Commander's Blog

At the beginning of every New Year's celebration, many people often create a list of resolutions that they intend (or, at least, hope) to keep. These usually involve diets, exercise, spending habits, restrictions, and a host of other things that we may or may not follow through with. For our USAMMDA team, however, the annual resolution is weighty, and it's always the same: “How can we get life-saving medical products into the hands of our Warfighters more quickly?” By the same token, our answer is always the same: "We must continually refocus our efforts to ensure we're developing the most effective solutions for our military forces, and turning these around as fast as possible."

So the bottom line is, we're always resolved to supporting our Warfighters throughout the world with whatever they need, whenever they us — all year, every year. We maintain a consistency of purpose to make sure we accomplish our mission. Without question, 2018 will bring about changes in one form or another, but it's incumbent upon all of us to embrace the changes that lie ahead and firmly resolve to overcome anything that should come along. We have no choice - it's the task we've been given.

Fortunately, each new year brings with it much excitement as well. During this upcoming year, our team is looking forward to potential expedited approaches in our dealings with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which should help to speed up our processes to convey much needed solutions to our Warfighters more quickly. We're also anticipating an expedited review of our Tafenoquine product, which would help to rapidly progress our efforts in the prevention of malaria for both our military and civilian populations. And I'm sure many are aware that we've been looking at designs for a new building to house our USAMMDA team, and we really hope to move forward with this project sometime during 2018. This is only the tip of the iceberg - which is a pretty relevant analogy given the extremely cold weather we've been experiencing in our region lately!

And speaking of the frigid temperatures, please keep in mind all of our winter safety tips, and check furnaces and heaters to make sure they're working properly. Along with this, check your CO2 and smoke detectors, to avoid any potential hazards. Equip your vehicles with ice scrapers and salt, and keep blankets in the car in case of breakdowns. We can never be too cautious, especially at this time of the year, and it's always better to be safe than sorry.

On a lighter note, with every new year comes the opportunity to achieve that much-needed life balance that many of us would like to reach, and the Army's Performance Triad is really a great place to start. The proper amount of sleep, exercise and nutrition is important to everyone's well-being, as these must all come together in a very cohesive way to help us reach our maximum level of energy and output. It's vital that we take care of ourselves, so that we can continue to take care of others. I'll agree this is sometimes easier said than done, but we really have to make an effort to remain in top physical and mental form.

Finally, I can't close this message without a shout out to the Georgia Bulldogs, who will be playing the Alabama Crimson Tide for the College Football National Championship this week. Hopefully, many of you will be able to watch the game, and hopefully the 'Dogs will be victorious -- this truly would make the start of the new year very special for me! But let's just hope that it's a great, fun game for everyone!

Throughout the year, remember that we're saving lives with everything we do here at USAMMDA!

COL Ryan Bailey