“While the docs provide the professional consultation and advice, the case managers are the unsung heroes of the ACS,” Cahill said. “People like Tech. Sgt. Daniel Blackwell, Lisa Martin, and Dena Green do all of the behind-the-scenes work. They perform the initial review of all cases to ensure everything they need is included, interface with the major command and, in many cases, the referring base, and manage the endless changes to scheduled appointments for our patients.”
While the humans serving as pilots and flight crew haven’t changed much since the ACS first began screening pilots and making waiver recommendations back in the early 1950s, the way they fly has.
“Probably the biggest mission change we’ve been involved with is in remotely piloted aircraft,” Van Syoc said. “A large number of those folks are trained pilots, although not all of them have gone through military pilot training, but that’s the future of the Air Force, the unmanned aircraft. So, we get quite involved in caring for them.”
Besides varying flight missions, changing technology like maneuverable jet nozzles in higher performance aircraft like the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning can subject their pilots to new stressors, according to Govil.
“I think that's going to broaden our job,” Govil said. “Because, a lot of times we're waiting for those specific problems that come from the field. Many times, they ask for our advice when they first see problems coming up. What we're trying to do right now is to enhance our research publishing capabilities, because right now we're sitting on kind of a goldmine.”
That “goldmine” is the approximately 58,000 cases in the ACS database reaching back to the 1950s. While ACS staff can access the information located in the database, it’s not as efficient as it could be, according to Govil. Enabling that database to be easier to mine data from is critical to providing research-based recommendations in the future.
“To look at the natural history of a condition in a large group of people, that’s how we end up giving effective advice for policy changes, as far as waivers,” Van Syoc said.
Govil says he doesn’t have a timeline as to when a new form of the database could be ready, but feels confident that not only is it possible, but once done, could be quite significant.
“It looks like it’s going to be the largest data bank of aeromedical information in the world,” Govil said.
Which would again set the ACS as the premiere aeromedical evaluation center in the world.
“Behind every pilot, behind every mission, we have people here at ACS who are doing everything we can medically to get them flying,” Govil said. “We’re a critical piece of the ‘Fly, Fight, Win’ mission of the Air Force.”
The ACS is part of the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, the premiere institute for research, education and worldwide operational consultation in aerospace medicine, under the umbrella of the 711th Human Performance Wing, both headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.