Commander's Blog

As we kick off Fiscal Year 2018, this is the perfect time to review the many great accomplishments of our fantastic team over the past year. USAMMDA continues to lead the way by exceeding the standard in every opportunity we're presented. Similar to a cross country running team, our successes come both individually and as an organization – which has truly impacted military medicine across the board. We've won numerous awards and found great success with many of our products developed to assist and protect our Warfighters. On top of this, we've played a critical role in a number of important DOD-sponsored events, and also achieved a huge milestone in organizational safety.

When it comes to awards, our staff certainly ranks among the Army's best. Our Tissue Injury and Regenerative Medicine Project Management Office was named 2016 organizational recipient of the Major Jonathan Letterman Medical Excellence Award, and our Pharmaceutical Systems PMO Blood Team took home the Army Wolf Pack Award as co-winners for third quarter FY17. U.S. Navy Capt. Brett Hart of USAMMDA's Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment TBI Research Program received the 2017 Excellence in Hyperbaric Medicine Award, and James Cromartie of our Medical Support Systems PMO won the Calendar Year 2016 U.S. Army Medical Department Professional Medical Logisticians' Civilian Award in the category of "Medical Logistics Civilian Employees in the Grades of GS-12 through GS-15." Considering both the tough competition and stiff criteria for these awards, I can't say enough about the talent we're blessed to have on our USAMMDA team.

As for products, we have many, and we've seen great success over the past year. To name only a few, we improved our rigid-wall shelters for Field Hospitals, submitted a New Drug Application for the pain management drug Sufentanil, and managed the successful submission of an Investigational New Drug application for Modernized Production Adenovirus Vaccine. We hosted the first State of the Science Summit to share ideas on potential new drugs to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and USAMMDA team members have a major role in the DOD's new BioFabUSA project, which can tap into the vast potential of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Along with all of this, our USAMMDA team received the Army Safety Health Management System's prestigious "Safety Star" earned under Col. Stephen Dalal and awarded under Col. William Geesey. After accepting this great honor, our organization continues to maintain its strong commitment to providing an extremely safe working environment for each and every team member.

Regardless of their size or mission, great organizations continue to focus on self-improvement –and we refuse to rest on our laurels. Without question, we'll go through FY18 with the same passion and enthusiasm for improvement, and we'll continue to look for new and better ways to advance our processes and our products, to ensure that our Warfighters are receiving the best of everything they need to remain ready and fulfill the mission. We can make FY18 our best year yet!

Let's always remember that we're saving lives with everything we do here at USAMMDA.

COL Ryan Bailey