Thank you for being one of our many MSMR readers. While we are grateful for invaluable contributions by individuals and affiliated organizations this year, it is our readers whom we consider foremost while assembling each issue of MSMR. As part of the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Division, within the Public Health Directorate of the Defense Health Agency, MSMR offers a forum for peer-reviewed public health reports that are disseminated on a variety of digital platforms: published online at Health.mil, the official website of the Military Health System, in addition to indexing on PubMed and full text archiving on PubMed Central. I would like to take this opportunity to enumerate some of our successes in 2024 and preview our plans for 2025.
Page views for MSMR articles on the Health.mil webpage more than doubled in 2024. MSMR significantly increased readership and downloads of full length articles on a variety of military health-related topics. The most widely read articles in 2024 on our webpage included topics historically under-represented in MSMR, namely surveillance of pharmacy prescription practices and service member mortality statistics. Three full reports published in 2024 garnered over 11,000 page views in total: an article describing weight loss medication prescription prevalence, a report on U.S. Army mortality surveillance, and a review of ivermectin prescription fill rates among service members during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In January, MSMR began archiving full text versions of published reports on PMC, the companion database to PubMed that enables readers to view, read, as well as download full text of articles indexed in PubMed. At the time of writing, nearly 7,500 total full text articles or PDFs of MSMR articles published in 2024 had been viewed or downloaded on PMC. We anticipate that this additional archival process of our content will continue to expand our readership to a broader public health community in 2025 and the years to come. The total webpage views from health.mil in 2024 exceeded these PMC views by three times, indicating that the majority of MSMR readership still originates from readers directly accessing the MHS webpage, or via PubMed.
PubMed allows its users to click on a link to the MSMR Health.mil webpage, and PubMed 2014 statistics show that “linkouts” or clicks from PubMed to Health.mil increased as well, significantly: by 26%, within the last year alone. MSMR content has been indexed on PubMed, the National Center for Biotechnology Information website, since 2011.
Our reach and readership are expanding as the appetite for high quality, evidenced-based military health-specific topics continues to grow. The Department of Defense public health community is focused on collecting, publishing, and applying the increasing knowledge base to positively influence health awareness and outcomes. In 2025, MSMR will continue its mission to publish descriptive epidemiologic articles using relevant data on topics that are vital to the health and safety of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Our plans for 2025 are robust. We will celebrate the 30th anniversary of MSMR in April 2025. We are coordinating with authors who are well-versed in the long history of U.S. military public health as well as the more recent past, namely the 30 years MSMR has been reporting on public health topics. Our April issue will feature articles that offer a comprehensive review of the long and storied military public health experience in the U.S. and articulate the supporting role MSMR has played in this domain over the past 30 years.
We are also collecting and continuing to solicit manuscripts for a special issue focusing on the unique and important concerns related to military women’s health. This women’s health issue is planned for May 2025, to coincide with National Women’s Health Week, observed this May 12th through 16th. Our September 2024 issue featured a call for papers on military women’s heath that has received a substantial number of page views on Health.mil, a harbinger of the interest this topic deserves and receives.
In my first From the Editor’s Desk letter, published in January 2024, I articulated the MSMR mission, to which our dedication remains firm and unchanged: “In the most recent Armed Forces Health Surveillance Division Annual Report, MSMR is referred to as the ‘premier medical peer-reviewed journal published by the AFHSD and DHA, which provides evidence-based estimates of the incidence, distribution, impact and trends of illness and injury among U.S. military service members and associated populations’. ” As we enter our 31st year of publishing, the MSMR staff is honored to pick up and carry MSMR’s distinguished legacy of excellence and professional rigor even further.
Our increased readership and article downloads in 2024 resulted not only from the hard work of MSMR staff but, of course, because of the excellent manuscripts we received from investigators and researchers, not only from DHA organizations but civilian and international contributors as well. MSMR has enlarged its outreach to areas outside DHA PHD by collaborating with DHA Medical Affairs, Communications, and Public Affairs in a sustained effort to share the insights provided by the substantial medical data available and enhance the reach of dissemination more broadly. We have complied a list of all our contributing authors for 2024 in a concluding feature in this month’s issue that recognizes this critical resource, with our sincerest gratitude.
MSMR’s role, within and supporting the overall mission of AFHSD, PHD, and DHA, remains vital. The need for appropriate database utilization, information review, and methodologically valid analysis remains the ‘gold standard’ of epidemiological surveillance and medical knowledge development. At MSMR, we continue to strive for timeliness with careful deliberation, relevance with objectivity, and scientific validity focused on readiness and force health protection. MSMR continues to be vigilant and undaunted by the continued high stakes role of public health, but the successes of 2024 positions us well to continue to serve “those who serve” in 2025.
