The Epidemiology and Analysis (E&A) division performs comprehensive surveillance and analyses of health-related information regarding military service members and military-associated populations. The division leverages the two major resources maintained by the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch’s (AFHSB)’s Data Management and Technical Support (DMTS) team:

• Defense Medical Surveillance System (DMSS) 
• Department of Defense (DoD) Serum Repository (DoDSR) 

The division also uses other data resources currently not included in the DMSS such as theater evacuations (TRANSCOM Regulating and Command and Control Evacuation System [TRAC2ES]). The division incorporates expertise in data analysis and scientific methods that are required to address the wide range of data requests that it receives and analysis products that it distributes. 

Requests and Reports

Requests for information, analyses, and customer support from the DoD community reach the E&A division via several different routes, most commonly through military service liaisons at AFHSB. Each request for information, analysis, and customer support is evaluated for factors such as military relevance, status as public health research versus public health practice, scientific integrity, and feasibility. Data and analysis support have included detailed tracking of service members' health status before and after deployment, vaccine safety, immunization rates, acute respiratory diseases, and sero-epidemiologic surveillance in support of clinical care. For the reports, the division conducts extensive analyses of baseline rates and trends of health-related conditions among all five branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. These routine periodic reports include:

• The DoD Installation Injury Report, which features injury rates specific to each military base;
• The DoD Deployment Health Compliance Report, which provides the proportion of service members who returned from deployment and completed any of the three deployment forms (DD2795, DD2796, DD2900) within the specified compliance period;
• The Military Health System Dashboard to monitor trends in post-traumatic stress disorder and depression screens along with proportions of referrals and treatments for mental health.

Each year, the DoD community receives approximately 500 customized and 800 periodic reports that estimate operational impact, disease burden, and program effectiveness. These reports are designed to help key DoD and Coast Guard decision makers implement and continuously improve valuable, evidence-based force health protection measures.

Other analyses products are delivered to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs to support policy decisions and address congressional and media inquiries

Education and Training

As a key DoD resource for health surveillance and epidemiology, the division hosts Preventive Medicine residents and Occupational and Environmental Medicine residents as well as MPH/MSPH candidates (zoology and entomology) from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences for a four- to six-week rotation. In this practice-based learning environment, both medical residents and graduate students develop and execute a data analysis project under the supervision of the education coordinator and/or a senior managing epidemiologist. The majority of the projects are published in the MSMR or other peer-reviewed journals.