ASDHA
2024 Military Health System (MHS) Conference Save-the-Date!
We are excited to announce the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, Dr. Lester Martinez-Lopez, is hosting the 2024 Military Health System (MHS) Conference! The conference will be held Monday, April 8 – Thursday, April 11, 2024, at the Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Portland, Oregon. The theme of the MHS Conference will be “The Future of Military Medicine – Integrated, Innovative, Ready”.
The 2024 MHS Conference will present a robust agenda for DoD and MHS leadership communities. This event will highlight current and future-state priorities, communicate lessons learned, and provide a forum for collaboration and unity of effort.
The MHS has gone through significant changes over the last decade and continues to do so. This event is meant to bring leadership together for an exchange of ideas and encourage transparent information-sharing to increase mutual awareness of capabilities, limitations, and challenges. Please send an e-mail to mhs-conf@health.mil, if you have any questions, want to update your contact information, or want to be removed from this mailing list. We look forward to seeing you in Portland in April!
MHS Conference Management Team
A Message from the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs
MHS Colleagues:
September, with the first hints of cooler weather and schools back in session, often seems more like the start of a new year than the official new year in January. We in the MHS stand ready to serve our beneficiaries as they get ready for the cold and flu season, make sure their vaccinations are up to date, and allow us to provide the care they need.
Last week, we said a formal farewell to Hon. Gilbert Cisneros, who has served us so well as the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. His personal commitment to the well-being of all our people was foremost in everything he did, and it was a privilege to work for him. I know you will join me in thanking him for his service and wishing him well in the next chapter.
September is also Suicide Prevention Month, a time for us to renew our commitment to preventing this tragic loss of life. Within our organizations, it’s important for us to communicate to our people about the resources available to help anyone in crisis. By example, we can help remove the stigma around seeking mental health care. I will never forget meeting Teri and Patrick Caserta, parents of Brandon Caserta, a young Sailor who died by suicide in 2018. I met them during the formal signing of the implementation order for the Brandon Act, named for their son, which is designed to ease access to mental health care. While I admire their ability to channel their grief into action by successfully advocating for this legislation, I am saddened by their need to do so. The Brandon Act will help prevent military suicides and spare other parents, but there is more to be done to increase access to mental health care, and to educate those serving at all levels about how to help. There is useful information to share with your organizations at this link. Please use this resource to communicate about this vital issue, not just this month, but all year.
I wish you and your families well as we enter this new season and thank you for all you do every day. As always, stay safe!
A Message from the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs
MHS Colleagues:
August is always a busy month, as many of us juggle demanding work schedules with family summer vacations and getting kids ready to start school again. I appreciate all the hard work you’re doing to meet the many deadlines and requirements we have to fulfill.
Last week, I had the honor of addressing our IT professionals at the Defense Health Information Technology Symposium in New Orleans, and this week I’m in Florida, speaking at the Military Health System Research Symposium. These two events represent an important part of a critical priority – that of fostering transparency and collaboration among all the great minds working on advanced research and technology solutions. Technology advances hold great promise to help us meet a range of evolving needs from delivering greater access to health care at the point of need, to developing more effective treatments, to harnessing the power of data to inform clinical and operational decisions. Collaboration between government, industry and academia can accelerate these accomplishments and I challenge each of you to support that effort.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank several departing members of my staff, while welcoming new ones. In the past weeks, we said farewell to:
- Mr. Ryan Uyehara, Special Assistant, who provided invaluable counsel and unflagging energy to helping this office stay on top of fast-moving issues,
- CAPT Marrie Read, USN, MHS Governance Senior Policy Advisor, who managed the variety of governance activities with unflappable professionalism,
- COL Rich Malish, USA, Military Deputy, who acted in the Chief of Staff capacity while also giving us the benefit of his clinical and operational experience, and
- LCDR Aaron Hill, USN, Military Assistant, who provided stellar support to the PDASD and the entire office with his strong organizational ability and extensive understanding of issues.
