School of Aerospace Medicine Trains Teams for COVID-19

Medical professionals from the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM) are training medics at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, on the use of the Transport Isolation System (TIS) to move patients affected by COVID-19 aboard military cargo aircraft.

The TIS is an infectious disease containment unit designedto minimize risk to aircrew and medical attendants, while allowing in-flightmedical care for patients afflicted by contagions like COVID-19.

“Right now, in the midst of this global pandemic, we haveforces in harm’s way around the world,” explained Col. Leslie Wood, AirMobility Command (AMC) en route care medical director. “Because of therequirements of transporting personnel with infectious diseases like COVID-19,we can’t use our traditional methods of transport without risking the medicalcrew in the back of the plane, and the rest of the crew in the front. And, ifwe lose these crews, we lose operational capability.”

Training medical personnel on biocontainment care is theday-to-day job of both Lt. Col. Elizabeth Schnaubelt and Tech. Sgt. VictorKipping-Cordoba in Nebraska. Schnaubelt, USAFSAM infectious disease physician,and Kipping-Cordoba, USAFSAM public health technician, both work at the schoolhouse’s youngest Center of Sustainment of Trauma Readiness Skills location inOmaha, Nebraska, at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Schnaubelt isthe C-STARS Omaha director; Kipping-Cordoba, the non-commissioned officer incharge.

“We’ve been working closely with AMC on TIS training,”explained Schnaubelt. “It’s now being adapted for care and transport ofpatients with COVID-19. We’re here to help make those modifications. We’ve beenfully integrated with Nebraska’s COVID-19 response. Tech. Sgt. Kipping and Iare bringing a lot of those lessons learned from the medical center andadapting them to this mission of transporting patients with this highlyinfectious virus.”

The training, Kipping-Cordoba explained, is normally threedays. “We train on personal protective equipment (PPE) donning and doffingprocedures followed by waste management procedures and equipmentfamiliarization and inventory,” said Kipping-Cordoba. “During the training, theinfectious-disease team leads the disease and infection prevention and controlbriefings, all PPE donning and doffing and providing infection prevention andcontrol, clinical guidance, and risk management,” he said.

“We initially startedthe TIS program thinking of Ebola – and that was likely to be a one-to-twopatient movement. Very low volume of patients,” explained Wood. “So right now,we’re shifting that response completely to adapt to higher volume transport andmore enduring yield – so over the next several months as opposed to shorterdurations.”

“Responding to this pandemic is a whole-of-governmenteffort, so while we’re currently planning for our military forces, weunderstand that we could be asked by our senior leaders to move Americancitizens from around the world who might be stranded due to COVID-19,” saidWood. I’ll speak for all of us by saying—we stand ready.”