Conclusions
The EHET concept afforded deep insight by team members into ways to partner with their hosts to target better health outcomes and meaningful partnership for potential long-term geopolitical impact. Long duration embedded teams, or recurrent insertion, in a single location will achieve greater long-term benefits because of greater health system and cultural understanding. EHETs, once accepted and refined from prototype to standard employment tool, should prove to be a more effective tool in building partnerships, building capacity, and increased security cooperation by using US military resources to support legitimate health needs either in a military-military or military-civilian setting.5 These firsthand accounts provide preliminary evidence that embedded teams may be a critical and needed tool to “ensure that military health engagement is appropriate, constructive, effective, and coordinated with other actors.”6
Acknowledgments
Additional original EHET team members included LCDR Jeanne Jimenez, RN; CDR Francine Worthington, Health Administrator; Maj Tony McClung, RN; Mrs. Romero, RN of LDS Charities, and the staff of the Chacarita clinics in Costa Rica.
