USU Newsletter

VOLUME 4, ISSUE 16 WWW.USUHS.MIL October 12, 2009
by MC1 Chad Hallford

The USU “cooked off ” its Fall 2009 

Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) 

with an on-campus barbecue, Oct. 1.

CFC-supported organizations hosted 

booths, offering information, novelty 

reminders, and often first-hand stories 

of how the charities have directly helped 

their communities.

“Barbecue’s bring people together. 

The campus tuned in to a spirit of giving 

and learned about many of the organizations they hopefully will soon help 

out,” said Army Capt. Sean Tyler, CFC 

campaign manager.

Organizations on a local, national and 

international level representing military 

issues, health concerns, world relief efforts 

and humanitarian causes told about their 

unique conditions within each organization and their ongoing efforts.

“It’s essential to give people more than 

numbers and a description from a book. 

You meet someone who was affected by 

each organization, you may have learned 

events about someone’s situation, but 

more importantly, you found a face 

behind a charity. You see the help that 

organizations give, thanks to individual 

contributions,” said Tyler.

Questions about an individual organization can by directed to Capt. Tyler, 

Navy Lt. Christine Schlaerth, or your 

department’s key worker.

CFC officially underway

University CFC key workers serve barbecue to University members who went 

through an informational line of CFC organizations.University and guest speakers 

also presented personal experiences at 

the barbecue.

Jennifer Davis, project manager, and 

Dianne Purvis, senior scientist/educator 

discuss findings at the Human Performance Resource Center in the Department of Military Emergency Medicine.

(Cover photo: Ken Frager)

photo by HM2 Michael Oliver

PAGE 2

USU Newsletter

Bill Bester 

Acting Vice President for

 External Affairs and 

Managing Editor

Ken Frager

Public Affairs Specialist

Staff Sgt. Matthew Rosine

Production Editor

MC1 Chad Hallford

Layout and Design

Christine Creenan

Contributing Writer

Production:

Editorial content is edited, prepared and provided by the USU 

Office of External Affairs unless 

otherwise indicated. The Newsletter staff may include or exclude 

articles based upon news value, 

impact on the university and space 

availability. 

Submissions: 

The USU Newsletter will be published bi-weekly on Mondays. The 

deadline for submissions is at 4 

p.m. Friday prior to the publication date. Submissions can be 

sent to usunewsletter@usuhs.mil 

or by calling 301 295-0895. 

photo by HM2 Michael Oliver

The University hosted the 83rd meeting of The Halsted Society Sept. 23-26. 

Named for surgical pioneer, Dr. William Stewart Halsted, this meeting encompassed a scientific program. The society is limited to 75 active members, by 

invitation only, with the goal furthering the scientific principles and ideals for which 

Dr. Halsted stood. The society encourages the exchange of ideas, in a free and 

informal discussion.

Halsted Society’s 83rd Meeting
by Ken Frager

During the annual conference of the National Athletic 

Trainers’ Association (NATA) this summer in San Antonio, 

USU’s Col. (Dr.) Francis O’Connor, who also is the First 

Vice President of the American Society of Sports Medicine 

(ASSM), participated in a session and press conference on the 

new NATA Consensus Statement entitled “Preseason HeatAcclimatization Guidelines for Secondary School Athletics.” 

In addition to AMSSM and NATA, the task force that 

developed the consensus statement represented six other 

groups, including the American College of Sports Medicine, 

the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, the National Strength 

and Conditioning Association, the United States Army 

Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, the American 

PAGE 3

by Ken Frager

An increasing number of deaths and long-term injuries in 

recent years from heat-related illness has led to the development of new guidelines that were implemented by the US 

Army this past summer. The guidelines, which were developed by the Consortium for Health and Military Performance (CHAMP) at the Uniformed Services University of 

the Health Sciences (USU), provide guidance to Army leaders to assist in determining when service members who had 

heat related injuries and illness could return to duty.

“From the perspective of the military, heat illness significantly depletes the availability and effectiveness of Army 

troops because the guidelines for returning to action until 

now have not been followed or enforced effectively,” said Col. 

(Dr.) Francis G. O’Connor, MPH, associate professor of family medicine at the USU and medical director for CHAMP. 

“If a service member suffers from serious heat injury or illness, they potentially are out-of-service and non-deployable 

for up to 15 months.”

According to O’Connor, the primary objective from this 

new policy was to ensure the safety and effective treatment of 

service members. Secondary to that is the long-term effectiveness of any treatment and the soldier’s ultimate return to 

duty, followed by the general readiness of all troops. 

