Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Nadja West is in charge of all of the Army's medical assets, including research and development, training and education, and 130,000 medical personnel -- as well as keeping a beneficiary population of several million healthy. West discusses her background, mission and vision in this podcast.

A report from the Council for a Strong America's Mission: Readiness group said states and the federal government should provide nutritious foods for children in schools and day care centers to reduce obesity rates and help ensure more people are eligible to serve in the military in the future. The report supports the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act and says schools and day care centers should provide more physical activity for children.

The Defense Health Agency wants to add a 179,200-square-foot office building and a 948-space parking deck to its Falls Church, Va., headquarters as it assumes responsibility for more military hospitals and health clinics.

Retired Army Col. Michael Heimall, named this week as director of the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center, is reportedly on a mission to address shortcomings cited in a recent report and get the medical center off the list of those at "critical" risk. Heimall has been a fellow at the American College of Healthcare Executives since 2007 and was chief of staff at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center from 2015 to 2017.

CDC officials reported that 62 of 127 possible cases of acute flaccid myelitis in 22 states have been confirmed so far this year, which is a significant increase from last year, with more than 90% of confirmed cases involving youths ages 18 and younger. The CDC will release weekly updates on AFM cases, so "people can better anticipate increases in confirmed cases in the following months," said Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the CDC.

ICU-related delirium can lead to long-term dementia and confusion but experts say use of the ABCDEF bundle, which is a checklist of actions, can help prevent delirium and its effects. Dr. E. Wesley Ely at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who created the checklist, said following it can reduce a patient's chance of developing post-ICU mental impairment by 25% to 30%.

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