Dr. S. Ward Casscells, assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, has used the Military Health Systems Web site both as a bully pulpit and a two-way communications tool with corpsmen, medics, doctors and nurses worldwide since he took the job April 2007.
Now, Casscells is using the site to establish the criteria to select his replacement> He's polling members of the military health community for candidates, and using a dialogue in the site's Healthy Debates section, which asks readers to define the qualifications and expertise that Defense's next Top Doc should have.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked Casscells to stay on through the transition, and some posters believe he should stay on the job for another four years. As one commenter said:
Dr. Casscells opened the shutters, let light shine in to areas of the Military Health System that probably have never seen daylight. His unique ability to engage all parties to an issue, to never find any issue too insignificant while at the same time firmly grasping and addressing the key issues facing military health care cannot be found in anyone else. To be able to say that transparency, openness, and a willingness to engage diverse audiences is now the order of the day in the MHS only begins to express what Dr. Casscells has accomplished.
The poster then cast his vote for Casscells.
I agree. Casscells is the kind of guy who can push the kind of change promised by the Obama administration because he is one of the few top Defense leaders I have met in the past two decades who has not succumbed to the bureaucracy.
Bob Brewin
Bob Brewin joined Government Executive in April 2007, bringing with him more than 20 years of experience as a journalist focusing on defense issues and technology. Bob covers the world of defense and information technology for Nextgov, and is the author of the “What’s Brewin” blog.
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