What are the specialty areas?

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The specialty areas of the Operational Medicine Alliance are the following.

Dive and Water Rescue Medicine	Medical support to rescuers and victims during diving and water rescue operations. These operations include events such as swift water rescues, dive rescues, recovery of evidence and property using SCUBA, and operating in a water environment such as from a boat or aircraft. Specific operational issues involve environmental conditions, water current hazards, decompression sickness, drowning, and exposure to toxic water or injurious plants and animals in the water.
Explosive Ordnance Disposal Operations Medical Support	Medical support to bomb technicians and explosive ordnance disposal technicians during operations. Special issues in this operational setting include heat illness; chemical, biological, and radiological exposure; and blast injury. Development of communication strategies, patient extrication techniques, and medical threat assessment plans are crucial to prevent injury and illness when possible.
Fireground Medicine	This specialty involves deployment of medical resources to support the fire suppression and mitigation mission of fire fighters at the scene of an active fire. The important issues at the scene include rest, rehabilitation, medical monitoring and exposure control, whether from environmental exposures or hazardous materials exposure.
Flight Medicine	Aeromedical transport systems require specially trained providers able to operate both outside of the aircraft as well as during transport. Prehospital care, critical care medicine, and flight physiology are all important aspects of the knowledge base for these providers.
HazMat Operations Medical Support	During hazardous materials operations, personnel will wear protective gear to minimize exposure to the hazardous materials. This personal protective equipment can increase environmental exposure concerns related to heat and cold, increases metabolic demands, and limits communication. Rest and rehabilitation cycles as well as medical monitoring are important tools during these operations.
Mass Gathering Medical Support	Providing medical care at the scene of large crowds and gatherings of persons is a unique challenge in EMS. Medical care often is centered around heat or cold illness or dehydration, but injuries and unexpected medical events also occur including intoxications. Depending upon the type of venue, transport off-side may be delayed or treatment and dispostion may occur at the scene without requiring transport off-site.
Medical Direction	Medical oversight and direction of on-scene providers encompasses several unique aspects of medical care including education, pre-planning, preparations, on-scene oversight or oversight by radio or telephone communications. Quality improvement processes also are important so that care can be improved to the population of patients served by the EMS providers.
Tactical Medicine	Law enforcement operations present unique challenges to the standard EMS care normally available. Hostage/barricade events, active shooting, crime scene preservation, and use of riot control agents require the presence of law enforcement and make the scene hazardous for any medical providers in the inner perimeter or "hot zone." Bridging the gap between standard EMS response and the inner perimeter requires an approach that minimizes time delays but prevents unnecessary exposure to injury.
Urban Search and Rescue Medicine	Providing medical care to the USAR team as well as to injured or ill victims requires unique skills and the ability to function during disasters and catastrophic events.
Wilderness Medicine	Medical care in back country, mountain sides, and other outdoor environments distant from municipal ares. Challenges include transport, environmental exposures, and high altitude illness.

Members of OMA can search for information from any of these specialty areas. Members can also upload content for other members, ask questions in forums, and read articles written by experts in these specialty areas. As a member of OMA you can learn more about each of these imporant fields of operational medicine.

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