Cataloging wounds of war to help heal them

Each wounded or killed soldier was listed in a small but meticulous computer entry by Colonel Wirt, a doctor intent on documenting how soldiers were wounded or sickened, how they were treated and how they fared. For those seeking to understand war and how best to survive it, the doctor on his own initiative created an evidence-based tool and a possible model. But there are concerns that the potential lessons from such data could be lost, because no one has yet brought the information together and made it fully cohere. The amassed information on combatants over 10 years amounts to the most detailed data ever assembled on battlefield trauma and its care, American military officers say.