Colonel Edward Horvath Jr, MD - Good Medicine, Hard Times: Experiences of a Reserve Physician in Combat

COL (Dr.) Horvath is a veteran of the US Army Reserve Medical Corps, having served in three deployments to Iraq. He is an internal medicine physician specializing in occupational medicine and pulmonary disease. His first deployment to Iraq was at the age of 56 after a 26-year break in military service, having served as a U.S. Navy officer earlier in his career. He returned to the military, in part inspired by his two sons, whom both joined the Navy following 9/11. During his last deployment in 2011, he served as the Task Force Deputy Commander and Chief of Clinical Services for a combat hospital near Tikrit, Iraq, and was responsible for the medical care of over 20,000 U.S. soldiers in the northern half of Iraq. His civilian career has ranged from serving as the Medical Director for major corporations such as BP and General Electric to now serving as a primary care physician at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Cleveland.

In this episode, he discusses the role of Occupational Health and Preventative Medicine in war zones. He describes why he was drawn back to the military at the age of 56. We then dive into his clinical roles during his deployments and what it was like providing care for detainees at Abu Ghraib. We discuss how serving in the reserves differs from active duty and how he stayed clinically prepared to provide combat casualty care for each deployment. He discusses some of his most traumatic cases and how this has impacted his mental health upon returning. We discuss the challenges and opportunities of serving as the leader of a combat hospital for a yearlong deployment. We also learn about why mentoring is so important to him and how he fosters these relationships. He finishes by describing why he wrote a memoir about his experiences as a deployed physician titled “Good Medicine, Hard Times.”

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Listen to the “What We Are For” Episode 47. https://bit.ly/3r87Afm

Good Medicine, Hard Times: Memoir of a Combat Physician in Iraq by Edward Horvath available on Amazon- https://amzn.to/3A3I9jL

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