If you could peer into your heart and know its hemodynamic wants and ills — would you like that sort of panopticonic monitoring — or would you prefer to just have your heart beat unwatched until it stops?


Hemodynamics monitoring — the way the heart pumps and circulates blood — is the latest wave in military medical technology:

The Multiple Casualty Assessment and Management System is a comprehensive, turnkey solution that incorporates NMT’s patent-pending Etag — a non-contact hemodynamic monitoring device – with wireless communication, display technology and advanced tactile sensors to simultaneously detect and monitor multiple casualties within 300 yards of a medic or first response team.

Remotely activated, the System monitors each individual casualty from point of wounding to casualty evacuation, and produces a necessary data record for follow-on casualty management. Further, the System provides a real time communications link with a rear tactical command center, enhancing command’s battlefield situational awareness and supplying meaningful ground intelligence for required logistical response and follow-on care.

Does this “remote monitoring” of vital statistics on the battlefield alarm us?

Are we disturbed at the loss of the art of the human hand in the dispensing of medical attention as ungloved hand touches exposed human flesh — or is the remoteness of this new hemodynamic monitoring just what we need to save more soldiers so we can more quickly replace them back on the field of duty?