“We began investigating how to properly adapt the existing 

policies for heat injury and illness during our 2008 Roundtable 

Conference and ended up with an entirely new approach that 

accomplishes everything we set out to achieve,” said O’Connor.

O’Connor and his research team believe heat acclimatization 

is one of the best strategies for reducing the risk of heat illness. 

Using the environmental chamber in building 53, where both 

temperature and humidity can be regulated to cold and heat 

extremes, the team hopes to move forward with heat-related 

research with the intention of narrowing the existing research 

gaps. The heat-acclimatization period is defined as the initial 14 

High temperature, exertion makes a dangerous mix among Soldiers

consecutive days following initial onset of the illness. The goal 

of the acclimatization period is to increase exercise heat tolerance and enhance the ability to safely and effectively return to 

action in warm and hot conditions. 

photo by Ken Frager

Army Col. (Dr.) Francis O’Connor discusses the results of a recent 

heat challenge test with project manager Jennifer Davis.

CHAMP leads work group to protect young athletes

Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine and the American 

Academy of Pediatrics.

“The guidelines we developed have been adapted for use 

among high school athletes during their conditioning and 

training,” said O’Connor. This is believed to be the first ever 

set of high school-specific guidelines published in a scientific 

journal, and is critical education for student athletes, parents, 

coaches, athletic trainers, medical professionals and school 

staff on measures that can reduce the risk of these illnesses. 

“Exertional heat stroke is the leading cause of preventable 

non-traumatic sudden death for young athletes in the U.S. If 

we can assist coaches and athletic trainers in understanding 

how to approach heat illness and injuries, and help to educate 

student athletes about proper treatment and recovery, we will 

have made a significant impact,” said O’Connor. 
PAGE 4

USU volunteers for Baltimore-Washington Ride for Kids

by Newsletter Staff 

Volunteers from USU gave of their 

personal time, strengths and talents 

to support the Pediatric Brain Tumor 

Foundation (PBTF) Baltimore-Washington Ride for Kids® event.

The “Ride,” which started at the 

Columbia Mall, in Columbia, Md. on 

Sept. 27, had USU’s involvement, complete with military color guard, registration workers and other volunteers.

“Everyone who participated was truly 

touched,” said Navy Cmdr. (Dr.) Rene 

Hernandez, SoM Navy Company Commaander.

The 18th annual ride included more 

than 400 motorcyclists and many supporters who raised $196,468 for medical 

research and family support programs.

“In addition, we counted 192 motorcycles — most had passengers. We 

normally have around 300 motorcycles, 

so we expect that riders who didn’t want 

to ride in the rain might still send in 

their donations,” said Hernandez.

Hernandez described the ride as “encouraging to new riders as they joined 

experienced riders and their police 

escorts who spent more than 90 minutes 

twisting through the beautiful Maryland 

countryside.”

After the ride, riders and volunteers 

heard about the achievements of 11 local 

brain tumor survivors, including 15-

year-old Maggie, who held bake sales to 

raise $800 for the PBTF.

They were also joined by Dr. Greg 

Riggins, leader of the Brain Cancer Biology and Therapy Research Laboratory at 

The Johns Hopkins University School of 

Medicine, and Dr. Roger Packer, director 

of the Brain Tumor Institute at Children’s 

National Medical Center and PBTF 

Scientific Advisory Board member.

The national Ride for Kids program 

USU volunteers man registration tables at the 18th PBTF Baltimore-Washington Ride 

for Kids. 

photo by HM2 Michael Oliver

and the PBTF promote childhood brain 

tumor research and provide family support through free literature about brain 

tumors, educational newsletters, online 

conferences and college scholarships.

This program is sponsored by a nonfederal entity. It is not a part of the 

Department of Defense or any of its 

components and it has no Governmental status. This announcement is for 

information only and does not constitute approval or endorsement by the 

University.

Five individuals who represent what makes the USU a unique military 

and public health education and research center of excellence are 

profiled in the newest issue of MHS Profiles, a publication of the 

Military Health System. An alumnus who, until recently, served as 

commanding officer of Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton; an associate professor of neurology who is doing breakthrough research on 

phantom limb pain; a third-year medical student who is working with 

underserved populations; a clinical psychology student caring for patients with psychological health issues; and a USU alumnus working 

as a family nurse practitioner — who share the passion that military 

medical providers bring to their jobs every day. 

