Naval Medical Leader and Professional Development Command held its annual 4-week in-person Military Tropical Medicine (MTM) didactic course, followed by a 2-week hands-on field experience throughout eight tropical infectious disease endemic locations around the globe during August 2025.  

The MTM Course, offered in-person and virtual, provides tri-service military medical providers with didactic content and hands-on field experiences to diagnose, treat and prevent infectious diseases to protect the Joint Force against tropical endemic health threats and provide healthcare to partner nations during global health engagement missions.
 
“Our student population is diverse and multidisciplinary. It includes Navy physicians, infectious disease fellows, preventive medicine physicians, Environmental Health Officers, physician assistants, entomologists and Hospital Corpsmen,” said Lt. Cmdr. Terrell Sanders, MTM course director. “We also train Army and Air Force infectious disease and preventive medicine personnel, veterinarians, and select allied healthcare providers. This joint and inter-professional approach ensures our graduates represent the full spectrum of Force Health Protection”
 
This year the course curriculum added expanded content on emerging infections and outbreak scenarios. Snake bite management concepts wrapped up the MTM didactics with a visit from Reptile Discovery “Snakes Alive!” hosted by Mr. Bruce Schwedick allowing MTM and Uniformed Service University students an up close and personal experience with various snakes, reptiles, and crocodile species.

“This course is a force multiplier,” said Sanders “It bridges academic infectious disease expertise with the realities of austere, resource-limited operational environments. Ultimately, MTM graduates become leaders in safeguarding military personnel against disease non-battle injuries (DNBIs), which historically have caused more casualties than combat in expeditionary operations.”

Select students who completed the MTM course (in-person or virtual) had a follow-on opportunity to engage with host nation military medical ships, hospitals, laboratories, and cultural heritage during their 2-week field experiences in Brazil, Thailand, Liberia, Peru, Ghana, India, Honduras, and Tanzania to apply knowledge gained in the classroom to work on the ground in austere tropical environments.
 
Lt. Mercedes Proctor, a nurse with a background in Public Health and Clinical Research, was able to experience some of the Indian culture while her group learned more about their approach to medicine
 
“The timing of MTM-D is during the Indian Independence, so our group was considered distinguished guests and were invited to partake in the University’s celebration and watch the parade on the stage with the President of the University,” said Proctor. “We were able to not only tour the Ayurvedic college but also experience what some holistic practices like oil detox. I personally have seen an ayurvedic practitioner before and it was a truly amazing to experience this in India.”

In addition to the classroom and field experiences, Sanders and his fellow MTM course team members, Lt. Cmdr. Tupur Husain, MSC, Chief Hospital Corpsman Tobin Steffey, and Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Danielle Spivey, administered the virtual asynchronous MTM course from August 2024 to June 2025, which greatly expanded course access to military medical providers who cannot attend the in-person option. 


Maj. Molly Bried, Deputy Chief, Army Public Health Nursing, was one such individual who was able to graduate from MTM by completing the course virtually and then traveling  to Ghana for the field missions.
 
“I was appreciative that the Distance Learning route was offered being that I am a single mother of school-age boys, and loved the fact that I did not have to leave them to go TDY [temporarily assigned duty] and could complete it asynchronously,” said Bried. “I visited Ghana and it absolutely stole my heart. Learning how very different the overall medical system functions in Ghana compared to the US and getting to interact with the infants and children within one of the rural Kumasi villages!”

Continuing on the momentum of the highly successful in-person, virtual, and field exercises this year, the MTM staff will hold the following upcoming course options over the next year for tri-service medical providers: Online-Asynchronous course starts Oct. 1, 2025 and runs until Jun. 15, 2026. The in-person course at USU runs from Jul. 6-31, 2026. Finally the field missions in Ghana, Brazil, India, Peru, Liberia, Honduras, Tanzania, and Thailand run from Aug. 1 – 14, 2026.
  
Interested tri-service medical providers can visit the CAC enabled NMLPDC course site for additional MTM course information at:  
https://obiwan2.health.mil/sites/nmfsc/apps/ACR/SitePages/courseInfo.aspx or via email: usn.bethesda.navmedleadprodevcmd.list.nmlpdc-mtm@health.mil 
 
Naval Medical Leader and Professional Development Command (NMLPDC) is the cornerstone of Navy Medicine’s leader and professional development supporting Force Generation and Development of the Naval and Joint Forces. NMLPDC is a tenant command located at Naval Support Activity, Bethesda, MD.