In 1995, AMSARA was established as a mechanism to provide the DOD with evidenced-based evaluations of accession medical standards. Under the guidance of the Medical and Personnel Executive Steering Committee (MEDPERS) and the Accession and Retention Medical Standards Working Group (ARMSWG), our AMSARA team issues annual reports and publications to include comprehensive analyses of Service Member accession and attrition data, allowing DOD stakeholders to make informed policy decisions. Our support includes, but is not limited to:

• Validation of historic, recently modified, and newly implemented accession standards

• Evaluation and/or comparison of accession screening tests as predictors of adverse attrition

• Investigation and analysis of medical conditions in existed prior to service (EPTS) data

• Distribution, patterns and determinants of medical disqualifications necessary to understand medical readiness, fitness and temporal changes in the recruit applicant pool

• Utilization of longitudinal cohort study design and related approaches to evaluate the long-term impact of policies, procedures, and medical waivers on military service

Main Objective:  Inform DoD accession policy decisions, which allow for the selection of the most likely candidates to be successful Warfighters, thus decreasing adverse attrition cost.