Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Sasha Ambrose | FALLS CHURCH, Va. — A graphic highlights the 2025 recipients of the Captain Joan...... read more read more
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FALLS CHURCH, Va. – During the Persian Gulf War, U.S. Navy Capt. M. Joan Dooling recognized that medical readiness required rapid, reliable data. She bypassed the red tape to implement email across Navy Medicine, forever changing how it communicated in a crisis.
Today, the battleground of military medicine has evolved, and emails are part of everyday life, but the mandate remains the same: deliver uninterrupted care and guarantee force preservation, no matter the environment.
The recipients of the 2025 Captain Joan Dooling Award for Information Professional Excellence have proven that Information Technology (IT) is a critical warfighting capability. By leveraging cutting-edge technology like Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, pioneering digital readiness tools, and achieving flawless cybersecurity standards, these honorees are actively driving the Surgeon General’s Lines of Effort and keeping the Navy and the Marine Corps ready for the fight.
For over two years, Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command (NMRTC) Twenty Palms and its branch clinics were crippled by frequent network outages. Lt. Cmdr. Emmanuel Dadzie, the chief information officer, led a collaborative effort with the Defense Health Agency (DHA) and Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to engineer a solution, resulting in a near-perfect 99% reduction in outages.
Dadzie didn’t stop at fixing existing problems. Looking to the future, he advocated for Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Unit (NMRTU) Bridgeport to pilot the cutting edge StarShield LEO satellite communication system. As the first continental U.S. (CONUS) medical community of interest (MEDCOI) site to test this technology, Dadzie established a blueprint for enterprise-wide network suitability. He also dismantled a decade-old records bottleneck by securing real-time portal access with a civilian hospital partner, reducing administrative burdens by 80%, returning hundreds of man-hours to providing direct patient care. His accomplishments were recognized this year as the Information Professional Officer of the Year awardee.
At NMRTU Hawaii, IT specialist Ron Harris distinguished himself as a force to be reckoned with in technical innovation, earning himself the title of Information Professional Civilian Member of the Year. When a critical enterprise licensing barrier threatened clinical sustainment for 15,000 Navy and Marine Corps personnel, Harris found a solution that not only restored seamless access but also saved the enterprise $6 million annually. Directly aligning with strategic priorities for force preservation, Harris pioneered a digital Operational Suitability Screening (OSS) tool. By automating a historically backlogged administrative process, he dramatically accelerated a critical timeline from weeks down to minutes.
Covering a complex area of responsibility that includes Sigonella, Souda Bay, and Bahrain, the information management department at NMRTC Sigonella delivered transformative solutions that enhanced mission assurance and distinguished themselves as the Information Professional Team of the Year.In a display of cybersecurity mastery, the team achieved a flawless 100% rating at Maturity Level 4 during the DHA Cyber Health Readiness Inspection Program (CHRIP) – a feat made all the more remarkable because the team operated without an information systems security manager during the inspection.
Beyond cybersecurity, the team proved to be the ultimate safeguard for patient data. Following a flawed system migration, the team identified over 10,500 historical radiology exams that had been left unarchived. Working against the clock before the legacy server was decommissioned, they manually moved the data, preventing a catastrophic loss of medical records.
For 25 years, Miguel Ramirez has been the cornerstone of IT at Naval Medical Research Unit (NAMRU) South in Peru. Under his leadership, the IT department has enabled two decades of scientific breakthroughs in infectious disease research, leading him to be awarded the 2025 Dooling Lifetime Achievement award. Ramirez’s leadership was put to the test during the COVID-19 pandemic. Within 24 hours of a country-wide lockdown, he orchestrated the deployment of a telework infrastructure that returned 68% of the command to full productivity in under two weeks. This ensured NAMRU South’s vital research and connectivity with the CDC continued without interruption.
He also led NAMRU South to become the only OCONUS research and development lab to self-manage its risk management framework authority to operate, maintaining a world-class cybersecurity posture while supporting over 21 critical research protocols annually.
From space-based networks to frontline digital tools, the 2025 Dooling award winners embody the vision of the award’s namesake. They prove that in military medicine, the ability to fight, survive, and heal is intrinsically tied to the networks, systems and professionals that keep the data flowing from seabed to space.
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| Date Taken: | 07.20.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 07.20.2026 09:40 |
| Story ID: | 570300 |
| Location: | FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 43 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 2025 Dooling Award winners redefine Navy Medicine IT excellence, by PO2 Sasha Ambrose, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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