The Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center's (NMCPHC) Epi Data Center (EDC) is vital part of a Department of Defense(DoD) public health program that was recognized as the 2015 Outstanding Research Accomplishment/Team/Intramural.

Rear. Adm. Bruce A. Doll, Director, Research, Development and Acquisition, Defense Health Agency (DHA), and the Deputy Commander, U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command presented the award at the 2015 Military Health System Research Symposium, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Aug. 17.

The research involved a collaborative effort between the EDC team and the Multidrug-resistant organism Repository and Surveillance Network (MRSN) and Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center/ Global Emerging Infections Surveillance, a partnership known as the Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring and Research (ARMoR) Program.

EDC provides daily antimicrobial resistance surveillance reports to the MRSN-ARMoR Program.

The award recognizes the MRSN-EDC team for their research efforts in support of the White House 2015 National Action Plan as a key element in the approach to Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (CARB).

According to Dr. Christopher Rennix, NMCPHC EDC Department Head, the award was the result of a tremendous team effort on the part of his staff.

"The EDC Clinical Epidemiology team has been on the cutting edge of antimicrobial resistance surveillance for several years now and the collaboration with MRSN creates a really strong program to address this growing problem," said Rennix.

The program represents an integration of the Army's MRSN and the EDC, formalized in 2014. It consists of research microbiologists, epidemiologists, and infection control professionals using a centralized molecular diagnostics and bioinformatics laboratory, electronic medical and clinical laboratory record data mining, feedback to stakeholders, and applied research to quickly and accurately identify and catalogue emerging infections.

Although the program/team benefits all Department of Defense healthcare beneficiaries, its most notable impact over the recent year have involved support to deployed warfighters in Afghanistan, Kuwait, AFRICOM, and Honduras, and wounded evacuees at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) and the San Antonio Military Medical Center (SAMMC).

"This award recognizes the importance of joint collaboration, leveraging the expertise and talents of a multi-disciplinary team of scientists to prevent and control infections due to multidrug resistant bacteria, directly supporting the war-fighter," said Capt. Eric R. Hoffman, NMCPHC Executive Officer. "We are extremely proud of our team members who received this award and the entire Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center staff who dedicate themselves to delivering public health excellence to our customers every day."

For more information on NMCPHC's EDC, visit: http://www.med.navy.mil/sites/nmcphc/epi-data-center/Pages/default.aspx.

For more news from Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center, visit www.navy.mil/.