Doctor's Orders

Defense Department leaders have afforded the military medical community a direct line into senior Pentagon strategy and program deliberations, a move that could enable improved visibility of health-related readiness and cost issues.

A new Military Health System Strategic Analysis Working Group (SAWG) will be responsible for providing assessments to what is known in jargon as the Pentagon's analytic agenda, according to a recent DOD instruction.

The first step toward that end is the development of a "baseline"with respect to "both forces and enabler of medical capabilities, to include medical forces and health service support capabilities," the Dec. 18 document reads.

As one of several new duties for the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, that official will assist the DOD policy office in crafting defense planning scenarios, which are fundamental to DOD strategy development, the instruction reads.