Commander's Blog

Throughout May, our nation shows its appreciation of our military members serving throughout the world. However, May is also National Inventors Month, so within the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command and the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity, we have the unique opportunity to honor our Service Members that are part of critical product development groups. Our mission to create new medical capabilities that support the health of our military involves numerous partnerships with medical laboratories across the globe, as well as important transition agreements to make this happen. We work with our military labs within the USAMRMC, and other federal partners and industry, so it's truly a team effort to bring new technologies forward and have these transition quickly to the acquisition process for development.

Last month, I was proud to attend the Federal Laboratory Consortium Awards ceremony, where the USAMRMC and USAMMDA were recognized with awards for our Tafenoquine and SHRAIL™ programs. The FLC Awards for Excellence in Technology Transfer honors employees of FLC-member laboratories and non-laboratory staff who have accomplished outstanding work in the process of transferring federally developed technology. As two highly successful products, Tafenoquine is the first FDA-approved prophylactic drug for malaria in more than 18 years, while the SHRAIL™ - the Sirkin-Hiles Rail - device is a novel lightweight rail system that mounts to a standard NATO litter to transform it into a highly functional operating table or intensive care unit bed in far-forward situations. These two important "discoveries" came out of Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and our USAMMDA Medical Prototype Development Laboratory, respectively, and both involved outstanding military-commercial partnerships for which we have been nationally recognized.

With summer approaching, military rotations are coming due, and a number of our USAMMDA military team members will be departing to begin their new assignments. This also means that we'll soon welcome new military personnel to our USAMMDA family, so we look forward to seeing new faces while we say goodbye to familiar ones. This year, the rotation also includes me, and I'll be heading down to Washington to attend the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy. In a nutshell, this is a Senior Service College that focuses on strategic leadership centered on national security. I'll be completing a Master's degree in strategic studies, and then I'll return to Fort Detrick to serve as commander of USAMMA in 2020. So, I'm looking forward to seeing all of you here on post next year! As many of you already know, Col. Gina Adam will be taking over as USAMMDA commander this June, and I know she's excited to work with our great USAMMDA team in helping to advance critical products to our Warfighters.

As we're heading into warmer weather, let's keep in mind some safety tips related to water sport safety, outdoor grilling, staying hydrated during the intensely hot periods, and the use of sunscreen to protect our skin outdoors. There are lots of great tips and suggestions online, and you can always contact our USAMMDA safety officer, Marvin Saunders, with any safety questions or concerns you may have.

Finally, we still have a number of great sporting events each week during the summer! We're in the middle of both the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs and the NBA playoffs, and the PGA Championship starts next week. Of course, we still have lots of baseball games throughout the summer, so try to get to some of our local games if you can! And don't forget to show your support for those who play on our organization's softball team as well – these games are always a fun time!

Thanks for all you do, and remember that we're saving lives with our work here at USAMMDA!

COL Ryan Bailey