Mission Ready: USU Accelerates Innovation and Education for Warfighter Health
The Uniformed Services University is driving critical advancements in military medicine across its core colleges and institutes to enhance combat readiness and care for service members and their families.
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The Uniformed Services University (USU) accelerates innovation and education across all its colleges to enhance combat readiness and care for service members. (USU photo) |
November 19, 2025 by USU External Affairs
The Uniformed Services University (USU) is mobilizing high-impact research and academic programs that span the spectrum of military medicine. This collective work—from specialized trauma training to cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) integration—reaffirms USU’s indispensable role in supporting the Military Health System (MHS) and ensuring the readiness of the Joint Force.
“With medical knowledge doubling every 73 days, the pace of change is extraordinary,” said USU President Dr. Jonathan Woodson. “USU’s role is to ensure the Military Health System is not just keeping up, but leading—so our warfighters receive the most advanced care anywhere in the world.”
Driving Innovation: AI, Advanced Wound Care, and Graduate Education
USU is leveraging technology and foundational science to solve the most pressing challenges facing the battlefield.
AI Revolutionizes Wound Care
The School of Medicine (SOM) is applying AI to revolutionize clinical practice. Specifically, the Surgical Critical Care Initiative (SC2i) leverages Google Cloud technology, including Google AI, to develop Clinical Decision Support Tools (CDSTs), which accelerate the timeline for biomarker discovery from months to weeks.
This advanced work is already demonstrating real-world value. The successful use of the WounDx tool has led to a 57% reduction in wound closure complication rates for almost half a million patients, highlighting the immediate benefits of AI-powered precision medicine.
SOM research is also addressing fundamental injury challenges. Work funded by the Transforming Technology for the Warfighter program found that the TSN6 peptide mixed in a hydrogel could significantly improve the quality of wound healing, marking a critical advance in battlefield medicine.
High-Stakes Research in Graduate Education
USU’s Graduate Education programs focus on high-stakes research with direct clinical applications.
Students in the Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB) program are investigating deadly diseases, including developing novel therapeutic strategies for human cancers such as pancreatic and lung cancer. Other MCB students are focused on weakening biofilm defenses to enhance antibiotic effectiveness, a vital project for treating warfighters.
Anthony Erb, Megan Rasmussen, and Ambar Rodriguez-Martinez, students working under Dr. Sara Young-Baird, are working to understand how defects in the machinery that controls protein translation in cells causes devastating neurodevelopmental disorders.
Graduate student Joseph LaMorte is working with Dr. Matt Wilkerson to assess correlations between proteomic and transcriptomic tumor profiling in a pan-cancer setting, with broad implications for biomarker identification and advancing cancer precision medicine.
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Students in USU's Graduate Education programs conduct high-stakes research with direct clinical applications for warfighter health. (Photo credit: Tom Balfour, USU) |
Protecting the Warfighter: Traumatic Injury and Radiation Countermeasures
USU’s specialized centers continue to lead in addressing modern combat injuries, including blast trauma and radiological threats.
Brain Health and Blast Exposure
The Military Traumatic Brain Injury Initiative (MTBI2) program contributed to the newly published second edition of the Brain Trauma Foundation Guidelines for the Management of Penetrating Traumatic Brain Injury. This comprehensive update reflects two decades of medical advances and the realities of modern warfare.
MTBI2 is also focused on preemptive protection. Dr. Michael Roy’s BLAST EMFASIS study, which recently completed enrollment, is among the first to examine the acute effects of blast overpressure exposure in female active-duty Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) personnel. This study uses wearable blast sensors and immediate follow-up assessments to capture critical neurological data.
Radiation Readiness
The Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) is ensuring military personnel can operate in hazardous environments.
The Medical Effects of Ionizing Radiation course, run by AFRRI’s Military Medical Operations department in partnership with Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and the FBI Hostage Rescue Team, aims to develop and validate radiological/nuclear decontamination tactics, techniques, and procedures for open wounds in hot environments. Additionally, AFRRI researchers are working to identify and validate biomarkers for radiation injury, a requirement for Food and Drug Administration approval of medical countermeasures that protect warfighters in radiological/nuclear events.
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The university is working to close critical gaps in military medicine, including specialized trauma training and life-saving countermeasures. (Photo credit: U.S. Army photo by Capt. Joseph Legros) |
Educating and Certifying the Military Health Force
USU’s colleges are ensuring the future military medical force is highly trained, professionally credentialed, and ready to deploy.
Advanced Trauma Training
The Graduate School of Nursing (GSN) is elevating the standard for its students. Starting in March 2026, the required “Trauma and Combat Casualty Care” course will be overhauled to culminate in the Tier 4 Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) certificate for all GSN students. This crucial update ensures Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) students are prepared for combat operations.
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“USU’s role is to ensure the MHS is not just keeping up, but leading— so our warfighters receive the most advanced care anywhere in the world," said USU President Dr. Jonathan Woodson. [Photo credit: Cmdr. (Dr.) Jacob Cole] |
Professional Credentials and Graduate Support
The SOM's Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics Department successfully launched the first-of-its-kind Health Informatics and Information Sciences (HIIS) Graduate Certificate Program. This fully asynchronous program is designed to meet the growing military demand for skilled professionals in health informatics and digital transformation.
The College of Allied Health Sciences (CAHS) is focused on aligning academic offerings with professional standards. This includes prioritizing efforts to establish mandatory Hospital Corpsman (HM) certification to provide Navy HMs with nationally-recognized credentials, ensuring validated skills across medical personnel.
The Postgraduate Dental College (PDC) provides essential academic support and resources to more than 400 graduate dental education residents and development opportunities for over 450 military faculty across 55 programs nationwide. The PDC is resuming critical faculty development and outcome assessment survey work that was recently paused, both of which are essential for program accreditation.
Mental Health, Sleep, and Resilience
The Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP) and SOM faculty are collaborating to enhance mental health interventions for service members and their families.
Sleep-Based Suicide Prevention
Dr. Maegan Paxton Willing of CDP is leading foundational research that examines the daily effects of sleep on suicidal ideation in Veterans. This work will inform future large-scale interventions for active-duty service members.
This effort is part of a broader collaboration, including a randomized controlled trial to examine the effectiveness of mHealth apps and group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) to increase access to evidence-based sleep care within the MHS.
Creative Arts and PTSD
CDP is also facilitating the integration of Creative Arts Therapies (CAT). This includes developing and piloting a novel treatment that integrates Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Nightmares with art therapy (CBT-N+AT).
Furthermore, Dr. Jeffrey Cook of CDP is examining the clinical effectiveness and acceptability of Behavioral Health Technician-delivered written exposure therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in active-duty personnel. This model is specifically designed to improve access to care within the MHS.
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USU's academic programs ensure the future military medical force is highly trained, credentialed, and ready to deploy. (USU photo) |
The return to full capacity at the Uniformed Services University has immediately translated into accelerated momentum across its core mission areas. From the School of Medicine's deployment of AI to drastically improve wound healing outcomes, to AFRRI’s development of life-saving radiation countermeasures, and the GSN and SOM's commitment to delivering Tier 4 TCCC and specialized trauma training, USU is actively closing critical gaps in military medicine. These efforts are tangible investments in the health, resilience, and readiness of every warfighter, ensuring the MHS remains prepared to support the nation's defense.
