Lieutenant Dylan E. Wessman (’97 MA, ’02 MD), seated, center, of San Diego, spent five months deployed aboard the USNS Mercy last year. As a staff cardiologist and program director of the cardiology fellowship at the Naval Medical Center, he shared his expertise as part of the military’s annual humanitarian Pacific Partnership.

In Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Vietnam, Wessman and the Navy cardiovascular technician helped perform and interpret echocardiograms for patients with advanced congenital heart disease and rheumatic valvular disease. Both conditions are more common and severe there than in the United States. He also taught host-nation physicians about preventing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death and disability in Oceana and Southeast Asia.