joshua Finch / Jimi RussellHeadquarters, Washington202-358-1100joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov
    Kenna Pell / Sandra JonesJohnson Space Center, Houston281-483-5111kenna.m.pell@nasa.gov / sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Undergraduate Students Get Medical Experience Through Unique Classes

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    UConn students who are interested in various medical careers are able to enroll in two innovative courses that provide them with clinical research opportunities unique to undergraduates.

    The courses are under the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and taught by Elizabeth Kline and Dr. Sharon Smith.  Kline is an assistant professor in molecular and cell biology and Smith is an affiliate professor at UConn Health and the associate program director of the pediatric residency program at Connecticut Children’s (CT Children’s) in Hartford.

    By name, the courses are Molecular and Cell Biology 3100 and 3189 and called the University Research Assistant Program (URAP). In practice, students taking these classes gain experiences that include an interactive classroom setting and real-life experience at CT Children’s.

    Students learn to approach and engage with patients and their families in the hospital for current research projects and often shadow physicians, residents, and medical students. Many UConn students develop and conduct their own capstone projects through these courses.

    Program participants have also presented their research at regional and national pediatric medical meetings, another rare opportunity for an undergraduate.

    The courses started with a simple email that Smith received from a UConn student about 20 years ago.

    “I was a new faculty member at Connecticut Children’s and I got an email from a student on the UConn campus,” says Smith. “She said she wanted to go to medical school and heard that I did research and she wanted to work with me. I told her she could but I could not pay her and did not have any grant money to offer her. She was able to do the work as an independent study and joined me on campus every Friday for a semester. She was awesome.

    “Then I got an email from two more UConn students with the same story, and I had them come and work with me and then my inbox got flooded.”

    The class became a formal University offering in fall 2008, and Smith has been impressed over the years by how motivated and interested the students are. She has used student feedback about what to teach and what they find helpful.

    The introductory class enrolls 12 students a semester, with many continuing with the senior course. Students can take this course several times and some transition into independent studies as seniors.

    “The students present the research projects they are working on to the rest of the class,” says Smith. “It might be a subject like increasing physical activity among children, or how to approach families in the hospital setting. We break out in groups in the classroom and discuss how to go through study documents and how to be motivational.”

    Students who take the classes have a lab requirement of working at CT Children’s four hours a week.

    “The students enroll people in research projects and actually learn how to knock on the door of a hospital room, introduce themselves, and develop what we call soft skills by working with patients and families,” says Smith.

    Smith says students also get to learn what life is like at nursing stations.

    “It is a real learning experience for them,” says Smith. “It helps them decide if they want to go on to medical or dental school or maybe do research, go on to a Ph.D. program, or become an advanced-level provider.

    “It’s a really cool class that I am very passionate about. The students get to do so many things. It’s a huge potpourri of research and ideas,” she adds.

    Almaas Ghafoor ’26 (CLAS) is a molecular cell and biology major from Monroe who is enrolled in these classes. She hopes to attend medical school.

    “I learned about these classes from a recommendation I received as a freshman in the STEM Scholars program,” says Ghafoor. “It’s a great way to get into research and work on my capstone project. We get some great shadowing opportunities and see what different departments of hospitals are really like.”

    “I really value interacting with the patients at CT Children’s. It’s different than practicing with each other in class. We get to see families that are going through so much and having an impact on them. It’s a very unique experience.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: UConn Opens ‘Moral Courage’ Metanoia Event to All Interested Community Members

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    UConn’s recent first day of Metanoia discussions were so thought-provoking and popular with participants that the follow-up event will be open to all interested members of the University community, rather than through invitation only.

    Professor Irshad Manji, founder and chief executive of the Moral Courage Network, visited UConn Storrs for a series of teaching and training events that began Feb. 5, including a keynote presentation livestreamed for all UConn community members.

    The second day of events was postponed on Feb. 6 due to inclement weather, but will now be held Feb. 25 with two sessions of screening the film “Mississippi Turning” and interactive workshops.

    Participants are asked to RSVP in advance on or before Friday through a form on the event website, which also includes a link to the recording of the Feb. 5 keynote address and more information on the five skills used in the Moral Courage method of engaging across divides.

    UConn invited Manji as part of embracing its tradition of Metanoia, in which members of the University community work together to examine difficult topics in a spirit of candor, respect, and collaboration.

    Manji, who is a New York Times best-selling author, works through her organization to unify people with the skills needed to communicate in a polarized world, which is among the areas of focus that prompted the University to launch its current Metanoia process.

