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USAMTEAC

U.S. Army Medical Test and Evaluation Activity

Mission

The U.S. Army Medical Test and Evaluation Activity (MTEAC) provides independent operational testing and evaluation of medical and medical-related materiel and information technology products in support of the Army's Department of Defense acquisition process. MTEAC provides assessments of emerging concepts, doctrine, and advanced technology applications applied to the delivery of healthcare—both on the battlefield and in fixed facilities.

Vision

A responsive and fully engaged U.S. Army Medical Test and Evaluation Activity, contributing to the Army’s success by conducting independent, realistic, and objective testing, evaluation, and assessment performed by a professional cadre of military and civilian experts, who are:

Dedicated to excellence
Committed to our nation’s Soldiers
Identified as respected partners in providing solutions to Army requirements

U.S. Army Medical Test and Evaluation Activity

Welcome to the U.S. Army Medical Test and Evaluation Activity (MTEAC). The MTEAC is located at Joint Base San Antonio Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas.

The MTEAC mission is a unique one in that it is the sole independent operational test and evaluation agency for medical-related materiel and medical information management/information technology products. MTEAC is charged with the mission of directly supporting the U.S. Army in the Department of Defense’s acquisition process. Residing on JBSA Fort Sam Houston, the base that serves as the Army’s bastion of medical excellence, MTEAC is a small unit of approximately two dozen military and civilian personnel tasked with the mission of helping to ensure that medical personnel are equipped with suitable and effective equipment.

MTEAC provides assessments of emerging concepts, doctrine, and advanced technology applications as they are applied to the delivery of healthcare—both on the battlefield and in hospitals. MTEAC is responsible for ensuring the suitability, survivability, and effectiveness of medical materiel that is going to be used by the Army’s medics and medical personnel. In some cases, particularly in information technology, the tested materiel will be used in the “brick-and-mortar facilities,” such as the hospitals that provide vital care for the military community.

MTEAC is essentially an end state before the final decision in the acquisition process. The mission of the MTEAC is very important in that it is not merely statutory in nature, but it is a way to ensure that whenever the Army makes a medical materiel acquisition that MTEAC is there to make sure that investment has been worthwhile. Perhaps equally important to the monetary effects of purchasing medical materiel for the Army’s medical personnel is ensuring that the medical materiel, ultimately, meets the medical personnel’s needs in providing care for Soldiers.

MTEAC’s members strive to determine whether those products or components are ready, or capable, to meet the intended need and purpose for the Army’s providers, clinicians, and ancillary staff for treating wounded Soldiers. As a government service entity, being prudent in the use of tax dollars in the delivery of a good product for providing care for the Army’s wounded is an important aspect of MTEAC’s mission.

About Us:

The U.S. Army Medical Test and Evaluation Activity is responsible for the operational testing of medical materiel, medical-related materiel, and information technology systems.

Organization and Personnel:

The U.S. Army Medical Test and Evaluation Activity continues to make substantial contributions in the independent operational test and evaluation of medical materiel and information management/information technology systems that are vital to supporting military operations at home and overseas. In October 2015, MTEAC completed its operations setup on the 1st floor of a remodeled historic World War I era warehouse, moving from its previous position at the old post prison building that had been the home building since 1963. MTEAC’s mission is unchanged as the conscience of medical acquisition. MTEAC members are the U.S. Army Medical Test and Evaluation Activity’s “Truth Seekers.” They base all reports and recommendations on the data that is gathered in an unbiased forum, from actual users, using production representative samples of the product under study. The users perform tasks expected of them, and the product, under as close to actual mission conditions as possible.

USAMTEAC Internship Opportunities

The Operational Test & Evaluation (T&E) Intern Program provides USAMTEAC officers with specialized training in the T&E acquisition career field and positions them as acquisition leaders. This enables them to provide relevant data to acquisition program managers aimed at ensuring sound programmatic decisions and to ensure that operational elements are properly equipped to meet the Army’s contingency mission requirements.

