North Chicago, Ill –
Matt Lince, J-6 and Innovation Facilitation Team director, and Army Lt. Col. Peter Nesbitt, Command Advisory Group director, sat down to discuss USMEPCOM's culture of innovation, technology and data advances, recent initiatives to improve applicant processing, transformation across the command and the draw of USMEPCOM as a career destination.
Lince began by explaining that innovation is the backbone of USMEPCOM and how the organization would fail to find success without it.
“If you are afraid to fail, then that means that you won’t experiment. If you don’t experiment, you won’t innovate. If you won’t innovate, then you won’t find success,” said Lince. “You’ve seen so much modernization in the last couple of years because we’ve really been willing to take on that mindset of ‘we assume success but we’re not afraid to take risk; we’re not afraid to fail.’”
Nesbitt, who joined USMEPCOM in 2023, noted how he has seen culture of innovation take root in the command but said there are challenges ahead and more room to grow.
“We need to have culture change to meet the challenges today,” said Nesbitt. “That reflects one, the true nature of the command on willing to innovate, willing to move forward beyond what was successful in the past. That does not mean that the future is going to be easy for us. However, that’s the beginning where it unlocks the potential of those who are getting the work done.”
He added that future initiatives, like AI prescreening, are tools that will transform USMEPCOM by allowing medical personnel to focus on the human interaction of working directly with applicants and having AI do what it does best – sorting and analyzing massive amounts of data during the medical prescreen, which can include hundreds or even thousands of pages of medical documents for each applicant.
“We have the opportunity to have machines help us where machines do well, to crunch through that mountain of data,” said Nesbitt. “It’s going to increase the quality and experience of both the applicant and the provider.”
Both Lince and Nesbitt championed USMEPCOM as a career destination that allows personal growth and investment, career opportunities and the unique ability to directly contribute to the security of our nation.
“Do you like to drive change? Do you like to see process improvement? Do you like to challenge yourself? Do you like to feel like what you’ve done at the end of the workday matters, that you made a difference today?” asked Lince. “If the answers to those questions are yes, then MEPCOM is a great place for you because you can do all of those things here.”
“Our nation requires volunteers that are medically capable of defending our country,” said Nesbitt. “The team at USMEPCOM, makes that happen,” said Nesbitt.
To watch the Innovation video, visit USMEPCOM on DVIDS.