Partnerships to Overcome the Peacetime Effect: Excelsior Surgical Society Panel Session.

The Military Health System (MHS) in the United States currently faces a crisis: maintaining medical readiness during a time of relative peace in the face of an increasingly hostile and unstable geopolitical environment. Collaboration through partnerships-with civilian academic medical centers, with academic medical societies and scientific journals, and with advocates for improved policy and supporting legislation-represents one important strategy to stave off the peacetime effect that threatens to erode our combat casualty care skills. This panel session held during the 2022 Excelsior Surgical Society Symposium at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress explored the way forward for the MHS amidst these historic challenges with important action items and take-home points for civilian and military surgeons alike.