 The report in your hands really is a result of a project that was launched back in April of 2010 To take a close look at the labs as Steve has laid out for you now Though these labs are really not widely known outside. Maybe this room and and a few people in the With a real interest in this they really sit at the intersection of health and security and that's a topic that's obviously of interest to Most folks in this room, but clear particularly with CSIS and the work that they've done on smart power Steve's commission that really looked at the smart global health policy these laboratories have made sustained contributions in this area of global health and Really us national security interests on a relatively small budget so that when you start looking at that They're particularly intriguing as one of the best buys in a time of what we all know is fiscal austerity We look not only to catalog the strengths But also to identify what challenges they might have and look to the future and try to make some recommendations That might help us move them in that direction These labs have been around for a while Thailand says 1959 Kenya says 1969 Egypt since 1946 Peru since 1983 and you ask well What has enabled their longevity and I think one of the answers is that they have become locally relevant and Locally valued while at the same time they have produced benefits for our soldier sailors airmen Marines They deal with diseases that have a profound local impact And so they are seen locally as organizations that are legitimate and useful institutions Ultimately these Army and Navy labs serve our Service members and as we care about our service members. We are obligated to care about these labs as well In serving the military this research also produces drugs and vaccines that serve a role That serve really the health of all people around the world and particularly You know it targets the world's poor and so that plays a role in our overall global health Interests as a nation And it is the importance of all these things coming together that really I think underscores the importance of and our interest in Pursuant this study of our overseas labs. We We investigate infectious diseases endemic diseases that are of importance to the host country But also that are a threat to our troops and so It's a balance where we We take young scientists overseas and students and medical professionals and train them alongside us because you know the United States For the longest time has been one of the leaders in science and technology So we've shared that with these countries and they've grown we've you know if you to use a Naval analogy we floated their boats along with us and so they've risen to the occasion some of them have went on and Taken great jobs in American industry and so they've benefit the country as a whole is benefited So our efforts over there as a force protection measure to protect our troops has also benefited the host country and you know We do a lot of public health surveillance now and that surveillance involves bringing in the host country social workers and Epidemiologists and others and they get trained according to our standards And so they go out and they improve their host country country infrastructure as you mentioned in the outset Our force health protection mission is an important one In fact, it's one of our key drivers our medical research and development Programs in support of our force health protection requirements is paramount And that requires key subject matter expertise in place in these countries around the world that coupled with our our Emerging and developing disease detection mission really puts us in a unique opportunity to be able to be Responsive and adaptive to new and emerging disease threats Some good examples over time are out there such as responses and research programs related to cholera Leishman Isis, Trapanosomiasis, more recently Riff Valley fever, drug-resistant malaria and influenza around the world These are all very key programs that over time have morphed In response to to new and emerging threats, and I think the impact is threefold number one We get actionable data that comes back to the DoD. It informs our medical decision makers having to do with Formulating threat matrices having to do with disease threats for deployments In addition this information is also provided back to our host nation public health agencies It's an incredible resource for them number two Data of this type also feeds into the larger global public health Enterprise if you will whether it's WHO and others and so it it's a much bigger much bigger impact and number three This this very data this responsiveness this Adaptiveness to new new threats new disease diseases that have been identified feeds back to our research programs in general helps Optimize them it helps change them over time and In some cases may develop new programs Responsive to newly identified military medical threats so in the end everyone wins the military wins It meets our force health protection mission the host nation wins the global health Effort wins and so it it's very good for all concern one of the things that medical research units have been very good at is helping us orchestrate and Coordinate the various review processes so that the studies that are being done are the best they can be scientifically and Stand up to the most rigorous scrutiny with regards to the ethical conduct of a clinical trial Finally I'd want to say that the medical research units cannot maintain their their positions World is changing like you said the medical research units actually have to stay on the cutting edge That they have been experiencing the last several years and it's Paramount to their continued success. I think there are aspects We haven't talked about in terms of the impact of the program Certainly as I saw it from the perspective of an ambassador the impact it has on the economy and and the infrastructure I mean we have built a world-class facilities there. We've put world-class equipment into those facilities We have made Kenya It is part of Kenya's regional leadership as a result of what we've done just on this program not to mention the broader relationship Over 800 technicians claim trained from the region from Sub-Saharan Africa in general And that's appreciated. I think by the Kenyans an institution building We look at a climate in Kenya where clearly there's a culture of impunity It's not that's not an overstatement and within that to have an institution which is populated primarily by Kenyans with a small degree of US leadership Promoting the values institutional transparency and accountability. That's very important dimension Of the program they're not strictly related to the to the medical, you know the the report that the CS IS has published challenges as so long I think At least three significant lines As noted already, there's this imperative We have to better communicate the value of research laboratories to the nation and that it's a shared responsibility Now, you know value you can roughly say is Cost over benefit and so the issue is we've got to constantly put that out in front of everyone that for Relatively little dollars We get a huge benefit not only in terms of protecting the citizenry of this nation and military folks in Specific, but the additive value to the world is just Incredible and important again is getting back to this notion of strategic health engagement and building Populate healthy populations and preventing disease So the military research labs around the world aren't purely an army or navy asset. They're not Essentially just a do d asset or even just a federal government asset. They really are an asset in the fullest sense the sense A real national investment in a national treasure that benefits every man woman and child in this Country and benefit many people around the world