    She teaches with the Oxford Initiative for Global Ethics and Human Rights and was a prize-winning leadership professor at New York University for many years. Her latest book is “Don’t Label Me: How to Do Diversity Without Inflaming the Culture Wars.”

    UConn observed its first Metanoia in 1970 and has convened more than a dozen in the years since then to examine issues of shared importance, often involving political or racial issues that have resulted in divisions on campus and throughout the nation.

    This year’s Metanoia, which organizers announced in spring 2024, came out of a need for the UConn community to better foster an environment of equity, inclusion, and understanding when engaging in challenging conversations, organizers said.

    Planning is currently underway for additional events and people are invited to suggest an event or program in keeping with the mission of creating pathways to productive and civil discourse.

    Like other campuses nationwide, UConn has been home to a wide range of views on hotly disputed topics in recent months and years. Against that backdrop, the University Senate called for the Metanoia in spring 2024 with approval from President Radenka Maric and Provost Anne D’Alleva.

    “This will be a time for the University to come together and delve deeply into important topics and concerns. It’s meant to be an intellectual spark for the entire university: for faculty, staff, and students,” Jennifer Lease Butts, one of the organizers, told the Board of Trustees in a presentation about the Metanoia.

    Lease Butts, who is also director of the UConn Honors Program and is associate vice provost for enrichment programs, co-chairs the University’s Metanoia Committee with UConn President Emeritus Susan Herbst, who is also a professor of political science.

    “The first Metanoia in 1970 was held during a period of great positive change in the United States, but it was also an era marked by violence, incivility, and fear,” Herbst said.

    “UConn faculty and staff, who have always been outward-looking and intent on social justice, tackled those issues right here in Storrs, inspiring students – and each other – to discuss difficult issues as one community,” she added. “Let us carry on this tradition in 2025, another extraordinarily challenging year for American democracy and culture.”

    The current Metanoia kicked off with a 2024 event, “Pathways to Productive Civil Discourse,” in which participants discussed ways to communicate across differences and listen with empathy, which will be underlying themes of events throughout the coming year.

    The event was followed later in the day “UConn Strong: A Dialogue on Mental Health & Resilience,” a Democracy & Dialogues Initiative event hosted by the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute, in which students led a discussion on the escalating importance of mental health on UConn’s campuses.

    The previous events epitomized the kind of thoughtful give-and-take that the yearlong Metanoia seeks to foster and set the tone for planning future events to take place, and Metanoia committee members say they look forward to continuing this conversation with the UConn community this semester.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: expert reaction to the announcement of the expansion of the OpenSAFELY data platform

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Scientists comment on the expansion of the OpenSAFELY data platform. 

    Prof Andrew Morris, Director of HDR UK, said: 

    “OpenSAFELY is an excellent example of what is possible when we get health data right with the confidence of patients, the public and health professionals. Access to comprehensive GP data across all of England is a great step forward for safe and approved research. GP data offers greater breadth and depth than hospital data, providing a detailed picture of people’s health over time. Many common conditions, like arthritis, depression and back pain are mostly managed by GPs, so this data is vital for research that can improve care for millions.  

    “The OpenSAFELY platform is one that proved its worth during the pandemic, giving us much needed knowledge about COVID-19.  It permits researchers to work with the information the data provides – while preventing them from accessing the data itself. Now by moving beyond COVID-19, researchers will be able to uncover groundbreaking insights that can improve the health and well-being of countless individuals. Significant challenges remain – the system is still evolving, with much work still to be done.  But as OpenSAFELY and other initiatives show, the UK has both the skills and the will to make it work.  

    “The UK has long been a global leader in health data research.  But to stay ahead, we must make coordinated investments in secure data infrastructure if data driven research is to power improvements in patient care, public health, NHS efficiency, clinical trials and enable medical discovery. This includes secure data sharing with flagship programmes such as Our Future Health, UK Biobank and Genomics England.”

     

    Professor Sir Rory Collins, Principal Investigator and CEO of UK Biobank, said:     

    “The expansion of OpenSAFELY should be welcomed as it enhances an innovative and useful tool for health researchers working on GP data. However, the most significant leaps in scientific discovery will come from comparing many different types of data simultaneously, and at scale. For example, the 20,000 researchers who use UK Biobank can analyse over 10,000 variables on many of our 500,000 volunteers, with whole genome sequencing being just one of those. 

    “It is this ability to study the genetic, imaging, lifestyle, secondary and – soon – primary care data in combination that is so vital for research. That’s why we’ve seen over 14,000 peer-reviewed papers published using UK Biobank data, including developments that should lead to better diagnostics and treatments for conditions such as diabetes, dementia and heart disease. 

