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Health Readiness

The Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for Health Readiness Policy and Oversight is the principal staff assistant and advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) for all medically related Department of Defense policies, programs, and activities. The office is responsible for deployment medicine, force health protection, medical readiness, international health agreements, deployment related health policy, theater information systems, humanitarian and health missions, and national disaster support.

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Say ‘Shoo’ to the flu with TRICARE

Article
9/26/2018
Amanda LaFountain, a licensed practical nurse, administers the flu shot to a Soldier. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Marshall Metzger)

Flu viruses are serious, contagious viruses that can lead to hospitalization or even death

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Health Readiness | Immunization Healthcare | Public Health

HPV

Infographic
9/24/2018
HPV

Genital human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the U.S., and is the second most frequently diagnosed STI in U.S. military service members. Currently, HPV is not a mandatory vaccine for U.S. military service. However, it is encouraged and offered to service members.

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Health Readiness | Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch | Epidemiology and Analysis | Medical Surveillance Monthly Report | Public Health

Drowning

Infographic
9/24/2018
Drowning

Service members are at risk for unintentional drownings during training, occupational activities, and off-duty recreation. In the U.S., unintentional drowning ranks as the fifth leading cause of unintentional injury death and accounted for an average of 3,558 deaths (non-boating related) annually between 2007 and 2016. The current analysis extends ...

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Health Readiness | Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch | Epidemiology and Analysis | Medical Surveillance Monthly Report | Public Health

HIV

Infographic
9/24/2018
HIV

As part of the U.S. military’s total-force HIV screening program, civilian applicants for military service are screened for antibodies to HIV during pre-accession medical examinations. Infection with HIV is medically disqualifying for entry into U.S. military service. Since 1986, all members of the active and reserve components of the U.S. Armed ...

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Health Readiness | Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch | Epidemiology and Analysis | Medical Surveillance Monthly Report | Public Health

MHS Minute September 2018

Video
9/21/2018
MHS Minute September 2018

Interested in hearing about some exciting events that took place around the Military Health System last month? Tune in to the MHS Minute to learn more!

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Health Readiness

Spine surgery team adds capability, improves readiness

Article
9/11/2018
Air Force Col. (Dr.) Edward Anderson, 99th Medical Group orthopedic spine surgeon, performs a lumbar microdiscectomy surgery at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. A lumbar microdiscectomy surgery is performed to remove a portion of a herniated disc in the lower back. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Andrew D. Sarver)

The benefits of performing complex surgeries in the orthopedic spine clinic go far beyond the operating room

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Health Readiness | Military Hospitals and Clinics

Proper sleep hygiene as a force multiplier

Article
9/5/2018
The fact that properly resting personnel has multiple benefits across the spectrum of human performance and military readiness is undisputed. (U.S. Army photo by Master Sgt. Michel Sauret)

Sleep is cheap; it costs nothing to rest troops properly, with proven, immediately realized returns

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Health Readiness | Sleep

Army researchers develop tasty, healthy performance bar

Article
9/4/2018
Two U.S. Army soldiers eat a version of the Performance Readiness Bar. USARIEM researchers will monitor them to test whether the bar affects bone density. (U.S. Army photo by Mr. David Kamm)

Researchers aren’t working to provide recruits and soldiers with something that only tastes good; it has to make sense for their nutrition

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Health Readiness | Nutrition

Guard Soldier uses medical skills to save boy’s life

Article
8/31/2018
New York Army National Guard Spc. Nicole McKenzie, shown here in a personal photo, used her combat life-saving skills to help save the life of a 12-year-old boy who jumped from an overpass in Yonkers, New York, Aug. 3, 2018. (Courtesy photo)

McKenzie just completed combat life-saving training and immediately began to triage the injuries the boy sustained in the fall

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Health Readiness

Norovirus

Infographic
8/27/2018
Norovirus

Beginning in 2011, the Operational Infectious Diseases (OID) laboratory at the Naval Health Research Center has undertaken routine surveillance of four U.S. military training facilities to systematically track the prevalence of acute gastroenteritis and to establish its etiologies among U.S. military recruits.

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Health Readiness | Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch | Epidemiology and Analysis | Medical Surveillance Monthly Report | Public Health

Leptospirosis

Infographic
8/27/2018
Leptospriosis

Leptospirosis: The presence of leptospirosis in the Republic of Korea (ROK) poses a potential threat to more than 40,000 U.S. Armed Forces personnel and their family members who reside in the ROK. This is the first published study for risk assessment of leptospirosis among U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the ROK.

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Health Readiness | Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch | Epidemiology and Analysis | Medical Surveillance Monthly Report

Staphylococcus

Infographic
8/27/2018
Staphylococcus

Staphylococcus: Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI). Military personnel in congregate settings (e.g., training, deployment) are at increased risk for S. aureus colonization and SSTI. For a 7-month period in 2016, an observational cohort study of S. aureus colonization and SSTI among U.S. Navy submariners was ...

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Health Readiness | Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch | Epidemiology and Analysis | Medical Surveillance Monthly Report | Public Health

U.S. doctors save Italian patient hours from death

Article
8/8/2018
U.S. Air Force Capt. Melanie Gates, left, Capt. Nick McKenzie, and Capt. Richard Thorsted, all who are Special Operations Command Forward Northwest Africa ground surgical team members, gather for a photo at Nigerien Air Base 101, Niamey. The three doctors recently finished medical school and are serving their first deployment. They are deployed from Travis Air Force Base, California. (U.S. Air Force courtesy photo)

The patient had a fever, a very high heart rate and low oxygen levels

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Health Readiness | Global Health Engagement | Partners

Trauma care reference body now woven into DHA combat support

Article
8/3/2018
Establishing the Joint Trauma System within the Defense Health Agency optimally positions the JTS to serve as the reference body for all trauma care. (U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Gary Johnson)

The JTS mission is to provide evidence-based process improvement of trauma and combat casualty care to drive morbidity and mortality to the lowest possible levels, and to provide recommendations on trauma care and trauma systems across the Military Health System

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Health Readiness | Access to Health Care

Shanahan discusses medical readiness, DHA transfer at Womack

Article
8/1/2018
Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan greets Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie as Army Col. John Melton, the commander of Womack Army Medical Center, looks on, at the start of a meeting at Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, July 26, 2018. Shanahan convened the meeting to discuss medical readiness, as well as how the Defense Health Agency and military services are collaborating on the integration of the Military Health System. (DoD photo by Lisa Ferdinando)

The fiscal year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act transfers the administration and management of military medical treatment facilities to the DHA beginning Oct. 1, 2018

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Health Readiness | Military Hospitals and Clinics
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