Journal of Special Operations Medicine

Because human are more important than hardware, the Journal of Special Operations Medicine (JSOM) was established by the Command Surgeon’s Office of the Special Operations Command in 2000 as a tool to improve quality of care by promoting education amongst the Special Operations Forces (SOF) medical personnel that encompass all branches and all ranks. Since that time, the JSOM has become an integral part of SOF medicine and is the preeminent journal for SOF medical personnel.

The JSOM transitioned to being privately published by Breakaway Media, LLC in April 2011. Michelle DuGuay Landers, who is now the publisher and editor, has been with the JSOM as its managing editor since its inception. The JSOM’s mission remains the same: to promote professional development by providing a peer-reviewed forum for the examination of the latest advancements in unconventional warfare medicine and provide worldwide identification and debate of medical issues that are relevant to SOF and Tactical Emergency Medical Support (TEMS).

Foster your Professional Development with the Journal of Special Operations Medicine

 The JSOM is the only quarterly peer-reviewed medical journal indexed in the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed that specifically addresses the Special Operations medical professionals work and allows a forum for universal SOF contribution and discussion. It is an official forum for professional discourse on global Special Operations medicine. The JSOM transcends the boundary between military and civilian medicine by bringing forth practical and sensible ideas and techniques to the civilian TEMS provider currently operating in a law enforcement environment.

The JSOM is one of very few venues for military SOF, civilian, and Department of Justice agencies with TEMS assets, to share knowledge and promote the very unique tradecraft they have trained so hard to be proficient at. The ability to identify, propose, and debate issues through professional writing is invaluable to the force of SOF medics worldwide, and to their professional development. The JSOM communicates to all SOF medical personnel – Peer-reviewed feature articles that are relevant to Special Operations medicine – Updates from the Command Surgeons, the Committee of Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) and TEMS – Special Operations training and education issues and initiatives – available continuing medical education (CME) offerings – as well as sections of Medic Recognition and Dedication to a fallen SOF Medic and much more.

The JSOM provides our readers with current information that saves lives on the battlefield, whether it is urban or abroad. The articles relate real world information that medical personnel can implement in real time to provide expert care and treatment to our forces, as well as to many of the host nations military that are trained by or accompany our SOF personnel. Many HN civilians also benefit from the diffusion of medical knowledge that the JSOM imparts.
Our readers say the JSOM is the most practical and popular journal in tactical, operational, and clinical medicine!

Training Supplement

Competent SOF cannot be created after emergencies occur. Therefore, the JSOM's annual Training Supplement was implemented by the United States Special Operations Command, Surgeon's Office in 2007 and is the Advanced Tactical Practitioners (ATP) checklist to emergent medical care. The guidelines contained in this supplement are created, compiled, and reviewed annually by the Curriculum and Examination Board, which consists of a combined group of Special Operations Forces (SOF) physicians, advanced tactical practitioners (ATPs), SOF medical personnel from all of the SOCOM component branches, and civilian medical personnel working to assure that our Special Operations personnel have the most highly trained medical care in the field. For quick reference in a lifesaving situation, the uniform pocket-sized Training Supplement contains the USSOCOM Tactical Trauma Protocol and the Tactical Emergency Medical Protocol for SOF Advanced Tactical Practitioners; Canine-TCCC; the Recommended Drug List (RDL), which covers the side-effects, adverse effects, contraindications/warnings, adult and pediatric dosages, and what protocols they would be relevant to; Burn and Nerve Charts, and the Military Acute Concussion Evaluation (MACE) Charts that are approved for use by the ATP.