Military Medical Research Must Evolve with the Battlefield, Says DoD Health Affairs Leader at MHSRS 2025
Dr. Stephen Ferrara Urges Agility, Innovation, and Real-World Testing to Save Lives in Future Conflicts at the 2025 Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS).
 |
Dr. Stephen Ferrara, acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, delivered a powerful keynote address to kick off the 2025 MHSRS. (Photo credit: Zachary Willis, USU) |
August 4, 2025 by Sharon Holland
The 2025 Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS) kicked off this week in Kissimmee, Florida, with a powerful keynote address from Dr. Stephen Ferrara, acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and a 1995 graduate of the Uniformed Services University’s School of Medicine.
The symposium drew a 15% increase in abstract submissions over last year, with 3,744 abstracts submitted across 69 scientific topic areas aligned with four focus areas: warfighter medical readiness, expeditionary medicine, warfighter performance, and return to duty. After rigorous peer review, 473 oral presentations and nearly 400 posters were selected, showcasing cutting-edge research that supports the health and performance of service members worldwide.
Speaking to the more than 3,300 attendees at the meeting, Ferrara underscored the critical role of military medical research in both saving lives on the battlefield and shaping national and global health outcomes.
“Whether you're in a lab or you're in a field hospital, or you're leading an operational test meeting, you're part of the system that directly affects the ability to save lives on the battlefield,” Ferrara said. “Your work does more than serve the warfighter. It shapes our nation in profound and lasting ways.”
He highlighted how innovations born in military medicine—ranging from vaccine development and trauma care to prosthetics, brain injury treatment, and biosurveillance—have transformed civilian healthcare and bolstered public health resilience.
But Ferrara warned that the next fight will look nothing like the last. “The battlefield is changing quickly,” he said. “The front lines are everywhere. And in this new environment, everything and everyone is a target.”
To address those challenges, Ferrara laid out three priorities: sustaining life-saving medical skills in degraded environments, strengthening force readiness and resilience, and delivering connected, adaptable care before, during, and after injury. He emphasized the importance of agility and innovation in research, development, and field-testing.
“We need to design, test, and field medical solutions with this emphasis on agility, adaptability, and speed,” Ferrara said. “It means building tools and systems that don't assume we'll have power, security, or time.”
He cited examples including drone-delivered blood during a military exercise, offline-compatible health records on the USNS Mercy, and advances in regenerative medicine like bioengineered skin. But he emphasized that these innovations must be tested in realistic, chaotic scenarios to ensure they will work when lives depend on them.
Ferrara also spoke to the importance of resilience—both physical and mental—for the force, and noted efforts to embed behavioral health professionals with units, use artificial intelligence for early risk detection, and elevate sleep health and mental readiness as critical components of warfighter performance.
“No medical technology, no matter how advanced, can replace the value of trust, support, and strong leadership,” he said.
Closing his remarks, Ferrara issued a challenge to attendees: “Everything we do in military medicine—every innovation, every policy, every decision—comes back to one question: Can we save a life when it matters most? We must design for the fight we’re going to face, not the one we remember. Train in chaos, not in calm. Test technologies under fire, not under fluorescent lights.”
“The answer to that question must be yes.”
