The Major Incident Hospital of the Ministry of Defence and UMC Utrecht in The Netherlands hosted the Department of Energy’s International Medical Management of Radiation Injuries (I-Med) course that took place from 3 till 7 June 2024.

The I-MED Course is conducted for NATO and organized by the US Department of Energy / National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) in close cooperation with the NATO COE for Military Medicine. Radiation Major Incident Assistance Centre/Training Site (REAC/TS) Subject Matter Experts conduct the I-MED course and include a medical doctor, a trauma nurse, and a health physicist. REAC/TS is a DOE/NNSA asset and a world class leader in Major Incident medical response to radiological/nuclear incidents. REAC/TS is located at the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education in Tennessee, USA. 

The 26 students coming from Slovenia, Poland and The Netherlands received the training, which included lectures, demonstrations and exercises. Also hands-on activities that focused on treating patients from radiation injuries caused by exposure and/or contamination from radioactive materials were practised.

During the course, on Thursday 6 June 2024 the host nation had organized an interesting visit to the Dutch Defence CBRN centre. This CBRN centre is part of the Dutch National Training Center (NTC) and is located in Vught. The aim of the NTC is to train civil and military homeland organizations in CBRN related security tasks, both mono- and multi-disciplinary. Liaisons of civil partners (police, fire department and medical services) are embedded. This connected very well to the students, of which 53 percent were also part of Civil Organisations like Dutch Civil medical services etc. In the CBRN Centre “settings” are build where CBRN incidents are most likely to happen. So you can train in a biological laboratory, hospital, supermarket, restaurant, railway yard, illegal drugs laboratory, collapsed building, market square, a complete subway station and more. Using these settings the different phases (prevention, response, and recovery) of handling CBRN incidents can be trained by using a wide range of different scenario’s from leaking barrels during transport to illegal production of drugs, and from international terrorism to everyday incidents in and around homes, included simulated radioactive material. Not only the American instructors, but also the students found it very impressive what they could train in this well-equipped training centre.

The last day of the I-Med course was filled with a test, which was passed by every student, course evaluations and word of thanks. Thanks to the American team from Oak Ridge and Washington for providing the course and the efforts for making a long journey to Europe. And thanks to the host, the Dutch Major Incident Hospital, who not only hosted the course very well, including the excellent lunch arrangements, but also they took care of the very interesting and important visit to the Defence CBRN centre.

For more information about the I-Med course: please contact the NATO MILMED COE Training Branch Course Manager (train.eval@coemed.org) or Mr. Andrae Brooks (DOE/NNSA) at andrae.brooks@nnsa.doe.gov. If you are interested in addition training or would like to register for upcoming I-Med courses, please visit the NATO COE for Military Medicine Courses Calendar.