FIT FOR THE FUTURE
PROMOTING WELLNESS AND HEALTH
As the Army modernizes how it tracks and promotes Soldier wellness, it is also developing more innovative, effective and resilient health care concepts and infra- structures. Plans for these future-oriented systems and approaches are captured in the Army Medical Modernization Strategy, which outlines how the Army will transform its formations, capabilities and people to build a state-of-the-art Army Health System.
readiness is apparent in the robustness of the programs it executes, including the OHWS program.
OHWS, which is jointly supported by DEVCOM and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (MRDC), originated from a question posed in 2020 by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, which was essentially, “Can you use commercial, off- the-shelf wearable technologies for diagnostics of COVID-19?”
While the answer at the time was no, DEVCOM and MRDC did note that commercially available technologies could assist with Soldier “screening and triage” in operational settings, as well as provide “better leader engagement tools in order to promote well-being and optimization of the warfighter,” explained Joseph Patterson, a Soldier performance strategist at the DEVCOM Soldier Center and project manager for the OHWS program.
As a result, OHWS was designed to investigate whether and how wearable technologies could support the operational readiness of Soldiers preparing for deployment, recognizing that COVID-19 and stress could both have negative effects on numerous health parameters.
“Your physiology doesn’t care if you’re sick or you’re stressed because you’ve had a bad fight or you’re stressed because you went on a 12-mile road march,” Patterson said. “Physiology just responds to stress; it doesn’t care what the stress is.”
MEDICAL CAPABILITY
Soldiers demonstrate new medical technologies during MRDC’s Capability Days at Fort Detrick, Maryland, in April.
With members of the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division serving as study subjects, the program began focusing on how to use wearable sensors and athlete-management system products to evaluate core concerns of susceptibility to illness, enhanced mission command, prevention of injury, sustainment and optimization.
“We take best-of-breed sport technologies and bring them into the military to give us insights that we’ve never had before,” Patterson said of the process.
OPTIMIZING THE HUMAN WEAPON SYSTEM Te mission of the Soldier Effectiveness Directorate at the DEVCOM Soldier Center is “to deliver unprecedented capa- bility through innovation, research, development and technical integration to maximize Soldier effectiveness and readiness.”
Te importance of this undertaking is not something the direc- torate takes lightly, and its commitment to furthering Soldier
22 Army AL&T Magazine Fall 2022
Te program currently is testing the Oura Ring, a wearable sensor and app, to track recovery and sleep; the Polar Grit X Pro outdoor watch to track exertion, including heart rate and muscle load; and the Smartabase software platform to collect and analyze aggre- gate performance data.
Te program started testing the effectiveness of commercial off- the-shelf wearables and athlete management software with a
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