Medical CDID: Vital to Army Health System’s support of multi-domain operations

By Maj. Rhiannon Jones, Medical Capability Integration DirectorateFebruary 27, 2023

Multinational partners conduct medical training as a part of Project Convergence 2022 (PC22) at Fort Irwin, Calif., Nov. 6, 2022.
Multinational partners conduct medical training as a part of Project Convergence 2022 (PC22) at Fort Irwin, Calif., Nov. 6, 2022. PC22 brought together members of the Joint and Multinational force to rigorously test the effectiveness and interoperability cutting-edge weapons and battle systems. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Spc. Collin S. MacKown) VIEW ORIGINAL

JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas — The Medical Capability Development Integration Directorate (MED CDID) is critical to sustaining the motto of the Army Medical Department (AMEDD): “To Conserve the Fighting Strength.”

Assigned under the Futures and Concepts Center (FCC) of Army Futures Command (AFC), the MED CDID ensures AMEDD has the capabilities required to preserve the health of the force in the Future Operational Environment.

The MED CDID core competencies of concepts, experimentation, requirements and integration directly support both AFC and AMEDD missions. The MED CDID is responsible for enabling the Army Health System (AHS) by developing concepts and requirements that are informed by experimentation and integrated to deliver medical capabilities to meet the needs of the future Army and the Joint Force.

Located on Fort Sam Houston in Texas, the MED CDID was formerly part of Army Training and Doctrine Command. In 2018, AFC was activated, and the MED CDID transferred to AFC as Army modernization was consolidated under this new major command.

The 106 personnel assigned to the MED CDID work hard to prepare Army Medicine to meet the challenges of the future. This involves working with FCC and AFC to determine what threats and future challenges the Army anticipates facing, then determining what medical support will be required as the Army faces those future threats.

Experts from all ten medical functional areas — medical command and control, medical treatment, hospitalization, medical evacuation, medical logistics, dental services, preventive medicine services, combat and operational stress control, veterinary services and medical laboratory services — work on concepts and requirements for future medical unit designs, equipment requirements, and integrating future medical operations with other Army Warfighting Functions.

The medical experts of the MED CDID also coordinate with the Office of the Army Surgeon General, the Defense Health Agency, the Institute for Surgical Research, Medical Research and Development Command and many other Department of Defense Organizations to ensure the synchronization of efforts in medical modernization.

U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team carry a casualty to a Black Hawk during Project Convergence 2022 at Fort Irwin, Calif., Nov. 7, 2022.
U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team carry a casualty to a Black Hawk during Project Convergence 2022 at Fort Irwin, Calif., Nov. 7, 2022. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Woodlyn Escarne) VIEW ORIGINAL

Over the course of 2022, the MED CDID saw the culmination of four major efforts in medical modernization: approval and publication of the AFC Concept for Medical 2028, approval and publication of the Army Medical Modernization Strategy (AMMS), Army adoption of the Theater Medical Information Requirements and execution of medical experimentation during Project Convergence 22.

On March 4, 2022, Lt. Gen. Scott McKean, AFC deputy commanding general and FCC director, approved the AFC Concept for Medical 2028.

“This Operational Concept describes how the Army Health System will enable and sustain Multi-Domain Operations against peer and near-peer competitors in the 2028 timeframe,” McKean emphasized.

The MED CDID developed the Medical Concept as one of the critical supporting concepts within the Army Concept Framework. The Medical Concept leverages lessons learned, past experimentation results and the application of science and technology within the context of the future operating environment.

Following the approval of the AFC Concept for Medical 2028, AFC approved and issued the AMMS, a landmark document highlighting the criticality of providing medical capabilities to support the future force.

Retired Lt. Gen. James M. Richardson, former AFC acting commanding general, signed the strategy in July 2022. The MED CDID, in coordination with FCC, AFC, Army Medical Command and the Office of the Army Surgeon General, developed the AMMS to update the Army’s approach to medical modernization by utilizing a threat-informed foundation which guides how the Army will reinvent AMEDD to deliver relevant value to the Army. The AMMS articulates how AHS will fundamentally transform into a semi-autonomous, integrated, networked capability designed to conserve the fighting strength in the future operating environment.

“The right medical capabilities provide the Army the confidence and assurance that it can deter conflict, and if it needs to fight, it will have the premier medical care that it needs and maintain the national will to win in the crucible of conflict,” said Lt. Gen. R. Scott Dingle, Army Surgeon General and MEDCOM commanding general. “The Medical Modernization Strategy optimizes and guides how we synchronize Army Medicine to deliver relevant force multiplication for the Army.”

The Army also adopted the medical enterprise’s Theater Medical Information Requirements. This information system capability development document, authored and driven by the MED CDID, defines software requirements that will be incrementally implemented and hosted on Service-26 provided hardware and infrastructure components. The multi-phase implementation includes the Joint Operational Medicine Information Systems Program, Military Health System GENESIS Theater and maintaining interfaces to the legacy operational medicine systems for medical command and control, situational awareness and logistics and patient movement. As multiple Army leaders have pointed out, “data is the new ammunition.”

U.S. Army Spc. Kevin Shepard, assigned to 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, uses the Battlefield Assisted Trauma Distributed Observation Kit.
U.S. Army Spc. Kevin Shepard, assigned to 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, uses the Battlefield Assisted Trauma Distributed Observation Kit to input information on simulated casualties on site during Project Convergence 2022 at Fort Irwin, Calif., Nov. 7, 2022. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Woodlyne Escarne) VIEW ORIGINAL

The MED CDID has conducted a myriad of experiments to support the AHS’s three main medical priorities for future capabilities: maximize the ability to clear the battlefield, return to duty far forward and overcome contested logistics. In 2022, MED CDID led experiments on force health protection, whole blood at the point of need, medical command and control, patient movement and theater medical command.

The MED CDID is leveraging knowledge gained through its experimentation to inform future concepts, experiments and requirements and enable better integration across both non-materiel and materiel solutions that are “baked into” doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel and facilities.

“We have to solve problems with a sense of urgency in a complex and uncertain environment,” explained Col. James Jones, director of the MED CDID. “Innovative technologies that integrate with the warfighter and with our medical enterprise are the key to making sure we can see, understand and act faster than ever before.” The MED CDID focuses on a whole-team approach, highlighting not only the core competency divisions of concepts, experimentation, requirements and integration, but also the supporting administration, operations, analysis and medical evacuation concepts and capabilities divisions.

“All our divisions bring important, multitalented teams and resources together to work complex problems,” Jones said. “We focus on our people through deliberate leader development. We couldn’t do what we do without them!”

Army Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville has repeatedly said, “Our People are our strength and must be at the center of what we do.” MED CDID executes this maxim through Army Medicine’s strategic vision of remaining ready, reformed, reorganized, responsive and relevant organizations. The MED CDID and Army Medicine is truly invested in talent management, and it starts with right capability development and proper integration.

The MED CDID focuses on people, transforming the AHS to support domination of the future battlefield, and delivering medical capabilities to meet the needs of the future Army and Joint Force.

As stated by Dingle, “We will continue to conserve the fighting strength not just today, but in tomorrow’s Multi-Domain Operations.”