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APPENDIX B Statement of Task Major Unit: Institute of Medicine Division, Office, or Board: Medical Follow-Up Agency Subject: Strategies to Protect the Health of Deployed U.S. Forces, Subtask 2.4 Staff Officer Name: Lois Joellenbeck Statement of Task: The project will advise DoD tU.S. Department of Defense] on a long-term strategy for protecting the health of our nation's military person- nel when deployed to unfamiliar environments. Drawing on the lessons of pre- vious conflicts, it will advise the DoD with regard to a strategy for managing the health and exposure issues faced during deployments; these include infectious agents, vaccines, drug interactions, and stress. It also will include adverse reac- tions to chemical or biological warfare agents and other substances. The project will address the problem of limited and variable data in the past, and in the de- velopment of a prospective strategy for improved handling of health and expo- sure issues in future deployments. Subtask 2.4 concerns medical protection, health consequences and treatment, and medical record keeping. Specific issues to be addressed include: . Prevention of adverse health outcomes that could result from exposures to threats and risks including chemical warfare and biological warfare, infectious disease, psychological stress, heat and cold injuries, unintentional injuries; . Requirements for compliance with active duty retention standards; . Pre-deployment screening, physical evaluation, risk education for troops and medical personnel; . Vaccine and other prophylactic agents; 213
214 STRATEGIESTOPROTECTTHEHEALTHOFDEPLOYED U.S. FORCES . Improvements in risk communication with military personnel in order to minimize stress casualties among exposed, or potentially exposed personnel; Improvements in the reintegration of all troops to the home environment; . Treatment of the health consequences of prevention failures, including battle injuries, DNBI "disease and non-battle injury], acute management, and long term follow-up; . Surveillance for short- and long-term outcomes, to include adverse repro- ductive outcomes; and . Improvement in keeping medical records, perhaps using entirely new technology, in documenting exposures, treatment, tracking of individuals through the medical evacuation system, and health/administrative outcomes. Sponsorts): Department of Defense Date of Statement: 11/21/97