Tailoring Medical Standards for Air Force Personnel

📖 The Scoop

Service members must meet medical standards set by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to ensure that they are fit to serve in the U.S. military. However, the individual services establish additional standards for specific career field categories. To meet critical skill needs in the future, the U.S. Air Force is interested in better ways to assess and align personnel to career fields. Part of that interest focuses on tailoring medical standards to meet the needs of highly technical career fields with fewer physical demands. Tailoring medical standards involves the systematic development of alternative standards (or tests) or exemptions for one or more medical conditions for individuals or groups of individuals who otherwise meet all other requirements for military service. Although tailoring medical standards may help the Air Force and specific career fields meet manpower requirements, such changes may not be uniformly supported across the Air Force. Given these concerns, the Air Force is exploring alternative ways to assess and align personnel to career fields and jobs using medical standards, such as weight and hearing. As part of this project, the authors examined potential barriers in Air Force culture that could affect the successful implementation of tailored medical standards. This report describes the analysis of these barriers, which could limit the effectiveness of any effort to tailor medical standards. The survey also addressed perceptions related to other medical conditions (such as asthma or depression) and potential uses for genetic testing.

Genre: Business & Economics / Human Resources & Personnel Management (fancy, right?)