For more information, log on to http://www.health.mil/MHSBlog/Article.

aspx?ID=642 to view a video of the section’s interactive features and 

http://www.health.mil/profiles to view this article. The article also is 

available in a downloadable pdf format from the USU Web site for distribution at health programs or conferences where USU and staff are 

represented. http://www.usuhs.mil/vpe/pdf/mhsprofilesususeparate.pdf

Five from USU featured in MHS publication

USUBuilding a Health

Science Community of

Compassion & Hope

by Gina Pattison
PAGE 5

Tech Watch: Spyware security incidents

by Ken Frager

More than 100 senior-level participants from across a variety of federal 

agencies came together for the inaugural “A Nation Prepared” conference in 

September, hosted by the Uniformed 

Services University’s National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public 

Health, or NCDMPH. Attendees were 

encouraged by local and national leaders to begin the challenging process of 

identifying disaster medicine and public 

health education and training needs 

across the federal sector.

“The mission and goals of the NCDMPH shall promote standardized education and training of public health and 

medical disaster preparedness response 

based on collaboratively developed and 

accepted core competencies, procedures 

and terms of reference,” said Dr. David 

Marcozzi, Director of Public Health 

Policy for the White House National 

Security Staff and lunchtime keynote 

speaker. “The National Center will share 

their findings with federal, state, local 

and tribal government, academia, and 

the private sector. This lift is large. If it 

were easy, it would be done already.”

Dr. Kenneth W. Schor, DO, MPH, 

acting director of the Center believes the 

program accomplished all it set out to do 

in the first year. “People got engaged, they 

felt empowered to provide feedback, and 

they had the opportunity to share quite 

a bit,” said Dr. Schor. “We definitely did 

more listening than speaking, but when 

so many people come together from such 

varying backgrounds and experience, we 

felt we needed to be careful not to take 

people too far out of their comfort zones 

without first proving our worth.”

Schor added that he and the planning 

team were impressed by the willingness of 

attendees who should be working together 

but who haven’t in the past, to become so 

entrenched in the topics and to be willing 

to share their thoughts and experiences.

“We started off with a strong program 

and a very good attendance just focusing 

on attendees at the Federal level,” said 

Schor. “We need to branch out further in 

the future to draw from other areas and 

to gain other experiences and expertise. I think everyone took something 

new away from this year’s program and 

the feedback has been positive, so we 

couldn’t be more pleased. Our next step 

is to review the dialogues and transcripts, 

to prepare a report, and start creating 

some action items to begin building on 

next year’s program.”

Inaugural disaster preparedness conference draws praise

by Joel Robertson

USU IA manager

For fiscal year 2009, the Information Assurance branch has 

received over 10,000 spyware reports from the USU computer 

network defense support provider.

This provider continuously monitors our network to detect 

and notify University Information Systems of malicious activity 

and unauthorized traffic. Most of the alerts are closely related 

to either improper browsing habits including clicking on links 

inside pop-ups, or toolbars, such as “trackwarefunproducts,” 

“mywebtoolbar,” “trackwarespeedbar” and a host of software 

that collect information unknown to the user.

Clues that spyware is on a computer may include a barrage of 

pop-ups, a browser that takes you to sites you don’t want, keys 

that don’t work, a sudden or repeated change in your computer’s 

Internet home page, random error messages, and sluggish performance when opening programs or saving files. 

In some cases, there may be no symptoms at all.

In an effort reduce the risks posed by these malicious products, the University will be moving to the McAfee Endpoint 

Protection when the Host Based Security System is deployed in 

the near future.

This system will assist in combating many of these activities. 

University Information Systems will also be able to monitor 

unauthorized attempts to make changes the systems and block 

specific attacks.

If you think your computer might have spyware on it, immediately stop shopping, banking, or doing any other online 

activity that involves user names, passwords, or other sensitive 

information. Have UIS confirm that your security software is 

active, current and run it to scan your computer for viruses and 

spyware, deleting anything the program identifies as a problem. 

The overall goal of USU’s IA branch is to ensure that users 

can do their jobs safely and with little risk to the systems they 

use every day.

Conference participants included:(back row) Dr. Alexander Garza, Department of Homeland Security; Air Force Col. Donald Noah; Dr. Gerald Parker, Department of Health and 

Human Services; Mr. Michael Lowder, Department of Transportation;(front row) Dr. David 

Marcozzi, White House National Security Council; Dr. Kenneth Schor, Acting Director, 

NCDMPH; Dr. Victoria Davey Veterans Affairs

photo courtesy of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation
USU Sailors give time to teach Sea Cadets

PAGE 6

photo by MC1 Chad Hallford

Left: Information Systems Technician 3rd Class (IT3) Bobby Grounds, of 

UIS poses during all-Navy softball tryouts and tournament. Above: IT3 

Grounds swings at a pitch during an all-Service game. Army, Air Force, 

Navy and Marines played each other round-robin three times and Air 

Force(7-2) took the championship while Navy(3-6) was third. The Armed 

Forces Championships tournament was held Sept 19 -25 at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fl. Grounds also played all-Navy softball in a World Softball 

