2026 Military Health System Research Symposium

Advancing combat casualty care, operational medicine, and warfighter readiness demands a dedicated forum where the full breadth of military medical research converges — and for the Department of Defense, that forum is the Military Health System Research Symposium. Registration for the 2026 edition opens June 29, 2026, at noon Eastern, ahead of the symposium’s four-day run from August 3–6 at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Kissimmee, Florida.

This year’s event, themed “Harnessing the Power of Military Medical Research,” is organized by the DoD and is expected to draw more than 3,700 leaders, clinicians, scientists, and innovators from across the military, academia, industry, and international partner organizations. The theme reflects the department’s focus on accelerating research solutions that improve readiness, performance, survivability, and return-to-duty outcomes for deployed service members.

Keith Bass, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and the Department of Defense’s top medical leader, underscored the event’s significance: “MHSRS is where the military medical research community comes together to solve the hardest problems facing our deployed warfighters. The discoveries shared here directly strengthen readiness, enhance performance, and save lives both on and off the battlefield.”

The 2026 program is organized around four core research domains: warfighter medical readiness, which addresses ensuring service members are medically prepared for deployment; expeditionary medicine, focused on delivering advanced care in austere and contested environments; warfighter performance, covering the optimization of physical, cognitive, and psychological resilience; and return to duty, centered on accelerating recovery and reintegration following injury or illness. Presentations, breakout sessions, and poster sessions will span all four areas.

MHSRS serves as the central forum for presenting research in areas including combat casualty care, operational medicine, infectious diseases, rehabilitation, and human performance. The intersection of infectious disease surveillance, medical countermeasures, and operational readiness makes the symposium a valuable venue for biosecurity and global health practitioners working at the civil-military interface, or those engaged in research that supports both military and civilian health emergency preparedness.

Participants must register for the symposium and pay the registration fee before receiving access to room booking at the host hotel, the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center, or the alternate partner hotel, the Marriott Village.

For more information and to register, please visit the 2026 Military Health System Research Symposium website.