14/01/2025
Data Literacy: Prepare for the Future Fight
This Army University Press article by the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Commander, GEN Brito, addresses a key topic that could find its home on any buzzword bingo card - data literacy.
All jokes aside, this topic is critical because how well we manage and understand data determines the efficacy and speed of decisions.
Essential to our Army’s ability to shoot, move, communicate, and do first aid on a modern battlefield are data-literate soldiers and leaders who can rapidly make sound decisions, bringing all available capabilities to bear, to close with and destroy the enemy on an increasingly transparent and evolving battlefield.
Doctrine defines data literacy as the ability to read, analyze, and communicate with data. Why is this important? Data must be managed, filtered, and understood to be useful. Otherwise, it’s just clutter.
In an environment of excessive amounts of data, it is critical that our soldiers and leaders are data literate without compromising individual and collective proficiency; we must prepare for the future fight while ensuring we are ready to fight tonight.
Our Army is undergoing one of the largest transformations in decades, experimenting and training with new kit, formations, and capabilities. Regardless of which new materiel we invest in or concepts we adopt, none of that is possible without soldiers who can leverage all the tools available to them with the mental agility, confidence, and understanding of the best way to dominate, fight, and win. Those who can effectively harness data to glean the most relevant observations at the point of need, can make better decisions and more effectively bring the full force of modern capabilities to bear on a complex battlefield.
⁉️ Questions to Consider ⁉️
• Do we have an organizational culture across the Army Medical Regiment that values data literacy?
• How is your unit onboarding new teammates to increase data fluency?
• What training pipelines exist that promote, train, and/or certify data literate Soldiers?
• In what ways can we operationalize data systems to help make better medical decisions in the fixed facility hospital and in the battlefield?
Article🔗 https://www.armyupress.army.mil/.../2025-OLE/Data-Literacy/
Medical Service Corps Chief U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence U.S. Army Health Information System Managers-70D 70H Medical Operations Officers 1st Medical Brigade 44th Medical Brigade 62nd Medical Brigade Army Medicine 18th Medical Command U.S. Army Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center - TATRC Medical Readiness Command, Pacific U.S. Army Medical Command CSM