The Imperial Medical Corps was a division within the Imperial Military of the reconstituted Sith Empire that was charged with the medical treatment and care of the Imperial forces—though like much of the Empire, the Corps discriminated against those who were not Human or pureblood Sith. The division was deployed on both active battlefields and conquered planets, and the Corps fell under the jurisdiction of the Sphere of Biotic Science and the member of the Empire's ruling Dark Council who controlled that Sphere of Influence within the Empire.
The Imperial Medical Corps was a division of the Imperial Military of the reconstituted Sith Empire. As they dealt with the medical and biological treatment and services of the Empire, the Medical Corps fell under the control of the Sphere of Biotic Science—one of the twelve Spheres of Influence that were each controlled by one of the members of the Empire's ruling Dark Council. However, after the Sith Empire was reorganized following the collapse of the Eternal Empire, the Sphere of Biotic Science and the Sphere of Technology were both folded into a single Sphere of Scientific Advancement. The Corps's members oversaw medical care for the Empire's soldiers, and its medical droids were stationed on planets throughout the galaxy to provide medical care to all of the Empire's forces and allies.
The Imperial Medical Corps was founded well before the end of the Great Galactic War with the Galactic Republic, and members of the Corps accompanied the Imperial Military's invasion fleet when the Sith Empire attacked the Republic's capital planet Coruscant in 3653 BBY. After the Sith Lord Darth Malgus and his strike team successfully attacked the Jedi Temple and destroyed Coruscant's defense grid, Malgus ordered his subordinate Adraas to summon a medical team from the medical ship Steadfast. The team brought along several medical droids and gurneys with them to treat the injured members of the Sith strike team, and Malgus overrode their restrictions regarding the treatment of aliens in order to force the doctors to treat his Twi'lek lover, Eleena Daru.
An Imperial medical droid
In the years following the attack on Coruscant and the subsequent signing of the Treaty of Coruscant, which ended the Great Galactic War, the Medical Corps continued to serve alongside the rest of the military on the planets that the Empire had conquered during the war. Among such worlds was the planet Sullust, and during the Cold War that followed the Great Galactic War, the Republic xenopathologist and combat surgeon Archiban Kimble—better known as Doc—infiltrated the Corps on Sullust and posed as a member for a short time.
Medical personnel were also stationed on the Imperial space station above the toxic planet Quesh, where they required new arrivals to submit Form 1423-D in order to qualify for inoculation and be allowed to travel to the surface. Medical officers also supplied aid to the Empire's allies, with personnel such as Officer Willem providing support to the Imperial-aligned House of Thul on Alderaan during the planet's civil war.
As members of the Imperial Military, Corps personnel were fully trained for combat despite the fact that they were rarely involved in actual fighting. Their uniforms were white or gray robes with blue or red accents, and they carried cases of medical supplies. Corpsmen were often accompanied by silver medical droids. These droids were also stationed across the galaxy on both Imperial and contested worlds, and they offered medical aid and services to all Imperial and Sith personnel in addition to allies of the Empire. The Corps' policies were a reflection of the anti-alien sentiment present in the rest of the Empire, as Imperial medical facilities and services were restricted to Humans or pure-blooded Sith unless ordered otherwise.
The Imperial Medical Corps first appeared in the novel The Old Republic: Deceived, released on March 22 2011 as a tie-in to Star Wars: The Old Republic, a BioWare video game which was released on December 13 of that year.
- Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia