DVIDS – News – MEDCoE publishes Army Health System Doctrine Smart Book

JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO, TX – The U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence released the MEDCoE booklet 4-02 Army Health System (AHS) Doctrine Smart Book on June 6, 2024. The document was released to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

MEDCoE PAM 4-02 is a major revision that incorporates information from Joint Publication 4-02 (JP 4-02), Joint Health Services, Army Field Manuals 3.0 (FM 3-0), Operations and FM-3-94, Armies, Corps, and Division Operations, Army Techniques Publication 3-91 (ATP 3-91), Division Operations, ATP 3.91.1, The Joint Air Ground Integration Center, ATP 3-92, Corps Operations, ATP 3-93, Theater Army Operations, and draft doctrinal publications on operational medicine such as FM 4-02, Army Health System.

The booklet begins with a foreword by Brigadier General Clinton Murray, Commanding General MEDCoE. Chapter 1 includes a comprehensive update to the AHS logic diagram to align with the revised FM 3-0 released in October 2022. Added additional illustrations to graphically depict the roles of nursing, global health engagement, and AHS contributions to multidomain operations. An updated illustration of the AHS operational framework. Added information on operational medicine’s contribution to multidomain operations, including unified action, casualty response, triage, and care eligibility determination. Added updated definitions of medical command and control, Force Health Protection (FHP), and Health Service Support (HSS). Updated medical function tables and added design information from FM 4-02.

Chapter 2 includes a comprehensive update to the AHS Doctrine publication hierarchy, updated AHS publications by medical function, and updates to several draft TOCs, as well as additional proposed completion dates that correspond to updated production milestones.

Chapter 3 includes updated task organization illustrations and military symbols to reflect Section 1, a table of organizational and equipment data as provided by FMSWeb, and additional detailed information on the Theater Medical Command (TMC), Medical Brigade, and Multi-functional Medical Battalion (MMB).

Chapter 4 contains the updating and adaptation of all medical functional areas to the new strategic competitive contexts of the Army in the context of armed conflicts, crises and armed confrontations with the FM 3-0 of October 2022. In addition, a discussion and table on the contribution of operational medicine to the principles and requirements of the Army as well as updates of all figures have been added.

MEDCoE PAM 4-02 includes an appendix (Appendix A) of surgical medicine-specific terms, a minor update to Appendix B and the AHS symbology to reflect the Combined Arms Center’s changes to the symbology that impacted medicine, a detailed list of acronyms and abbreviations commonly used in surgical medicine, and a correction of minor grammatical errors and doctrinal terms, symbols, and graphics.

This publication is not intended to make readers experts in the field, but rather to educate them on the basics and serve as a source for instructional publications where they can find more detailed information. The goal is for this Smart Book to be a living, breathing instructional publication, updated every 180 days (typically in March and September) or as needed.

MEDCoE PAM 4-02 can be downloaded from MilSuite at https://www.milsuite.mil/book/docs/DOC-609342.

If you have any questions about this AHS Doctrine Smart Book or AHS doctrine in general, email [email protected].