JULY 9, 2026 – As Walter Reed National Military Medical Center joins the rest of the nation in celebrating the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, medical practitioners at the President’s Hospital reflected on how their professions have evolved and what serving in military medicine means to them. While the technologies and techniques driving healthcare have seen astounding advancements, the passions inspiring the mission have persisted.
Retired U.S. Army Col. (Dr.) Paul Pasquina is the chief of Walter Reed’s Department of Rehabilitation, and professor and chair of the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the Uniformed Services University (USU). Throughout his career in military medicine, he has seen and contributed to numerous innovations and achievements in healthcare, especially in the field of rehabilitative medicine.
“Military medicine has been a significant part of my life since I signed up to go to West Point when I was 17,” Pasquina said. “Even before entering the academy, I had hoped to one day pursue a career in medicine and I was very fortunate to go to medical school at USU; therefore, I’ve been a member of the military medicine community for over 30 years now, and continue to be inspired by the advances in medicine and the incredible individuals that I have had the opportunity to work with.”
Those three decades of experience have shaped how Pasquina considers modern healthcare, and the impact of military conflict, specifically in his own field.
“Throughout history, war has always led to advances in medical, surgical, psychological, and rehabilitative care,” Pasquina said. “Obviously, we always hope that wars would never occur, but when you look at military healthcare, particularly the discipline of rehabilitative medicine, many of its founding principles and advanced technologies have emerged through the care of combat casualties.”
Pasquina went on to discuss that investments by the Department of War to save lives in combat have led to injured service members now surviving wounds that in previous wars would have been fatal. He also advocated for equal investment in not just saving lives, but “restoring lives” particularly for those with paralysis, amputation, traumatic brain injury, chronic pain, and psychological trauma.
“Part of military medicine’s legacy is the development of new knowledge, and advanced technologies to improve survivability from trauma and disease, but also to help casualties regain functional independence, improve their quality of life, and successful reintegration back to their families and communities even after severe injury,” Pasquina said. “That goes across the entire continuum of care and the host of challenges that combat casualties face in service to the nation.”
Modern, high-tech materials allow for the design and manufacture of lighter, more durable wheelchairs and prosthetics. The introduction of osseointegration now permits the integration of titanium implants directly into a patient’s bone, enabling prosthetic limbs to be attached without the use of sockets, eliminating socket pain and skin irritation. Virtual reality systems allow patients to safely negotiate the world as they learn to manage their new challenges. These and many more examples of contemporary rehabilitative healthcare methods speak to a brighter future for service members recovering from traumatic injuries.
“We have an obligation to our service members, their families, and the public to not only provide the best medical care that is available today, but to help develop even better care for the future,” Pasquina said. “Part of my fulfillment of being a part of military medicine has not just been in providing care today but also being involved in tomorrow’s discoveries.”
According to Pasquina, while new healthcare innovations and technologies are discovered every day, it is the people who work within military medicine that serve as the driving force multipliers to ensure those innovations are available to service members and other military beneficiaries.
“When I look at all the challenges and changes that have occurred in military medicine throughout my career, I think the one constant that remains unchanged is the high quality and talented collection of individuals who are drawn to military medicine with a sense of service,” Pasquina said. “They’re united by a common cause and purpose, which makes working within military medicine both rewarding and inspiring.”
Molding the future force
U.S. Navy Cmdr. (Dr.) Cameron Beck is currently stationed at Walter Reed, where he operates within the Naval Medical Leader and Professional Development Command (NMLPDC), serving as the dean of the Naval Postgraduate Dental School (NPDS). His work in overseeing the education of future military dental practitioners involves ensuring that the nation’s service members benefit from the very best dental care possible. Beck joined the Navy after practicing dentistry privately for two years.
“It was a great opportunity for me, because opposed to private practice, I felt like I was able to really focus on the patient and provide them with what I felt was the best, most appropriate care without it being driven by dollars and cents,” Beck said. “Our service members sacrifice so much for our nation, and they deserve the best care possible, so I appreciated the ability, as a brand new dentist to the Navy at the time, to be able to try and provide that care.”
Beck comes from a family that has a history of military service, which played a role in his decision to join the Navy.
“I had two grandfathers who both served in World War II,” Beck said. “So, I appreciated their service and sacrifice and being able to, in some small way, feel like I was contributing to supporting our nation’s heroes and warfighters was meaningful to me.”
Beck continued, “I think the rehabilitation and reconstruction of oral structures and dentition is one of the major leaps that we have taken in the field of dentistry. I would say leveraging technology in hardware and software, the imaging, materials, all those things coming together to essentially try to restore structures and function that may have been lost, either due to traumatic injury, disease processes or cancer now is just phenomenal. I would also add that accuracy now is exponentially better than ever, because we can leverage the technology to accurately capture the oral structures digitally like never before.”
Beck considers himself fortunate to be in the position he is in and seeks to carry on the tradition that the NPDS has had for more than 100 years.
“It’s obviously a humbling opportunity,” Beck added. “The intent of the NPDS has been to be the force generator for the Fleet and Joint Services. It’s a privilege to provide that kind of [training and knowledge] to the next generation of dental specialists, to support joint requirements for meeting the needs of our warfighters.”
No greater honor
U.S. Army Lt. Col. (Dr.) Jennifer Sabino is the director for Surgical Services at Walter Reed. An accomplished plastic and reconstructive surgeon, Sabino specializes in reconstruction for complex trauma and breast cancer patients. Like Pasquina, she also attended West Point and went on to receive her medical degree from the Yale School of Medicine.
“The practice of medicine, surgery specifically, for better or worse, grows by leaps and bounds during wartime,” Sabino said. “I’m a plastic surgeon and modern plastic surgery was developed during World War I and then translated over to civilian care.”
Sabino recalled the story of British military plastic surgeon Harold Gillies, who saw soldiers returning from battles with devastating facial injuries. Gillies went on to develop numerous methods to help these soldiers heal and reintegrate into their communities. Many of the techniques Gillies pioneered are still in use today, more than 100 years later.
“I was a general surgery resident during Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom,” Sabino said. “We had new injury patterns that we hadn’t seen before. Taking care of those patients, we learned a lot about limb salvage, rehabilitation, amputee care and getting soldiers back to their units quicker or back to a functional state. A lot of that knowledge came from the 20 years we were in Afghanistan and the Middle East.”
Sabino recognizes that one of the greatest boons of the modern age, at least in terms of medical care, is the speed at which information is available. Where in the past it may have taken years for new knowledge to circulate into widespread use, now, thanks to the internet, publications, and venues like conferences and meetings, that information is available to others almost as soon as it is discovered. This only furthers the ability of healthcare providers to care for the nation’s wounded service members.
“My grandfather did serve in World War II, and he got a Purple Heart,” Sabino said. “As I was starting off my military career at West Point and then even in medical school, being able to take care of the people who take care of us – there’s no greater honor. Now that I’ve grown up in the last 20 years in military medicine, you really get this feeling you’re taking care of your friends and family. And where else do you get that experience?”
Story by Christopher Smith
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center