The objective of the internship is to provide the USAMTEAC with a pool of officers who are fully qualified to fill USAMTEAC T&E assignments. During the internship, students will receive hands-on practical experience in analysis, research, plan-writing, report-writing, oral briefings, policy development, and T&E procedures. There are four USAMTEAC positions that require acquisition (T&E) certified officers. In order to fill these positions with qualified officers, a pool of at least 12 officers is needed to allow for other professional, operational, and developmental assignments.

To be eligible for this program, officers must have completed 24 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) semester hour credits prior to applying.

Participants learn the essential technical and professional competencies for T&E professionals and complete requisite training for Defense Acquisition Workforce levels I and II T&E certification in an experiential learning environment with real-world work scenarios.

U.S. Army Medical Test and Evaluation Activity

MTEAC is the only independent operational test and evaluation agency of medical and medical-related materiel and information technology products in support of the Army and DoD acquisition process. The leadership and test officers of the MTEAC are Acquisition Corps members who are certified experts in managing and conducting test and evaluation for program managers and materiel developers. This team must certify that the systems are ready for full-rate production and deployment.

How the USAMTEAC supports the Army Medical Department/Military Health System:

In partnership with the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command and Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, MTEAC designs and conducts independent operational test and evaluation in strict accord with the laws, DoD directives, and Army policies for medical materiel developed and acquired by the AMEDD and MHS. In doing so, MTEAC provides:

· Answers to questions of operational effectiveness, suitability, and survivability.

· Documentation of system performance measured against requirements.

· Risk management for decision makers.

· Conscience of the acquisition system.

Test and Eval Diagram

USAMTEAC Materiel Branch

The Materiel Branch function is to develop operational test plans with mission-realistic scenarios and executes operational field tests under realistic conditions and environments. Materiel Branch operational tests focus on medical devices or non-medical equipment along with associated equipment for the purpose of determining the effectiveness and suitability of the medical devices or non-medical equipment for use in combat by typical military users; an analysis of all data collected is then used to perform the evaluation of the results of such tests. Operational testing focuses on system implementation behavior and is preferred over verification for the following reasons:

Operational testing facilitates the consideration of environmental factors that influence system behavior.
Operational testing allows feature interaction.
Operational testing allows the technical manual verification on flow of procedural steps and context.
Operational testing allows having unit-level maintenance task performed by maintenance personnel as pertains to the provided manufacturer's technical manuals.

A key operational testing feature is error detection, which ensures correct functional implementation. The operational testing is conducted on a production or production representative system using typical operational personnel in a realistic combat scenario.

MTEAC IM/IT Branch

The Information Management/Information Technology (IM/IT) Test and Evaluation Branch at the U.S. Army Medical Test and Evaluation Activity (MTEAC) is the only Operational Test and Evaluation entity that is solely responsible for testing medical information systems and technology, and medical equipment and devices, for both Table of Organization and Equipment and Table of Distribution and Allowances organizations within the U.S. Army. Previous tests conducted include items such as the Medical Health System−GENESIS, Joint Operational Medicine Information Systems, Field Oxygen Generator Resource, and the Soldier Optimization Decision Aid applications.

The branch is led by a Health Information System Manager (AOC 70D), who manages a workforce of acquisition professionals (noncommissioned officers and civilians) who are committed to excellence in operational testing. These acquisition professionals, known as test officers, plan, design, and conduct operational test events ranging from highly controlled assessments to scenario-driven exercises and tests executed in operationally realistic environments. The results from operational tests are used to provide critical information to Program Managers and Flag and Senior Executive Service Officers responsible for program decision making, with strategic level impact at the highest level of the Department of Defense acquisition process.

MTEAC News and Information

Welcome to the U.S. Army Medical Test and Evaluation Activity online news and information center. We intend to provide the public and journalists needed information as timely and conveniently as possible. We hope this page will be useful as a starting point in learning about our command and conducting research for stories. We appreciate your feedback on achieving that success. We are dedicated to keeping you informed about ongoing MTEAC activities, events, and issues.