Aerospace medicine program fills needed flight surgeon positions

Jeremy Dunn, Air Force Research Laboratory Public Affairs Published Feb 13, 2023

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFRL) — The Operational Graduate Medicine Education, or OGME, program establishes a training pipeline that prepares and fields new flight doctors to support Air Force and Joint operations across the globe.

Exterior of the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, or USAFSAM, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, where the Operational Graduate Medicine Education, or OGME, program resides, Feb. 3, 2023. The OGME program establishes a training pipeline that prepares and fields new flight doctors to support U.S. Air Force and Joint operations across the globe. USAFSAM is part of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s 711th Human Performance Wing. (U.S. Air Force photo / Jeremy Dunn)

In less than a decade since its inception, OGME, part of the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, or USAFSAM, has become the largest graduate medicine education program in the U.S. Air Force. It averages 60 residents, adding about 20 new graduates per year, said Col. Paul DeFlorio, director of the OGME program.

USAFSAM is part of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s 711th Human Performance Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

“Before OGME, there was no flight surgeon training pipeline,” said DeFlorio. “We just had to hope that people would volunteer to serve in these vital positions. For the first time in the modern era, the Air Force can recruit people into the program and staff flight medicine with fully trained doctors.”

OGME has a network of both military and civilian-affiliated training sites. Operational Family Medicine and Operational Internal Medicine have active-duty and civilian training sites, while Operational Emergency Medicine exclusively uses civilian affiliates.

“The opportunity to serve on active duty while training at the Ohio State has been amazing; we get world-class education while retaining our military identity and culture,” said Lt. Col. Jaysun Frisch, chief resident of emergency medicine, Ohio State University.

According to DeFlorio, before the implementation of the OGME program, it was difficult to staff qualified flight surgeons. A pipeline for residency graduates to flow into flight medicine or operational assignments did not exist. The program, which began in 2013 with two residents, graduated 23 residents last year, all fully trained physicians who are deployable to the field.

“There was no way to plan [before OGME],” DeFlorio said. “We didn’t know how many people — going into residency — we were going to get.”

Graph showing the growth of the Operational Graduate Medicine Education, or OGME, program since its beginning in 2013. OGME, has become the largest graduate medicine education program in the Air Force, averaging nearly 60 residents, adding approximately 20 new graduates every year. (U.S. Air Force graphic / Col. Paul DeFlorio)

The OGME program, intended for graduating medical students going into residency training, is available to general medical officers and medical students seeking to combine residency training with a direct flow into operational billets.

OGME residents are awarded flight surgeon wings and become rated aviators after completing training and receiving online refresher courses. After graduating from OGME at the end of their residency, the consultant to the Surgeon General for Aerospace Medicine and program leadership place graduates in operational billets.

“The people that come into this program, they want to go downrange,” DeFlorio said. “They want to be on the helicopter, and when someone gets shot, they want to scoop them up and take care of them.”

For more information about the OGME program, visit: https://www.afrl.af.mil/711HPW/USAFSAM/ogme/.

Organizational patch of the Operational Graduate Medicine Education, or OGME, program. OGME seeks to train and staff flight doctors to support Air Force operations across the globe. (U.S. Air Force graphic)

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