Name
Transforming Care into Combat Power: Operational Medicine’s Role in a Globally Integrated Joint Force
Content Presented On Behalf Of:
Joint Staff Surgeon
Clinton Murray
Session Type
Breakout
Date
Tuesday, March 3, 2026
Start Time
1:15 PM
End Time
2:15 PM
Location
Woodrow Wilson Ballroom
Focus Areas/Topics
Trending/Hot Topics or Other not listed
Learning Outcomes
1. 1. Participants will be able to describe operational medicine as the practice of delivering health service support and force health protection across military operations, ensuring the Joint Force can fight, survive, and recover. 2. 2. Participants will be able to analyze how the Joint Staff Surgeon’s priorities align with the Chairman’s priorities of being properly armed, globally integrated, ready, and people focused, and explain how this alignment strengthens warfighting effectiveness. 3. 3. Participants will be able to evaluate operational medicine’s linkage to national strategies and concepts, including the National Security Strategy, National Defense Strategy, National Military Strategy, and the Joint Warfighting Concept, while applying scenario based analysis to anticipate requirements and manage risk. 4. 4. Participants will be able to assess how innovation, data driven decision making, and global integration enable operational medicine to lead the way to a healthier future, transforming readiness into resilience, care into combat power, and integration into global strength.
CE/CME Session
Non-CE Session
Session Currently Live
Description

Operational medicine is the practice of medicine tailored to military operations, focused on two core functions: delivering health service support across the battlespace and providing force health protection to preserve readiness. In essence, it is medicine designed to enable operational requirements—ensuring the Joint Force can fight, survive, and recover across the full range of military operations. Operational medicine is inseparable from national strategy. It links to the National Security Strategy, National Defense Strategy, National Military Strategy, and Joint Warfighting Concept, while Scenario Based Analysis allows planners to anticipate requirements and transform care from reactive to predictive. The Joint Staff Surgeon’s priorities—maintaining a resilient and healthy fit force, returning Service Members to duty as far forward as possible, clearing the battlefield of casualties to enable freedom of movement, and integrating joint health and medical services—align directly with the Chairman’s priorities of being properly armed, globally integrated, ready, and people-focused. Maintaining resilience reflects the Chairman’s emphasis on People; forward return-to-duty sustains Readiness; battlefield clearance enables maneuver and survivability, keeping the force Properly Armed; and integration across military, federal, civilian, and allied healthcare systems ensures the Joint Medical Force is Globally Integrated. Looking ahead, operational medicine enables the future by integrating innovation, data-driven decision-making, and lessons from contemporary conflicts. It builds a globally integrated medical enterprise across the Department of Defense, Defense Health Agency, Veteran’s Affairs, civilian healthcare, and allied partners. Most importantly, it safeguards the trust of Warfighters and their families, ensuring resilience, survivability, and human performance optimization. In alignment with the AMSUS theme, operational medicine shows how federal healthcare leads the way to a healthier future, transforming readiness into resilience, care into combat power, and integration into global strength.