The Pentagon has lifted its restrictions on more than 50 medical conditions that used to disqualify a potential recruit from joining the military.

The effort has helped thousands of previously disqualified young people join the military as the services, including the Army, contend with a tough recruiting environment.

Established in 2022, the Medical Accession Records Pilot aims to address changes in the health landscape among young people by shortening the “any history of” timeframes for several conditions that required waivers, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.

With nearly 77% of 17- to 24-year-olds disqualified for military service without some type of waiver, the pilot “has been helpful to expand” the recruiting market, Katie Helland, DoD director of military accession policy, said in a news conference with reporters.

The Medical Accession Records Pilot, which earlier this year listed 38 medical conditions that no longer require a waiver, now has been expanded to include 51 conditions. “We're testing the feasibility of reducing the timeframe for those conditions,” Helland said.

Between July 2022 and August 2024, more than 9,900 applicants were medically qualified using the program, with 57% of them successfully enlisting, according to DoD spokesperson Jade Fulce.

As an example, one recent addition to the pilot eased the requirement for young people with a learning disorder such as dyslexia, from having a history of the disorder any time after their 14th birthday to just within the past year, Fulce said. Another addition related to young people with conditions such as asthma, reactive airway disease or exercise-induced bronchospasm. Instead of disqualifying or requiring a waiver for someone who has had one of these conditions after their 13th birthday, that history timeline was shortened to the past four years.

Expectations for the success of this program are high, but officials remain cautious, Helland said. She pointed out that while the recruiting landscape has been a huge challenge for all the services, the landscape is improving. “At the end of September, the services enlisted just shy of 225,000 new recruits in fiscal year 2024. That's over 25,000 more than fiscal year 2023,” Helland said.

Nevertheless, she said, the military must remain “cautiously optimistic about the future recruiting operations as we continue to recruit in a market that has low youth propensity to serve, limited familiarity with military opportunities, a competitive labor market and a declining eligibility among young adults,” she said.