AFRRI Brings MEIR Course Expertise to Thailand for Cobra Gold Exercise

Staff members from the Uniformed Services University’s Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) traveled to Thailand to teach the Medical Effects of Ionizing Radiation (MEIR) course to members of the Royal Thai Navy.

COL Lien Senchak (left) and LT Keith Ober (right) of AFRRI take in a brief with Capt. Suchet 

Takdhada (center), Deputy Director of Abhakornkiatiwong Hospital. (Photo courtesy of AFRRI)

June 11, 2024 Submitted by AFRRI

For more than four decades, Exercise Cobra Gold has been the longest-running multinational military exercise in the world. Recently, staff members from the Uniformed Services University’s Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) traveled to Thailand to teach the Medical Effects of Ionizing Radiation (MEIR) course to members of the Royal Thai Navy as part of this event. Established in 1982 between the United States and Thailand, Cobra Gold has involved 30 partner nations over its history, including seven full participants within the United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM).

Army Col. Lien Senchak, Office of Strategic Operations at AFRRI, and Navy Lt. Keith Ober, MEIR chief, spent three days teaching the course at Somdech Phra Pinklao Naval Hospital in Bangkok.  Sixty-two certificates were awarded, and the Royal Thai Navy has already requested to host the course again in 2025 with AFRRI faculty participation, this time at Abhakorn Naval Hospital in Sattahip.  

Col. Lien Senchak (right) receives a Royal Thai Navy ballcap from Rear Admiral Wasutha 

Khaykhaew, Director of Somdech Phra Pinklao Hospital (Photo courtesy of AFRRI)

The MEIR course is managed by the AFRRI Military Medical Operations department.  They maintain three teams of instructors consisting of one radiation-trained physician and one health physicist.  The course can be requested by various entities such as US and allied uniformed services, DOD and government agencies, and others upon direction.  Once completed, students earn 40 continuing medical education credits from the course.  Among the topics, students are instructed in Fundamentals of Radiology, Current Threats, Radiation Biology and Dosimetry, Medical Management, and Accident Response.  

AFRRI established the MEIR course, originally known as the Medical Effects of Nuclear Weapons, in May 1979.  For more information on MEIR course, please visit https://afrri.usuhs.edu/meir-course.