Subcommittee Chair: CDR Suyoung Tina Chang

Mission:

To improve awareness and access of relevant training for all USPHS medical officers and contribute to the growth and development of our fellow officers through furthering education and training opportunities.

To recruit members to help develop and advertise training opportunities across all agencies.

Current Education and Training Opportunities:

1. Each agency that an officer serves provides training opportunities on a case-by-case basis.
2. FDA has a free BLS class monthly, open to all Commission Corps Officers. Aman Sarai is currently the “manager” for the BLS program at FDA.  You can register for classes by contacting Aman at FDA CC BLS Program FDACCBLSProgram@fda.hhs.gov. 

ACLS and BLS training are currently offered for free from Walter Reed National Medical Center.  To sign up for classes, please contact the Health Education and Training Department at 301-319-5209.  Although you must be credentialed at Walter Reed to qualify for the free training, BLS courses are also offered by local hospitals for a set fee.  If you are an instructor we would love to hear from you.

1. The Expert Field Medical Badge is a United States Army decoration and is awarded to medical personnel of the US Military who successfully complete a set of qualification tests that include the army physical fitness test, M16 or M4 weapons qualification, land navigation, tactical combat casualty care tasks, medical and casualty evacuation tasks, warrior skills tasks, 5 communication tasks. You must achieve at least 75% to pass the written test and a “go” in every  section of the practical or you will be disqualified.  The overall pass rate is 16-21%.  Please contact us directly if you are interested in preparing and competing for the next EFMB so that we can form training groups.
2. The Medical Management of Chemical and Biological Casualties Course (MCBC) is a fully accredited 6 day course health at both USAMRICD, Aberdeen Proving Ground and at USAMRIID, Fort Detrick, Maryland providing training on dealing with chemical, radiological, and nuclear explosives.  If you are interested, please click on the following link: http://ccc.apgea.army.mil/courses/in_house/MCBC.htm
3. Combat Casualty Care Course (C4) is a basic 9-day tri-service continuing medical education program designed to enhance the operational medical readiness and pre-deployment trauma skills of tri-service, medical officers. All courses are located in San Antonio. For more information about the course and how to apply, please click on the following link: http://www.dmrti.army.mil/courses.html
4. The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) & DoD Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (GEIS) Operational Clinical Infectious Disease (OCID) Course is designed to improve medical providers’ ability to identify, diagnose, and treat infectious diseases of significance to deploying and re-deploying U.S. Service Members and those of U.S. National strategic interest. For more information about the course and how to apply, please visit: http://wrair-www.army.mil/OTHERSERVICES_TROPICALMEDICINE.ASPX
5. Training in Tropical Medicine and Traveler's Health Course is certified as an American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) Diploma Course and it fulfills the eligibility requirements for physicians to take the ASTMH Certificate of Knowledge Examination. This comprehensive course is comprised of a lecture, seminar, laboratory, and case-based curriculum incorporating courses which are a part of the MPH/MTM&H program. Enrollment is offered to DoD/U.S. Government employees and civilian medical providers who intend to take the ASTMH Certificate of Knowledge Examination or who want to improve their practice of tropical and travel medicine. Course dates coincide with the Spring semester, generally mid-February through mid-May. Additional information, applications, and point of contact information are provided below. Point of Contact: Patrick Hickey, MD, FAAP LTC, US Army. Deputy Director for Tropical Public Health. Department of Preventive Medicine Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (301) 295-9779 patrick.hickey@usuhs.edu
6. As a Commissioned Corps officer, you have access to educational benefits in the Post-9/11 GI Bill.  If you have at least 90 days of aggregate active duty service after Sept 19, 2001, and are still on active duty, the Post-9/11 GI Bill provides up to 36 months of education benefits for the following types of training.  (Note: Service members may transfer all or some unused benefits to their spouse or dependent):

• Correspondence training
• Cooperative training
• Entrepreneurship training
• Flight training
• Independent and distance learning
• Institutions of higher learning undergraduate and graduate degrees
• Licensing and certification reimbursement
• Vocational/technical training, non-college degree programs
• National testing reimbursement
• On-the-job training
• Tuition Assistance top-up
• Tutorial assistance
• Vocational/technical training

We welcome any ideas or suggestions in terms of topics in need for medical officers to improve themselves through addition training.

Anyone interested in volunteering to be part of the training subcommittee can send us an email of interest.  

Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions using the following emails listed below:

CDR Suyoung Tina Chang

Suyoung.Chang@fda.hhs.gov