Center for medical intelligence expanding

A military intelligence unit that had tracked medical threats to troops worldwide is expanding its mission to include civilians at home.

The National Center for Medical Intelligence at Fort Detrick had previously been known as the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center and focused on protecting military personnel. The center will now be the "premier producer and coordinator of all-source medical intelligence," the Defense Intelligence Agency announced.

Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, the director of the agency that provides intelligence to senior policy-makers and military commanders, called the center the "critical link" between force protection efforts of the Department of Defense and homeland health protection.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was scheduled Wednesday for the renamed center and the base plans to break ground in December on a 15,000 square-foot addition to the center's headquarters. The center's budget is not being released, but it will have less than 200 employees, DIA spokeswoman Paige Parham said.

The National Center for Medical Intelligence was originally established in 1982 to provide medical intelligence on possible threats to military personnel deployed overseas.

"That was our historic mission and it remains a very significant part of our mission, but we are also are evolving to look at threats to the homeland," Dr. Joy Miller, the center's chief scientist, said Tuesday.

The center will now also look at "what particular diseases and other health threats and issues might be imported or might cause illness or injury to U.S. citizen and forces here in the homeland."

The center's role has expanded since it was established and it now works with the intelligence community, the Department of Homeland Security, the White House, the State Department, coalition and foreign partners and other domestic non-defense agencies. The DIA said such partnerships allow the center to focus on a broader range of foreign medical threats including diseases such as pandemic flu and avian flu.

An anthrax outbreak, for example, would be something that would attract the attention of analysts at the center, Miller said.

"If there were something unusual in the presentation of the cases, or in how many individuals were affected, that would be something that would raise our level of suspicion," Miller said. "And we would be working with other analysts within the intelligence community who have responsibility to follow state weapons programs and terrorist use of those weapons."