League tournament in Panama City, Fl., Sept 12. He was selected by the 

coach to participate in training camp and tryouts and named to the team 

that represents the Navy in a highly competitive sport against other services. (Coast Guard is also represented by Navy)

Navy Capt. (Dr.) Cynthia Macri offers tools for building 

character to local youth. Macri along with USU Sailors also 

offered tips for writing college admission resumés and gave 

occupational insights.

by MC1 Chad Hallford

Twenty Montgomery county area high school students 

called USU their ‘place of duty’ Sept. 19-20 as USU Sailors gave time to offer advice and training.

The U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps, Charette Battalion 

drills the third weekend of each month at USU and is 

“designed to groom youth for college and beyond by giving 

experience in leadership, civic duties and citizenship,” as 

part of a college preparation session said Navy Capt. (Dr.) 

Cynthia Macri, former USU vice president of recruitment 

and diversity.

The Charette Battalion, established after namesake 

Medal of Honor recipient and Hospital Corpsman Master 

Chief William R. Charette, has a medical focus and drive 

behind many of their activities. Thus, they have developed a 

strong connection to USU as a potential source of medical 

training and education, as well as education in many other 

Navy careers. 

Navy Hospital Corpsmen and USU Sailors volunteer 

USU represented in all-Service softball tourney

throughout the year to provide strong interaction and mentoring to area youth.

photos by Navy Lt. Tony Butler
PFT/PFA/APFT Fall 2009: 

The Fall 2009 Physical Fitness Test 

for all services is scheduled for Oct. 13-

15 and 20-22, 2009 at 0700 and 1200. 

Plan accordingly as all physical fitness testing, height, weight and body 

fat measurements will be conducted at 

USU. 

No exceptions. 

If there are any questions please contact your service specific fitness coordinators - Air Force contact Tech. Sgt. 

Troyann Ernle at 295-3281; Navy contact IT3 Robert Grounds at 295-9800 

or HM1 Joe Monsivais at 295-1479; 

and Army contact Staff Sgt. David Rogers at 295-3720. 

Exercise/Fitness Areas: 

Physical Fitness training should be 

conducted in designated areas. 

The only authorized space for PT 

within the university is room G060. 

Indoor PT is also authorized on 

base at the Comfort Zone Complex, or 

CZC, in building 23. 

All other spaces within the university are not authorized for exercise or 

fitness, with the exception of the Student Community Lounge area during 

specified PFT testing dates or times. 

The CZC hours of operation are 

Monday – Friday from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

and on weekends and holidays from 

are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Helpdesk Closure:

The UIS helpdesk is closed for training on Thursdays from 10 to 11 a.m. 

During this time, you can leave a 

voicemail message at 295-9800, utilize 

the HEAT Self Service (http://www.

usuhs.mil/uis/forms/trouble.html), or 

email help@usuhs.mil. 

If an emergency should arise, please 

call 295-9870.

Using Computer Resources: 

Security incidents continue to be 

a drain to limited USU Information 

Assurance manpower. The following 

highlight current DoD policy and best 

practices:

Personnel must not install self-coded 

or non-licensed software on network 

resources; add, remove, configure, or attempt to modify USU computer operating systems or programs; move audio/

visual or network cables, computers or 

attempt to connect personal computers 

to the network including MDL and lecture hall spaces; connect personal devices 

except for those previously authorized by 

UIS; download pornographic material 

and store or display offensive material, 

such as racist literature, sexually harassing or obscene language or material; store 

or process classified information on any 

USU system; permit unauthorized individuals access to a government-owned or 

government-operated system or program; 

access online gambling, games and social 

engineering sites.

Stronger Female Physicians: 

Submissions are now being accepted 

for the Building Stronger Female Physician Leaders for the Military Health 

System. 

This award honors outstanding female 

physicians who have made significant contributions to the practice of 

medicine and/or who have served as 

exemplary role models for other female 

physicians. 

Completed submissions must be 

received by 30 Oct. 

Additional information at www.

health.mil/People/docs/FemaleLeadersAward.doc.

USU Briefs

Time to vote... 

 Recently, we initiated a survey 

to find a new name for the USU 

Newsletter. With more than 120 entries submitted, we have narrowed 

it down to the top three responses. 

 Thanks for your participation 

and for your continued support and 

readership.

 -The USU Newsletter Staff

PAGE 7

photo by Ken Frager

Caption contest

The winning caption: “Is it your tent or mine?” submitted by Jay Thaker.

...and thanks to all who submitted.