Looking back on 2012, I do not think anyone could make an argument that the year was dull. We are well into our 11th year of war. As a country, we completed one of the most contentious presidential elections in recent memory, and to our credit and the world’s amazement, did it bloodlessly.

Last year, VA provided outstanding care to six million Veterans. In the next five years — as America turns the page on a decade of war — it's expected that more than 1 million active-duty personnel will join the ranks of America’s 22 million veterans.  It’s imperative that VA ensures America’s veterans, including those returning home from missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, have access to the high quality healthcare they’ve earned and deserve.

The Military Health System is entering a time of transition. After a decade making unprecedented strides in battlefield care, military medicine must now focus on the future. The Military Health System is actively transitioning from a culture of healthcare to one of health.

Promoting health for more than 9.7 million beneficiaries in the Military Health System (MHS) is a shared responsibility among the military services, purchased-care providers and beneficiaries that requires team collaboration to successfully achieve medically ready forces, healthy beneficiaries and a high-quality, cost-effective system for health.

Since becoming the Navy Surgeon General in November 2011, VADM Nathan's priority has been to ensure that Navy Medicine is strategically aligned with the imperatives and priorities of the Secretary of the Navy, Chief of Naval Operations and Commandant of the Marine Corps, including programs aimed at achieving healthy outcomes for its beneficiaries — the 21st century sailor and Marine.

U.S. military forces, now in the second decade of war, benefit from the vast achievements Army, Navy and Air Force medics have jointly made in deployed and enroute health care since 2001. With a 96% survival rate, we have never been better prepared to support our war-fighters.

The focus of the Indian Health Service (IHS) during the past few years has been to change and improve the organization so it can better meet its mission. IHS focuses on direct delivery of healthcare services for approximately 2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in 35 states through a network of more than 600 hospitals, clinics and health stations managed by IHS, tribal or urban Indian health programs

Pharmacists are the third-largest category (and second-largest professional discipline) of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) with more than 1,150 pharmacy officers. Commissioned Corps pharmacists of the PHS have long been a critical component to the provision of public health to the American people — particularly those in medically underserved and vulnerable populations.

Clinical Pharmacy Specialists have an irreplaceable role within VA’s team-based care model due to their extensive experience in managing complex medication regimens used in the treatment of the most common disease states.

In August 2009, the Pain Management Task Force (PMTF) was chartered by retired Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker as the Army Surgeon General. The PMTF membership included pain experts with diverse medical backgrounds from the Air Force, Army, Navy, TRICARE Management Activity and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).