Very Respectfully,
Robert Johnson, M.D., MPH, MBA
Col. (ret) USAF
Editor-in-Chief, Medical Surveillance Monthly Report
Thank You to Our 2024 Authors and Contributors
The Editor-in-Chief of MSMR, its contributing editors, and production staff would each like to extend appreciation and gratitude to the authors who submitted manuscripts to MSMR during 2024. The resultant published articles represent dozens or more of hours of diligent research, exacting analysis, and meticulous organization by these authors, who then worked collaboratively with MSMR’s editors to refine each manuscript for publishing. Without their dedication and sacrifice of time and effort, MSMR could not provide important monthly, evidence-based reports of the incidence, distribution, impact, and trends of health-related conditions among service members.
Brian Agan, MD Idalia Aguirre, MPH Anwar E. Ahmed, PhD, MS Simon Alcantara, MSc Matthew W.R. Allman, MPH John F. Ambrose, PhD, MPH, CHES
Errol Roy Arellano, MD Jason Blaylock, MD Mark L. Bova, MPH Theresa Casey, DVM, MPH Fritz M. Castillo, MPH Bridget K. Caulkins, MD
Susan J. Ching, DO, MPH Piyawan Chinnawirotpisan, PhD Shawn S. Clausen, MD, MPH Ronald Cole, MPH, RN PHNA-BC Paula Corazon Diones, MD
Laurie S. DeMarcus, MPH Nathan J. Deming, DPT Valentina Donici, MD Angelia A. Eick-Cost, PhD, ScM Kathleen R. Elliott, MPH Fabrice E. Evengue, DHSc, MPH, LSS, GB
Paul Fajardo, DVM, MBAH, MPM Michael T. Fan, PhD Aaron Farmer, DO, MPH Anthony C. Fries, PhD Matthew Garrison, MSN, FNP, RN, NP-C, CPH
William E. Gruner, MS, MB(ASCP) Yohannes G. Haile, MS Tamara R. Hartless, MPH Victor K. Heh, PhD Kayli Hiban, MPH Matthew J. Hogan, DPT
Zheng Hu, MS Whitney N. Jenkins, MPH, CPH Robert Johnson, MD, MPH, MBA, FACPM, FAsMA Khajohn Joonlasak, MSc Ga On Jung, MPH
Gabrielle F. Kaplansky, MPH Devin C. Kelly, DO, MPH&TM Chonticha Klungthong, PhD Katherine S. Kotas, MPH Bismark Kwaah, MPH Richard S. Langton, MD, MPH
Susie Leonardia, RMT Ken Lilley Nathan C. Lorei, MD Sithembile L. Mabila, PhD, MSc Joy Magistrado-Payot, DVM Wudtichai Manasatienkij, PhD
James D. Mancuso, MD, DrPH, MPH Anthony R. Marquez, MPH Alexis L. Maule, PhD Jennifer McAnany, PhD Fiona McCallum, PhD
Charles E. McCannon, MD, MBA, MPH, JD, FACPM Sasha A. McGee, PhD Kathryn McGuckin Wuertz, PhD Alexis A. McQuistan, MPH Maura Metcalf-Kelly, MPH
Christopher Moller, MBBS Deanna Muehleman, PhD Jessica H. Murray, MPH Fatima Claire Navarro, MD, FPPS Chiping Nieh, PhD, CPH Gi-Taik Oh, MS
Carrol Mae Osia, RN, MD Angela Osuna, MPH HyounKyoung G. Park, PhD, MPH Vanessa G. Perez, MPH Ellie M. Prinster, DPT Robert Pursley, MA
Anthony S. Robbins, MD, MPH, PhD Scott Robinson, MD, MPH Patricia Rohrbeck, DrPH, MPH, MS Kristen R. Rossi, MPH Scott J. Russell, MPH
David R Sayers, MD, MTM&H Kiara D. Scatliffe-Carrion, MPH G. Dennis Shanks, MD, MPH Edward A. Sheriff, PhD, MPH Paul A. Sjoberg, DVM, MPH
Jacob D. Smith, MPH James K Smith, MB ChB, MBA, MPH Shauna L. Stahlman, PhD, MPH Ralph A. Stidham, DHSc, MPH Jeffrey W. Thervil, MPH, CPH
Maisha Toussaint, PhD, MPH Juan I. Ubiera, MPH, MS Maria Theresa Valderama, RMT, MPH John Mark Velasco, MD, MPH, MSc, DTM&H Patricia A. Vu, MD, PhD, MPH
Bryant J. Webber, MD, MPH Natalie Y. Wells, MD, MPH Thomas G. Wilkerson, MPH Erin L. Winkler, MD, MPH Saixia Ying, PhD David H. Yun, MD, MPH
Zeina G. Khodr, PhD