Who we are

Initiating Health Equity….

in the most austere environments in the world

Austere Medical Initiative was founded in 2017 and is focused upon providing medical training, supplies, and development support to international communities that are underserved and impacted by environmental change and conflict. Our initial missions focused upon the Kurdistan region. Currently we are working on projects in the Balkans, Middle East and Continental United States.

AMI actively seeks the austere settings where public health is most challenged by low resources and minimal support. Our interest is finding novel modalities to produce success where high resource allocation has been shown to be of low benefit or deemed not possible.

For more information, please contact us through our form below.

Training in Austere Settings

Train the trainer is not enough. AMI works to leverage cultural advantages in austere settings to produce novel organizations that have a higher resilience than simply porting western operations to .

Operational Analysis

Low resource care requires adaptive organizational change. AMI seeks to reduce overhead in emergent crises through complex systems analysis and human network mapping. We focus on the power of dynamically organized mutual aid integrated networks and how accessing these cohorts can assit the larger scope of recovery.

Organizational Development

Crisises in austere environments will often amplify problems that occur due to stratification. AMI gathers stakeholders and highlights infrastructure design to reduce disparity in emergency response.

Community Education

Skills training is one component of resilience development. Multifactorial education with an focus on solidifying dynamic networks that form during times of major disruption.

Portfolio

Evidence based practice from the field.

We use on site learning and rapid site/situation analysis to develop inclusive adaptive programs that work within the milieu of the cohort we are assisting. At AMI we often say “Culture is the key” with the understanding that most of not all of the communities we reach out to, possess unique and powerful strengths that can facilitate the goals all stakeholders are seeking.

Through discovering and amplifying these strengths, we find pathways forward that are novel solutions to problems that are often seen and insurmountable.

Past successes

Low-Resource Tactical Combat Casualty Care Training for Peshmerga Units in Remote Areas of Kurdistan
Taylor D, Murphy J, Stolley Z 19(1). 81

The Peshmerga are the official military of the autonomous region of Kurdistan, Iraq. There remains a high level of variability across Peshmerga units in medical equipment and training. Presumably, Peshmerga soldiers are dying from preventable causes of death due to combat-related injuries, just as US troops did before the introduction of Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) training and supplies. This report outlines the efforts of a small US-based collective to provide TCCC training at the TCCC for all combatants skill level to Peshmerga forces and develop members of the Peshmerga as trainers.

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Current interests

Micormobility emergency response in major disruptions

One of our current projects involves connecting resource islands during major distruptive events. Exploring the work of Chen, Wong, Idziorek and others we are exploring logistics of micromobility teams in major long term disruptions.

Working with the human networks that form during disruption events, we are interested in exploring connectivity when resource restrictions limit normal transportation methods.

We are currently working with a micromobility project our of UNC to explore the different ways that resource and communication corridors can be maintained.

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