| Welcome  Each February we recognize Heart Healthy Month, and focus our attention on the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Coronary heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, responsible for more than 400,000 deaths annually.
While we have made tremendous progress in the treatment of high cholesterol and high blood pressure, America now faces an epidemic of obesity with 30 percent of adults being obese. The fitness programs of our military services provide a tremendous foundation for cardiovascular health and weight management. Using lessons learned from these fitness programs, we should serve as fitness ambassadors for our dependents, retired beneficiaries, and other members of our communities. We must also continue to focus on smoking cessation. Smoking triples an individual’s risk of a heart attack, and smokers generally have heart attacks at a younger age than nonsmokers. This can lead to significant physical limitations for these individuals, who are often in the prime of their lives. What can you do to reduce your risk of heart disease? Visit the MHS’s Heart Healthy landing page for resources on maintaining your heart health. Additionally, the American Heart Association’s “Life’s Simple 7” is an invaluable tool that identifies risk factors for heart disease and teaches effective ways to reduce your risk. Enjoy this issue of MHS Vital Signs! Scott A. Moore, Lt Col, USAF, MC
Chief of Cardiology, Wilford Hall
Medical Center
Lackland AFB, TX February Is Heart Healthy Month!  Don't gamble with your heart! February is Heart Healthy Month and the Military Health System wants you to "heart" your heart. Heart disease and stroke combine as the number one killer worldwide, and more than 17.5 million individuals are currently living with coronary heart disease. Know your risk! Risk factors for heart disease and stroke include high blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels, smoking, inadequate intake of fruits and vegetables, obesity and physical inactivity. Taken together, these factors account for about 80 percent of deaths from heart disease and stroke.. To evaluate your risk for heart disease, contact your health care professional and develop a plan to reduce your risk for heart disease and stroke. For tips and resources, visit www.health.mil/hearthealthy. Warrior Care Spotlight
Changes in Traumatic Brain Injury Assessments Will Lead to Faster Treatment Changes to in-theater mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) clinical practice guidelines are expected to be released in the coming weeks, drastically altering the system, from a symptom-based approach, to an incident-based approach. New guidelines will require that personnel involved in certain types of incidents – including being involved in a severe vehicle accident, being within 50 meters of a blast, anyone that sustains a direct blow to the head or loss of consciousness, and command directed referrals – must be screened. The new guidelines will also change how recurring concussions (also known as mild TBI) are treated in theater. "There is an emerging body of evidence that we've seen from some NFL [National Football League] studies that indicate cumulative affects of recurring concussions over time,” said Col. Michael Jaffee, national director of the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center. "The NCAA studies suggested increased risk with three or more, but more evidence is needed to better inform and modify our practice." Read more. TRICARE Leader Explains Plans for the Future  To balance increasingly complex responsibilities at home and overseas, the Military Health System has adopted the Quadruple Aim model of care, Rear Adm. Christine Hunter, deputy director of the TRICARE Management Activity, told a standing-room only crowd of military medical leaders on Jan. 28. The Quadruple Aim, she said, supports readiness, population health, a positive patient experience, and responsible management of health care costs. Read more.
Embrey Closes 2010 MHS Conference Stressing the Commitment to Care  Ellen P. Embrey, formerly performing the duties of the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, closed the 2010 MHS Conference with remarks reflecting on more than 30 years of federal service. Above all, she stressed that the most important priority for the entire MHS is to provide the utmost quality care to soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines throughout the system.
"Their care [must be] representative of their sacrifice," said Embrey. She specifically thanked each lecturer – including senior military advisors, private-sector leaders and academics at the forefront of their research – for helping the MHS achieve that goal. "My takeaways from this week, can be boiled down to three things: relevance, recognition and renewal," said Embrey. Read more. Research Roundup  Research, medical publications and articles from peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals are a vital part of the Military Health System. Each month, MHS Vital Signs highlights notable research being conducted by the MHS and its counterparts. Study Shows Deployments’ Impact on Army Wives Army wives whose husbands deploy seek mental health services at a higher rate than others, and the longer the deployment, the greater the impact, according to a new study. Researchers from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, RTI International and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill conducted the study published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine. Study investigators compared the rates of mental health diagnoses and use of mental health services between wives whose husbands had deployed with those whose husbands hadn't deployed, using a sampling of about 250,000 active-duty Army wives, ages 18 to 48. “We found a distinct pattern,” said Army Col. (Dr.) Charles Engel, a study co-investigator and associate chair of psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. “The wives of service members who deployed … used more services when they had a diagnosis and more frequently received mental health diagnoses than those wives whose husbands didn’t deploy.” Read more. Environmental Health Exposure Continues to Threaten Service Members in Theater  Environmental health exposures pose a major threat to service members in theater. While specific threats such as particulate matter, burning trash pits, pollution, and toxic industrial chemicals seem to be a normal part of in-theater living, the long-term health risks that transpired have caught the attention of the military, congressional, and medical communities. At the 2010 MHS Conference, Dr. Craig Postlewaite, acting director of Force Health Protection and Readiness Programs, explained that much of the data gathered from Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom exposure records are still inconclusive. With all of the research that has been conducted, professionals have derived a number of lessons learned. “Health care providers should be knowledgeable of occupational and environmental health (OEH) threats and updated on location-specific changes during deployment,” said Postlewaite. Base camp health assessments should also be completed when the base camp is established. Other lessons learned show that health care providers must document possible and confirmed exposures in service members’ medical records, investigating, reporting, and documenting all OEH and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) exposures. Read more. Women Often at Higher Risk for Heart Disease Than Men  In a Dot Mil Docs podcast, Air Force Maj. Heather Johnson and Dr. Diane Seibert discussed heart disease in women and different methods of prevention.
Johnson is a family nurse practitioner and an assistant professor in the Family Nurse Practitioner Program at the Uniformed Services University. Seibert is a certified menopause clinician, women’s health nurse practitioner and adult nurse practitioner. She is also an associate professor at the Uniformed Services University. Click here , to listen to Johnson and Seibert address risk for heart disease in women, and ways to modify that risk. Did You Know?  Hot off the press and filled with helpful tips and information, the newest TRICARE Standard and Extra Handbook is now available to all TRICARE Standard beneficiaries.
The 68-page handbook includes information on accessing routine, urgent, and emergency care, as well as TRICARE’s prior authorization and referral requirements. The handbook also explains what’s covered by TRICARE Standard’s health and pharmacy benefits, and how to coordinate TRICARE with other health insurance. The handbook also covers claims, appeals, grievances, reporting fraud and abuse and much more. Read more. IN and OUT: Comings and Goings in the MHS  IN:  Allen W. Middleton is performing the duties of the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. He also serves as acting director of TRICARE Management Activity.
Middleton was previously acting principal assistant secretary of defense for health affairs and principal deputy director of TRICARE Management Activity.  William T. Bester is the acting principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. Bester also serves as the principal deputy director of TRICARE Management Activity.
Prior to taking his current position, Bester was at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, where he served as vice president for distributed learning and acting vice president for external affairs.
The Military Health System (MHS) is a unique partnership of medical educators, medical researchers, and health care providers and their support personnel worldwide. The MHS is prepared to respond anytime, anywhere with comprehensive medical capability to military operations, natural disasters and humanitarian crises around the globe, and to ensure delivery of world-class health care to all DoD service members, retirees, and their families. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or manage your e-mail subscription options, including your preference for text or HTML formatted e-mails, click here. |