BK 2023 seeks ways to be more interoperable, more collaborative

From the Manila Times (Apr 30, 2023): BK 2023 seeks ways to be more interoperable, more collaborative

THE Philippines and the United States have a strong, diverse medical force. For these two countries, it is great to get themselves together where they can identify their collective strengths and opportunities for improvement which can be accelerated together as partners.

At the recent Balikatan 23: Health Service Support-Senior Leadership Symposium held at The Westin Manila, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Surgeon General Col. Fatima Claire Navarro said, "As a family, we can work together on doing our readiness components interoperability and collaboration."

"One of the important highlights was the senior leaders' symposium, where we get to share our ideas and best practices as well as learn from each other so that we can be more effective as leaders in operating our health service support," Navarro added.

BK 2023 presents a real opportunity to understand each other better, to form those relationships and to really integrate as a joint force between two important allies here in the Pacific.

"Slowly, we are also on the road of improving our facilities infrastructure, enhancing our training and the capacity of our personnel," Navarro said.

This has been put as part of the AFP transformation roadmap, she said. "And that direction is for us to really empower our personnel in terms of training, to also develop our infrastructure, etc. We can do that if we have the people who know what needs to be done."

With his fellow component surgeons, US Pacific Fleet Surgeon Capt. Michael McGinnis said, "We can work shoulder to shoulder in the spirit of Balikatan, better understanding each other's forces, our capabilities, and how we can better support each other as allies and partners."

Commanding General of the 18th Medical Command Maj. Gen. Paula Lodi said having the symposium in conjunction with Balikatan really helps take their thinking to a place where they would be able to operationalize that thinking on the ground at the tactical level.

https://www.manilatimes.net/2023/04/30/public-square/bk-2023-seeks-ways-to-be-more-interoperable-more-collaborative/1889220