We thank each of them, wish them well in their new endeavors, and at the same time, warmly welcome our new staff members:
- COL Kathy Spangler, USA, our new Senior Military Deputy, on board for just over a week but already making an impact,
- CDR Monica Gonzalez, USN, MHS Governance Senior Policy Advisor, who has capably taken over the responsibilities of managing our governance activities, and
- LCDR Sierra Nichols, USN, Military Assistant, who in just a few weeks has become indispensable as she provides direct support to Ms. Mullen.
Please make the effort to get to know our new teammates — I’m confident you will find working with them to be very rewarding. As always, please stay safe as you enjoy the last weeks of summer.
Very Respectfully,
Lester
Lester Martinez-López, M.D., M.P.H.
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs
A message from the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs
MHS Colleagues,
Mental health care is a priority focus for the Military Health System every single day, but as May is Mental Health Awareness Month, I wanted to highlight the effort we are making to address this critical need.
Secretary Cisneros signed the implementing policy for the Brandon Act on May 5, with Teri and Patrick Caserta present. The Act, designed to help service members access timely mental health evaluations, is named for their son Brandon, a young sailor who died by suicide. We welcome this measure as part of our approach to suicide prevention and mental health and it was a privilege to meet the Casertas.
One of my personal goals is to do everything possible to eliminate the stigma that too often still inhibits our people from seeking and getting care. Mental health is health, period – and we need to embrace that fact and encourage and support people in need of this care. We are working to develop training to help educate those in leadership roles on how to support their people, to look for signs that someone is struggling and to enable them to get help. Efforts are underway to address the shortage of mental health providers in our system. We know the answers aren’t simple, but we are committed to finding them.
There is a wide range of resources available to help us all learn more about mental health, and they can be found here: Mental Health Spotlight. Please take time to learn about them, to know what is available and how to access them. Our collective success in improving mental health across the total force starts with an individual commitment by each of us, to learn as much as we can about this issue and how to put the resources we have in play, to demonstrate by our own actions and words the importance of mental health. We need to normalize seeking mental health care so it becomes as accepted as seeing a doctor for the flu or a broken bone.
As leaders of the MHS, we have a particular responsibility to help move these goals forward. I know I can count on you to keep mental health priorities in mind this month, and throughout the year.
Very Respectfully,
Lester
Lester Martinez-López, M.D., M.P.H.
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs
A Message from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs
Monday marks Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In addition to providing an important annual reminder of the significance of public service, it’s also an opportunity to reflect on his rich legacy.
Dr. King believed in the best of what our nation could be. And it was for that reason he fought dearly against injustice, inequality, and racism against Black Americans, and prejudice against other marginalized groups. He understood that it’s our differences that make us great—and fought to lift all people, as well as to help others understand that we share much more in common than we may think.
His life’s work provides many important, inclusive lessons. One that I return to, both personally and professionally, was his example of individual sacrifice. Whether seeking fair housing, safer working conditions and higher wages, or, of course, righting human injustice, he put the whole above self-interest.
Selfless service has always been one of the tenets of military service, an ideal we continually strive for, and a timely reflection point given the unique challenges facing our communities and military medicine.
The pandemic lays these collective challenges bare every day. While the virus doesn’t recognize race, rank, tax bracket, or geography, it continues to demonstrate the continued inequities and injustices that Dr. King fought so hard against. This necessitates our collective response — specifically to uplift and care for those the pandemic affects the most.
And, for more than two years now, that’s precisely the kind of leadership you’ve provided. The MHS has been a model of collaboration and selfless service. Your focus on the whole ensured our Service Members were safe and at the ready and saved the lives of countless more.
The health and wellbeing of those that you serve has always been top of mind, and you never wavered. I know the national response often pulled many of you away from your families and loved ones — and continues to. Thank you. We’re all incredibly grateful.
Focusing on the whole is also why you’re leading by example and encouraging vaccinations. Omicron is unrelenting, and the only way to protect both ourselves and our communities is by ensuring we’re both vaccinated and boosted. It’s vital that we continue to bang this drum!
A lot has been asked of you over the last year, and the New Year has already proven just as challenging. But I know we can meet this future if we continue to view our service through Dr. King’s legacy of selflessness and pursuing the common good.
And I look forward to taking this work on together.
Dave
Dr. David J. Smith, M.D.
Performing the Duties of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense – Health Affairs
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