    “GP data is a critical national asset, and both researchers and patients will benefit from this expansion. The next step is adding consented GP data to larger datasets, and we at UK Biobank are delighted to be working with NHS England to add the de-identified primary care data of our 500,000 volunteers.” 

    Prof Sheila Bird, Honorary Professor, University of Edinburgh’s College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine; and Visiting Senior Fellow at the MRC Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge, University of Cambridge, said:

    “Dr. (now Professor) Ben Goldacre, a physician by profession, was first to receive the Royal Statistical Society’s Award for Statistical Excellence in Journalism for his  Bad Science column in the Guardian.

    “Professor Goldacre, who authored the Goldacre Review in 2022 [1] is against Bad Science. But he is staunchly for properly-approved record-linkages which respect patient confidentiality: and his team at OpenSafely have worked, during SARS-CoV-2 and since, to deliver just that. The delivery is a work in progress, as the excellent video about OpenSafely makes clear. Hence, my comment is about elements of enhanced delivery.

    “First, as the Royal Statistical Society has argued for since swine-flu in 2009/10, the public  – and OpenSafely – need legislation to end the late registration of fact-of-death in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Only in Scotland, in our dis-United Kingdom, is fact-of-death registered, by law, within 8 days of death having been ascertained. OpenSafely for E&W urgently needs prompt and proper registration of fact-of-death which – for inquest deaths – is delayed by months or years [2].

    “Second, since one of five deaths aged 5-44 years in E&W is not registered for at least 6 months [2], ending the late registration of deaths is essential if we are to learn by OpenSafely’s research how to prevent or reduce premature mortality such as deaths due to suicide or addictions.

    “Third, analysts – including biostatisticians such as I – need to know in more detail about the random generators that OpenSafely uses for creating its pseudo-data, on which, as a biostatistician, I would develop and test my analysis routines. In particular, real data are often more complex in structure than statistical approximations to them in terms of their distribution (eg lognormal distribution assumed but the actual ln-data are not normally-distributed) or correlation structure. Analysts typically need to check assumptions on real data but may be writing checking-code based on approximations. For the checking-code to be incisive enough, analysts may need to understand in some detail the  “random generation” processes.

    “Fourthly, enhancements to OpenSafely may lead to important evolution in how some data are recorded by general practitioners. For example, when Gao et al. used record-linkage within Scotland’s  safe-haven to analyse the methadone-specific death-rate and other opioid-related deaths in Scotland’s Methadone Client Cohort (2009-2015)[4], we found that the available data were quantity of methadone prescribed (not daily-dose) and reimbursement date (not prescription end-date) because those quantities were the data needed to audit the reimbursement of pharmacists[5]. By contrast, guidelines on safe prescribing of methadone are written in terms of daily-dose!

    “Finally, the precautions built-into OpenSafely may mean that patients who registered objection to the use of their GP-data by care.data or the subsequent attempted grab during SARS-CoV-2 (which also failed) may wish to re-consider their objection. How does one do so?

    1. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/better-broader-safer-using-health-data-for-research-and-analysis
    2. Bird SM. Editorial: Counting the dead properly and promptly. Journal of the Royal Statistics Society Series A 2013; 176: 815 – 817.                                                                                                                                           
    3. Bird SM. End late registration of fact-of-death in England and Wales. Lancet 2015: 385: 1830 – 1831.             
    4. Bird SM. Everyone counts – so count everyone in England and Wales. Lancet 2016: 387: 25 – 26.                     Gao L, Robertson JR,
    5. Bird SM.  Scotland’s 2009-2015 methadone-prescription cohort: quintiles for daily-dose of prescribed methadone and risk of methadone-specific death. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 2020; accepted 12 June 2020; https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.14432.

    This was announced at an SMC Press Briefing, and was accompanied by a funding announcement from Wellcome. The embargo lifted at 11:30am on Wednesday 19th February. 

    Declared interests:

    Prof Andrew Morris “Andrew Morris is Director of Health Data Research UK, the national institute for health data science; is Professor of Medicine and Vice Principal at the University of Edinburgh; is President of the Academy of Medical Sciences, has minority (

    Prof Sir Rory Collins “I am CEO and PI of UK Biobank, which is a Charitable Company established as a Joint Venture by the MRC and Wellcome. I have been in that role since September 2005, seconded 60%FTE from the University of Oxford where I am Head of the Nuffield Department of Population Health (which, along with other research organisations globally, benefits from using the UK Biobank – without any preferential access – for health-related research that is in the public interest).”  

     Prof Sheila Bird “has 30-years of experience of confidential record-linkage; & leads for Royal Statistical Society on need for legislation to end late registration of fact-of-death in E&W and Northern Ireland.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –