Conference Recap: Force Health Protection 2009
Written by Lyn Kukral
MMT 2009 Volume: 13 Issue: 7 (October)
Spurred Discussion At The Most Recent
Conference Hosted By The Center For Health
Promotion And Preventive Medicine.
The conference, hosted by the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine (CHPPM), drew more than 2,400 military, U.S. government and academic attendees to the Albuquerque, N.M., convention center August 14–21. Attendees chose from 849 sessions and 50 workshops, most offering continuing medical education credits or continuing education units.
CHPPM is the Army’s public health organization, supporting soldiers around the world with health education information and deploying its expert medical and scientific staff to deliver occupational and environmental health surveillance everywhere soldiers go. On U.S. military installations, CHPPM provides environmental health engineering and health hazard assessments as well as injury and disease prevention programs.
In addition to education, the annual Force Health Protection conference provides attendees with networking opportunities and the chance to hear senior health leaders share their perspectives. At this latest conference, for instance, Army Surgeon General Lieutenant General Eric B. Schoomaker emphasized his goal of shifting from a “sick” care system—one that treats illness and injury—to a system focused on prevention and protection of good health.
“We are transforming our Army health care system into one built on the foundation of disease and injury prevention by creating a public-health-centric approach to our overall strategy,” Schoomaker said in a prerecorded opening to the conference plenary.
Schoomaker pointed to his decision to establish a public health command, part of a broader Army medical department reorganization, as a giant step toward preventionbased, wellness-focused medicine.
Referring to the integration of elements of CHPPM and the Army Veterinary Command, he said: “We are integrating our veterinary and preventive medicine disease surveillance efforts to better assess the health risks from environmental and zoonotic hazards. We’re optimistic that these efforts will enable us to create additional ways to improve our beneficiaries’ health.”
Schoomaker also cited a CHPPM initiative as an example of the shift in emphasis.
“This [focus on public health] includes such efforts as creating installation health promotion coordinators to facilitate health promotion efforts between our installation communities and our MTFs [medical treatment facilities],” he said.
As of August, four of these coordinators were on the job in the continental United States, and four more were slated for hiring. Additionally, a program has been implemented at CHPPM headquarters to spearhead the integration of health and wellness functions at installations, including onpost programs such as suicide prevention, alcohol and substance abuse prevention, and fitness, and resources available in local communities.
Brigadier General Timothy K. Adams, CHPPM commander and chief of the Army Veterinary Corps, elaborated on Schoomaker’s decision to place strong emphasis on public health with its elements of prevention and healthy lifestyles.
“The creation of an Army public health command reflects the growing importance of public health not only in the United States but worldwide,” he said.
Adams, who is charged with making the public health command a reality, said, “The key is a single point of responsibility and accountability for public health missions, with an end state to be an integrated public health team to protect and enhance the health, fitness and wellness of soldiers, families, Department of Army civilians and retirees, and to execute effective veterinary services throughout DoD.”
Another benefit of the integration of the public health mission to soldiers and other beneficiaries will be improved services through the standardizing of best practices across the medical command, he said.
As currently envisioned, the Army public health command would combine CHPPM’s missions and many of the missions of the Army Veterinary Command, Adams said. Installation-level veterinary missions would be assigned to medical treatment facilities, although the public health command would retain oversight of them. Personnel from CHPPM and Vetcom would make up the public health command, but both CHPPM and Vetcom would be disestablished as units.
Adams said the public health command was expected to stand up provisionally by October 1, 2009, and be fully operational by October 1, 2011. A transition team with representatives from CHPPM, Vetcom and other stakeholders will be named to plan the phased implementation of the public health command.
The other public health topics of paramount interest, pandemic influenza and H1N1 influenza, were covered in multiple sessions at the conference.
The Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center (AFHSC) and the Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Assistance Medicine sponsored a day-long pandemic influenza pre-conference workshop August 17. Public Health Emergency Officers representing all services and from around the country then attended a pandemic influenza workshop focused on planning and coordination of mitigating efforts August 19. AFHSC also updated DoD attendees on the latest H1N1 influenza information that same day.
