History of the Health Services Category

The Health Services category was established in 1959 to meet the staffing requirements of a changing PHS. At the time, officers who were trained in a single discipline, e.g. physicians in the medical category and nurses in the nurse category staffed most of the PHS categories. Health professionals whose qualifications distinguished them from the existing PHS categories were needed.

The first two social workers were commissioned in the PHS in 1950, and assumed key leadership positions in the NIH. In 1966, the first optometrist was commissioned and assigned to the Indian Health Service. Podiatry was added as a Corps specialty in 1978 with the commissioning of a National Health Service Corps podiatrist. The latest additions to the Health Services category include computer scientists and physician assistants in 1989. Medical technologists and dental hygienists were added in 1991. In 2001 the computer science discipline was expanded to include information technology.