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Dr. Amado Alejandro Baez

MCG Center of Operational Medicine develops collaboration with FBI medical program

Dr. Amado Alejandro Baez, professor and vice chair of operational medicine in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia has been designated as the point of contact for a medical support agreement between MCG and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Atlanta field office.

In this role, Baez collaborates with the Atlanta office on medical training of agents and support of agents on tactical missions.

“The Medical College of Georgia Department of Emergency Medicine’s Center for Operational Medicine has had a long-standing relationship with the law enforcement community, and this program further solidifies that,” says Baez. “This program aims to further support the FBI Atlanta Operational Medicine program through training and other operational activities, so that we can support the FBI’s mission in Georgia.”

Baez, who is trained in both emergency medicine and trauma critical care, has been the director of the MCG Center of Operational Medicine since 2019, and is a recognized expert in prehospital, disaster and operational medicine. He has nearly 25 years of experience in law enforcement operations and austere medicine, the practice of medicine in environments where resources are scarce.

He helped found Harvard University’s Operational Medicine Institute while working as associate director of emergency medicine hospital services at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. Successful at getting Massachusetts State Police, Boston FBI and SWAT Teams, as well as EMS providers to train with them, Baez and his colleagues began running simulations of high-risk, mass casualty events like mass shootings and bombings. Years later when a bomb went off at the Boston Marathon, the response was optimal, he says.

During the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, Baez worked with Dominican Republic and Haiti officials to build two field hospitals that ultimately cared for around 5,000 people affected by the earthquake. His work was later recognized by the Dominican and Haitian governments and the Pan American Health Organization.

Baez earned his medical degree with honors from Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Ureña in Santo Domingo. Baez came to the United States in 1999 to earn master’s degrees in science in health care and in public health, both from New York Medical College. In 2002, he was accepted into the emergency medicine residency program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, finishing three years later as the first international doctor to train there. He completed a trauma critical care fellowship in 2006 at Harvard.

The MCG Center of Operational Medicine opened in 2003 with staff and instructors that include highly experienced emergency physicians, emergency management specialists, and paramedics with strong backgrounds in prehospital critical care, military and law enforcement special operations, disaster medicine, international humanitarian assistance and wilderness medicine.

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Written by
Jennifer Hilliard Scott

Jennifer Hilliard Scott is Director of Communications at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. Contact her to schedule an interview on this topic or with one of our experts at 706-721-8604 or jscott1@augusta.edu.

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Woman smiling Written by Jennifer Hilliard Scott

Jagwire is your source for news and stories from Augusta University. Daily updates highlight the many ways students, faculty, staff, researchers and clinicians "bring their A games" in classrooms and clinics on four campuses in Augusta and locations across the state of Georgia.

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