Conference attendees benefited from two new administrative innovations that drew plaudits from most. Gone was the inch-thick, magazine-sized conference agenda book, replaced by a pocket-sized listing of sessions. Conference planners also switched this year to use of radio frequency identification (RFID) to track attendance.
“Not only did RFID ensure that attendees received all appropriate continuing education credits—a major advance over previous conferences—no one had to stand in long lines to get paper proof-of-attendance scanned into a limited number of computer stations,” said Jane Gervasoni, veteran conference deputy director. “Next year’s conference will be in a new location for us—Phoenix, Ariz.,” Gervasoni added.
The 2010 conference dates are August 6–13. ♦
Lyn Kukral is the public affairs officer for the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.
SELECT PRESENTATIONS FROM FHP '09
The 12th annual Force Health Protection conference in Albuquerque, N.M., featured a wide range of presentations on such topics as behavioral health, deployment health care, veterinary medicine, and nuclear and radiological medical sciences. Below are a few sample presentations. A full listing, including abstracts and related documents, is available at http://usachppm.amedd.army.mil/fhpc.
Title: “CBRN Defense Medical Materiel
Dashboard: A New Capability for Force Health Protection and Readiness”
Presenter: Colonel Keith Vesely
Abstract: “Modeled after the Military Health System Pandemic Flu Dashboard, the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Defense Medical Materiel Dashboard promotes readiness by indicating the availability and serviceability status of medicines and vaccines graphically. Operational April 30, 2009, the dashboard monitors CBRN defense inventories at all DoD medical facilities and medical distribution centers. Developed at the Joint Medical Logistics Functional Development Center, the dashboard relies on data from the Joint Medical Asset Repository, a Web-based application that provides access to integrated Joint Service medical asset information. The dashboard can indicate whether there is enough stock of a certain drug on hand at a given location to meet readiness parameters, and so will provide data useful to military commanders and planners for decision support. Additionally, the dashboard will provide the CBRN defense medical materiel status for the Medical Situational Awareness in Theater capability.”
Title: “Military Telemedicine and e-Health from the Battlefield: Updated Results and Lessons Learned”
Presenter: Colonel Ronald Poropatich
Abstract: “Telemedicine support for forward deployed Army Combat Support Hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan was initiated in 2004. Current capabilities have evolved from simple e-mail to sophisticated medical equipment monitoring. Clinical reach-back consultation for 26 medical and dental specialties is accomplished with a low cost electronic mail system and includes digital image attachments. As of March 2009, over 5,200 non-radiology consults were completed, with dermatology (52 percent), infectious disease (9 percent) and ophthalmology (5 percent) comprising the top medical specialties. A new application deployed in 2008—remote medical maintenance—has been deployed to six sites in Iraq and includes monitoring of 10 CT scanners and medical devices (blood analyzers). It provides uninterrupted monitoring and software maintenance over the Internet, thereby reducing equipment down time. A tele-surgical mentoring program established March 2009 in Iraq enables reach-back consultation to the United States for assistance from BAMC surgical specialists mentoring a general surgeon through trauma surgery.”
Title: “The National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI, Formerly AFMIC): What NCMI Can Do for You”
Presenter: Dr. Kevin Hanson
Abstract: “If you support deployed forces, NCMI has important risk assessment products that can help you communicate disease risks to operational commanders, and tailor risk-based FHP recommendations. Key NCMI products include: comprehensive infectious disease risk assessment (IDRA) for every country; disease risk maps in IDRAs for malaria, dengue, JE, yellow fever, meningococcall meningitis, West Nile fever; risk-based general Force Health Protection recommendations for each country, tied to each IDRA; timely worldwide infectious disease alerts on outbreaks of potential military importance; and other in-depth analyses of diseases which can threaten operational readiness. These products are on NCMI’s unclassified website, with no password required for “.mil” users. Products are also available on NCMI’s SIPRNET and JWICS websites. NCMI stands ready to support. Don’t leave home (or go to war) without us.”