DoD Centralizes Health Surveillance Efforts
Earlier this month, the Department of Defense (DoD) formally established the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center (AFHSC). The move recognized health surveillance as being critical to medical readiness and force health protection.
"One of the critical lessons learned from the first Gulf War and reinforced in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom is the need for a comprehensive approach to detecting, assessing and responding to health threats facing troops throughout a military career," noted a statement issued through the Military Health System (MHS).
The DoD emphasized a commitment to improving its capability to "anticipate, detect and respond to health threats to all military beneficiaries, especially those posed by newly emergent infectious diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome [SARS] or more traditional, but no less deadly, infections like influenza."
The DoD has unified some strategic surveillance efforts across the MHS under a single AFHSC.
The stated mission of the AFHSC is "to promote, maintain or enhance the health of military and military-associated populations. Its vision is to provide relevant, timely, actionable, comprehensive health surveillance information and support to the Armed Forces on military and military-associated populations."
Essential health surveillance functions of the AFHSC include the following:
- collecting, analyzing, interpreting, reporting and archiving health surveillance data;
- providing timely, actionable health surveillance information to commanders, policymakers, planners, health care providers, researchers and others on known, emerging and potential health threats;
- responding to disease outbreaks by monitoring health event data streams, coordinating investigations and assessments that cross service lines, and expanding outbreak investigations; and
- serving as the primary proponent for health surveillance training and education.
The Secretary of the Army is the Executive Agent for the AFHSC. The Force Health Protection Council will function as the advisory Board of Governors providing oversight for the new organization.
Visit the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center Web site for more information.