MHCE APRIL 2024

14 | MHCE - News www.mhce.us APRIL2024 EDITION WWW.MHCE.US
Monthly Newsletter | 15
DOD Remains Committed to Protecting
Health of Service Members, Learning From
Effects of COVID-19
Dr. Lester Martinez-Lopez, assistant secretary
of defense for health affairs, and Shauna
Stahlman, senior managing epidemiologist
and technical lead in the field of epidemiology
and analysis at the Armed Forces Health
Surveillance Division, provided insight into
the Pentagon's ongoing monitoring of COVID-
19-related issues during a roughly 45-minute
appearance before a House Armed Services
Committee.
"Today, four years after the emergence of
SARS-CoV-2 virus, it continues to circulate
in our military communities and evolve into
new variants, presenting and ongoing health
threat capable of harming service members
and affecting operations," Martinez-Lopez told
members of the Subcommittee on Personnel.
"The department remains committed to
protecting the health of the force and to better
understand these impacts."
In addressing some of the specific ways in
which DOD is attempting to get a leg up on
COVID-19, Martinez-Lopez pointed to a
pair of databases that medical analysts are
using to investigate data and trends related
to COVID-19. One is the Defense Medical
Surveillance System, or DMSS, which is
a relational database that is continuously
expanding with the documentation of service
members' individual medical experiences
throughout their careers; the second is the
Defense Medical Epidemiology Database,
which provides limited remote access to DMSS
information.