Page 106 - JSOM Fall 2025

An Ongoing Series

Capability-Based Blueprinting

Lessons Learned in Scaling Community-Based Health and
Performance Needs Assessments

Rachel Chamberlin, PhD, MPH *; Rory McCarthy, PhD ;
2
1
Daniel R. Clifton, PhD, ATC 3

ABSTRACT
Enhancing unit-mission effectiveness is a priority and challenge Keywords: needs assessment; human performance
in the U.S. military, especially in a landscape of wide-ranging optimization; total force fitness; community-engaged
mission capabilities and diverse career-field health and per- research; community-based participatory research
formance needs. The first step to addressing mission-relevant
health and performance needs is identifying those needs within
context. Capability-based blueprinting (CBB) is designed to Introduction
address mission-relevant health and performance needs by us-
ing a “bottom up” approach, beginning with career-field and Enhancing unit-mission effectiveness continues to be both
unit perspectives at an installation level. Despite the value of a priority and a challenge in the U.S. military, especially in
a capability-based blueprint to a specific installation, it is un- the existing landscape of competing requirements, limited re-
clear if a CBB with a career field at a specific installation pro- sources, wide-ranging mission capabilities, and diverse career
vides actionable insight for health and performance personnel fields with varying health and performance needs. Efforts
1
and career-field leadership that is transferable to members of have had to grapple with the question of how to support
the same career field at other installations with different mis- evolving operational health and performance needs of career
sion requirements. CBB was conducted in collaboration with fields across innumerable job tasks with different missions, op-
Weapons Armament System communities at three installations erational requirements, risks, and working environments. Hu-
to address this question. Findings across three capability-based man performance optimization (HPO) and Total Force Fitness
blueprints articulate the link between career-field require- (TFF) emerged as two models to align health and performance
ments, working environments, and career-field–specific health service delivery with operational needs. TFF highlights the
2–5
and performance considerations. Gaining an understanding of importance of addressing multiple areas of the human being
career-field–critical tasks and the associated health and perfor- (e.g., physical, psychological, spiritual, social) and the inter-
mance priorities at one installation can provide some trans- relational influence of each domain on the others and the indi-
ferable knowledge for health and performance assets at other vidual as a whole (Figure 1). HPO provides specificity, aligning
installations, such as physical, ergonomic, and nutritional efforts with Operator mission-critical tasks across the spec-
demands. Continual learning is still necessary, however, since trum from rehabilitation to performance enhancement (Fig-
considerations, such as team dynamics and organizational cli- ure 2). When used in concert with one another, HPO and TFF
mate, are likely site- and time-specific and should be explored have the potential to help identify the most impactful health
at each site. Finally, it is important to understand that health and performance opportunities and threats to Servicemem-
and performance domains (e.g., physical, psychological) inter- bers as well as devise community-engaged solutions to address
act with and impact each other, ultimately shaping health and the needs and wants of the operational communities being
performance demands and, therefore, readiness. served. 2–5
*Correspondence to Rachel Chamberlin, Consortium for Health and Military Performance, DoD Center of Excellence, Department of Military
and Emergency Medicine, F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University, 4301 Jones Bridge Rd., Bethesda, MD, 20814
or rachel.chamberlin.ctr@usuhs.edu
1 Dr. Rachel Chamberlin is the Senior Anthropologist and a community-based research subject matter expert at the Consortium for Health and
Military Performance, Department of Military and Emergency Medicine, F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University,
Bethesda, MD. Dr. Rory McCarthy is a Qualitative Researcher and cultural anthropologist at the Consortium for Health and Military Perfor-
2
mance, Department of Military and Emergency Medicine, F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD.
3 Dr. Daniel R. Clifton, is a Research Scientist and injury prevention subject matter expert at the Consortium for Health and Military Performance,
Department of Military and Emergency Medicine, F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD.
104