SG 1-Year Legacy Message: A Year of Progress, A Future of Promise
Shipmates,
A year ago today, on March 27, 2023, I assumed the helm of the Navy Medicine Enterprise. It has been a whirlwind year filled with both challenges and triumphs. Looking back, I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished together, but even more excited about the future of Navy Medicine.
We have made significant strides in each of our four Lines of Effort:
(1) Delivering Expeditionary Medicine (EXMED) capabilities
(2) Increasing Deployability
(3) Providing Quality Healthcare across the Naval Force
(4) Recruiting/Retaining Navy Medicine Shipmates
We have aligned our people to EXMED billets and formally stood up and deployed our two-person Patient Movement En-route Care System (ERCS) and our Expeditionary Resuscitative Surgical System (ERSS). We are also on track to send our first Expeditionary Medical Unit (EMU) to begin training and testing aboard EPF Flight II – USNS CODY. More EXMEDS are on their way with Secretary of the Navy naming our new Expeditionary Medical Ships: USNS BETHESDA and USNS BALBOA.
We have increased warfighter deployability by implementing conditions based LIMDU for the 175 top medical issues. This has streamlined care and reduced the number of non-deployable Sailors waiting to return to duty.
We continue our drive to deliver quality healthcare across the Naval forces, requiring all Chief Medical Officers and Operational Surgeons to complete Navy Medicine’s Quality Service Leadership Academy (QSLA). This course will soon be mandatory for all milestone billets.
We continue to instill a “Get Real, Get Better” culture by encouraging people to self-assess, self-correct, and improve the organization. Leadership’s job is to help remove barriers to success. We must be transparent up and down the chain of command and “embrace the red” so we can work together to solve problems and increase our warfighting advantage.
We published our first Navy Medicine Campaign Plan to achieve our strategic objectives of delivering agile, trained, and certified medical units for the Fleet, Fleet Marine Force, and the Joint Force. This five-year roadmap outlines our path forward to win the future fight and aligns to Navy’s Priorities of Warfighting, Warfighters and building our Foundation.
Our course is clear – and it will take the entire Navy Medicine team (blue side, green side, and our Active-Duty, Reserve, and Civilian shipmates) – to get us there. Still, your dedication and expertise will drive our success as we execute our mission.
Finally, and most importantly, as I reflect on being the “acting” and then our official SG this past year, I want to thank you for your tireless commitment to the health and well-being of our Sailors, Marines, and their families.
You are valued and you are making a difference!
Together, we will continue pushing toward our North Star, ensuring that Navy Medicine remains a beacon of light and hope for generations to come! See you in the Fleet!
SG #40, Corpsman Up!
RADM Darin K. Via
Medical Corps, United States Navy
Navy Surgeon General
Chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
JOINT MEDICAL EXECUTIVE SKILLS INSTITUTE (JMESI) – VIRTUAL CAPSTONE for MHS LEADERS COURSE – 15-18 JUL
Who: Senior Medical Officers (O-6, O-6 selects or high-performing O-5 officers who are on track for executive medicine)
What: Joint Medical Executive Skills Institute (JMESI) – CAPSTONE for MHS Leaders Course
When: July 15-18, 2024 (Virtual – only 7 seats allotted for Medical Corps)
Course Description: The Capstone Course is designed to be a pinnacle event for recently assigned senior military treatment facility commanders, lead agents, and senior medical department officers in key staff positions who will benefit from exposure to and familiarity with entities that shape the MHS. The course provides participants with exposure to the operations of the various organizations within the Department of Defense, pertinent congressional staffs, and the offices of the three Surgeons General. Participation in the Capstone Course will enhance the understanding of how national healthcare policies are formed, and by whom, and how they are implemented and put into operation.
Additional details and objectives can be found here:
https://www.health.mil/Military-Health-Topics/Education-and-Training/LEADS/JMESI
Prospective applicants should send the following to CAPT O’Sullivan NLT 1600, Wednesday, April 10, 2024.
- An up-to-date CV and BIO (combined into one PDF)
- An email with the following information – Rank, Name, Current position, work address, work phone and email address
A Message from the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs
Colleagues,
This month marks my first full year as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs – and what a year it’s been! With your help, we’ve achieved a great deal in the past twelve months and I want to pause to thank all of you for your support and the effort you make every day to respond to emerging issues while doing the hard work of strategic thinking and long-range planning we need.
I wanted to get a first-hand understanding of our MHS operations around the world and the only way I know how to do that is with in-person visits and candid conversations with our people at all levels. I’ve been privileged to visit a variety of MHS operations from military treatment facilities and labs to academic partners. Without exception, I benefited from honest discussions and blunt feedback, and I thank you for that. Also without exception, I’ve come away from each site visit with a stronger sense of pride in the caliber of the people in the MHS.
Next month, we’ll gather at the MHS Conference, the first one in more than a decade. I look forward to interacting with many of you, and to laying out the road ahead to fulfilling our new MHS Strategy, starting with stabilization, as outlined in the memo from the Deputy Secretary of Defense. I hope you’ve taken the time to read both documents, and come prepared with questions, comments, and insights.
Finally, I’d like to take this chance to welcome our newest leader, Rear Admiral (ret.) Susan M. Orsega, our new Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Services Policy and Oversight. Ms. Orsega comes to us from the Department of Health and Human Services, where she served as principal adviser to the Assistant Secretary for Health and the Surgeon General on all U.S. Public Health Service policies and activities. She’s been a leader in public health for more than thirty years and her strong interagency relationships and professional expertise will help us tremendously as we move forward. Please join me in making her welcome!
Very Respectfully,
Lester
Lester Martínez-López, M.D., M.P.H.
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs
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