FORT DETRICK, Md., September 25 – Digital health recording and automated medical logistics efforts on the battlefield will be led by the new commander for the Army’s Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care (MC4) product management office, Lt. Col. William Geesey. During the change of charter ceremony held September 25 at Fort Detrick, Md., former MC4 Commander Lt. Col. Edward Clayson conceded the MC4 charter to Lt. Col. Geesey, but not before announcing MC4’s achievement of the Army Superior Unit Award (ASUA).

MC4 is the first Army product management office and fifth Army acquisition organization to win the ASUA. “This award pays as much a tribute to our deployed medical professionals and commanders as it does to the MC4 workforce,” Lt. Col. Clayson said. “ASUA recipients exemplify superior performance of exceptionally difficult tasks. Expanding MC4 systems and services globally to all deployed medical forces in 13 countries, and closing the digital medical recording gap are a testament of great teamwork between an IM/IT solution and its end users and beneficiaries.”

Assuming MC4’s fourth product manager role since 1999, Lt. Col. Geesey forecasts continued improvements on the electronic medical recording efforts, heightened training and support roles and a renewed focus on medical logistics initiatives. “Ensuring tactical medical units have the resources, the know-how and the support necessary to succeed on the DoD’s digital medical recording effort is paramount,” Lt. Col. Geesey said. “The user’s success is our success.”

Lt. Col. Geesey has more than 24 years of Military service, mostly in the medical logistics field. His previous acquisition experience includes being selected by the Surgeon General’s Logistics Consultant as a Project Manager for the Tri-Service Medical Logistics automated information system, the Defense Medical Logistics Standard Support (DMLSS) program. He has served in medical leadership roles in the U.S., Korea and Thailand. LTC Geesey’s responsibilities have led him to working at the Pentagon, Brooke Army Medical Center, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and various divisions, battalions and combat support hospitals. He plans on extending the momentum created by MC4’s initial deployment of its medical logistics system in 2007.

“Arming medical units with critical class VIII supplies to treat our wounded warriors is as important as documenting the care they receive on the battlefield,” Lt. Col. Geesey said. “MC4 will leverage new and ongoing relationships with the Army Medical Department Center and School, the Defense Health Information Management System and the medical logistics community to ensure continued growth beyond just the digital medical record. We must also champion the institutionalization of MC4 by advocating for improved training resources and inculcating a ‘train as we fight’ employment of the system.”

To date, MC4 has trained more than 31,000 medical professionals and has fielded 26,000 systems to the battlefield in support of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom, as well as contingency operations worldwide. As a result, more than 8 million electronic health records have been captured on the battlefield via MC4. In May, The Army Surgeon General announced the worldwide expansion of MC4 in the war zone.

MC4 integrates, fields and supports a medical information management system for Army tactical medical forces, enabling a comprehensive, lifelong electronic medical record for all Service members, and enhancing medical situational awareness for operational commanders. The Army’s Program Executive Office, Enterprise Information Systems (PEO EIS), Fort Belvoir, Va. Overseas the MC4 Product Management Office, headquartered at Fort Detrick, Md.

For more information on MC4 and a biography of LTC William Geesey, visit www.mc4.army.mil.