Military medical researchers convene in Kissimmee

The Department of Defense’s annual Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS) returned to the Gaylord Palms last week for its annual learning and awards event. This year’s theme was “Medical Readiness for the Future Fight.”

The MHSRS brought together more than 3,000 military, government, academic, and industry experts for four days of collaboration to discuss the future of military medicine. The MHSRS exhibit hall featured innovative scientific and medical research and technological advances covering dozens of different topic areas, such as military medical readiness, expeditionary (battlefield) medicine, and warfighter performance.

Although many facets of military medicine were on display, two main themes seemed to dominate the proceedings of the symposium, the first being a potential future conflict over the vast region of the Indo-Pacific. The second consists of three problem areas that stem from the two decades-long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Psychological Health and Resilience reflect the current plague of veteran and active duty suicides.

Brain Health and Traumatic Brain Injury relate to the consequences of having extremely effective body armor that saves lives, but results in tremendous trauma to the head. Managing Occupational and Environmental exposes concerns, like treating and preventing toxic exposure that results from the use of burn pits. In addition, the application of Artificial Intelligence to military medicine was woven throughout.

Right through World War II, disease and infection had been almost as large a threat to soldiers as any enemy action. While entomology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of insects, the U.S. Navy’s Entomology Center of Excellence, located at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida is interested in anything in nature that can be harmful to military members. The Center is at the forefront of the Department of Defense’s efforts to combat infectious diseases, through both prevention and treatment, faced by a military that is expected to operate anywhere in the world on short notice. Lieutenants Thomas McGlynn and Nicholas Johnson from the Center both attended and exhibited at the Symposium.

“We have a new research and development lab that is state of the art where we are doing molecular research looking at insecticide resistance across the globe,” said Lt. McGlynn.

McGlynn was in Malaysia earlier this year, working along with their armed forces while conducting research on the insecticide resistance problem, and also evaluating the effectiveness of new Army uniforms in handling insecticide treatments.

Other learning sessions included reports on lessons gleaned from the ongoing war in Ukraine and considerations for military medicines in the Arctic environment. For more information on the annual Military Health System Research Symposium, see https://bit.ly/3KP5BXb.