Medical Intelligence – MEDINT
Psychology hour
Dr. Leli
Recent events, such as the pandemic, the war, should be a wake-up call for society’s decision-makers to develop prevention and security measures. One of the measures that I will describe in the following lines is the activity of medical intelligence, which carried out in optimal terms, could have led to the avoidance of such a massive spread of the Covid pandemic. Therefore, by the term Medical Intelligence – MEDINT – we mean the activities of collecting, evaluating, analyzing and interpreting all medical information in a particular country or geographic region, which can prevent the spread of a pandemic on the one hand and which can affect the planning of a strategy. military, war or humanitarian and extended to health components, on the other hand. It is particularly interesting to know, for example, the medical skills of local health institutions, both civilian and military, in terms of the treatment of infectious diseases and the assessment of environmental risks in a city, country, region. It is also good to know how familiar these institutions are with the latest developments in computer diagnostic technology, biotechnology and the biomedical aspects of military importance.
In finding out about this information, the following things should be looked at, among other things:
● Hospitals – name, location, distance from ports, airports, other hospitals or military bases,
● Geographic location,
● Emergency units – number of beds, units for different types of victims,
● Capacity of laboratories, blood banks, intensive care units,
● Contact details – phone, e-mail,
● Transport capacity of the injured, number of ambulances,
● CV of the medical director, administrator, staff and their language skills (need for an interpreter),
● Number of doctors, nurses and support staff,
● Level of training of medical and surgical staff,
● Instrumental diagnostic capacity (X-ray, CT, MRI) and pharmacy,
● Payment methods for medical and healthcare staff,
● Contacts with embassies, consulates and other non-governmental agencies.
In order to find out such information, activities are needed, which overlap, in fact, with the development of any type of intelligence activity, as follows:
● Setting goals, selecting what you want to know,
● Targeted collection of information by establishing sources, frequency, control of information flow,
● Evaluation of the information obtained, selection of relevant or pertinent data,
● Information analysis, information comparison, logical reasoning,
● Preparation of written reports for decision makers.
In addition, it is necessary to monitor the level of application of medical knowledge and skills in relation to specific issues, such as the emergence and spread of new infectious diseases or the degree of environmental risk in connection with certain attacks such as bioterrorism or attacks. conventional nuclear or non-nuclear weapons. Normally, 70% of the information is collected from open source information, ie accessible to all, such as newspapers, books, publications, specialized websites. In the field of medical intelligence, the percentage can increase significantly in this regard, because speaking about scientific topics, access to the media is easier and scientific studies publications can be purchased or consulted more easily, unlike other sources or confidential documents. For example, access to infectious diseases can be found on the World Health Organization website.
The danger of the spread of infectious diseases with a wide spread must not be lost sight of. I present to you a scenario, which can become plausible at any time, so you have to pay attention to news, which is about genetic engineering applied to viruses responsible for some infectious diseases, such as smallpox. The smallpox virus is potentially a biological weapon, it is not used, because a large part of the world’s population is vaccinated. Being an infectious disease eradicated in the general population, the vaccine is no longer mandatory and children are no longer protected against this virus. However, the smallpox virus still exists in laboratories, is replicated and subjected to research studies. In 20 years, a large part of the population will no longer be protected and that is why it is essential that access to this virus be extremely restricted, so as not to fall into the hands of terrorists or to avoid accidentally escaping from the laboratory. Its artificial mutation, for example, through genetic engineering, would find the entire population, both civilian and military, exposed to immune protection and without the possibility of a vaccine, because it would be a new, unknown virus that requires time for analysis. It is a scenario that is quite similar to what we are experiencing in the midst of the Covid pandemic, which shows how close to reality such a scenario can be.
The emergence and spread of infectious diseases significantly affect the performance of the economy in the developing country and it is therefore essential to anticipate its effects on human mobility, economic flows and trends in the local market and currency. We are living in these moments now, when the devastating effects of the Covid pandemic, from a psychological, economic, financial point of view, make their presence felt and are doubled by the development of a war that threatens with a nuclear weapon. There is always a link between quality of life, social health and political, religious, ethnic conflicts, with very important economic implications. And so we can talk about strategic medical intelligence, which according to the definition provided by the FBI, covers all the activities of managing a situation of medical crisis, health resulting from a terrorist act or a voluntary or involuntary event. In a terrorist incident, crisis management can respond to the prevention, surveillance and tactical, negotiation, forensic and investigative activities, as well as other activities such as identifying, investigating, recovering and evacuating all persons involved or affected by the terrorist act. Planning to manage a medical and health crisis involves continuous monitoring of the health of the population and the rapid identification of target symptoms capable of triggering safety measures. In this sense, the creation of a network of sentries is crucial for the detection of unusual and abnormal behaviors. Medical intelligence is a much needed activity for a developed society.
