March 9th, 2010
The Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) received $800,000 in funding from the Department of Defense to conduct research that will lead to restored sight for combat troops who have had eye injuries. The result of a funding request submitted by California Rep. Adam B. Schiff, the grant will support the Eye Trauma and Visual Restoration (EyeTVR) program at the school.
With traumatic eye injuries skyrocketing due to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the DOD is particularly interested in advances that promise to save sight. Another goal of the EyeTVR program is to save and restore sight to veterans and their family members who suffer from other eye injuries, eye infections or inherited and age-related eye disease. Applications are expected to be available to the civilian population as well. Read the USC press release on the grant.
While this is great news, it underscores the need for a stable and long-term source of funding for trauma research. Like NTI, the EyeTVR program had to appeal to an individual member of Congress in order to secure limited funding for a very important initiative. In fact, NTI’s executive director Sharon Smith just returned from a trip to Washington for the same purpose. She met with staff members in seven different Texas representatives’ offices to state NTI’s case and ask for support in requesting appropriations.
Individual, piecemeal efforts to fund isolated research projects represent a drop in the bucket in terms of the attention needed to make strides in trauma practice. NTI has been lobbying for a steady source of funding even as we work to secure annual funding on a year-to-year basis. We hope other trauma-related research organizations will join us in this quest.
Posted in Grants and Awards, Trauma Research | No Comments »
March 5th, 2010
Today the National Trauma Institute opened registration for its 16th Annual Trauma Symposium, slated for August 30 – September 1, 2010 in San Antonio, Texas. The symposium is unique among medical conferences, as it is a blend of military and civilian speakers and multidisciplinary topics appropriate for the entire trauma team.
This year’s opening session is on provider resiliency and post-traumatic stress disorder. The program includes more than 80 research-based lectures covering advances in everything from trauma nursing to craniofacial surgery, plenary sessions on traumatic brain injury and resuscitation, and an advanced airway course.
To receive the early bird discount, register before July 1, 2010 on the NTI Website.
Posted in Annual Symposium, Trauma Education, Trauma Meetings | No Comments »
March 3rd, 2010
The Department of Defense reports that military service members suffered more than 20,000 traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in 2009. The signature injury of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, TBI is also a prevalent civilian injury, associated with vehicle crashes, sports injuries and falls. The Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center will be hosting activities related to this year’s Brain Injury Association of America campaign: “A concussion is a brain injury. Get the facts.”
With the National Football League also concerned about brain trauma on the field, this year’s Brain Injury Awareness Month is receiving much needed attention. For more information about traumatic brain injury, visit the website of the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center.
Posted in Trauma Education, Trauma Media Coverage | No Comments »
March 2nd, 2010
A USA Today story reports that the Pentagon is about to release a new policy pertaining to identification and treatment of mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) in soldiers. Admiral Michael Mullen pushed for the policy change because of increasing concerns that even mild traumatic brain injuries can cause lasting damage including short-term memory loss, headaches and impaired problem solving.
According to the policy, any servicemember who has been caught near a roadside blast will be pulled out of combat for 24 hours for observation and treatment. Symptoms of a mild TBI include headaches, ringing in the ears and double-vision. Soldiers who test positive will be removed from duty until their condition improves.
USA Today reports that “the new policy is a major expansion to battlefield medicine because it treats troops based on what happened to them, not just on visible wounds.” Read the full story.
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February 23rd, 2010
Dr. Peggy Knudson, vice chair of the American College of Surgeons’ Committee on Trauma (ASC COT) and an NTI board member, is in Haiti providing surgical care for victims of the January earthquake that devastated the island nation. The ACS COT has an informative website tracking what the organization and some of its members have been doing in the aftermath of the disaster. Visit the site at: http://www.facs.org/trauma/updatehaiti.html for the latest update.
Another NTI board member, Dr. Andrew Pollack, of the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Team, describes his institution’s Haiti mission here: http://www.facs.org/trauma/updatehaiti-pollack.html.
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February 4th, 2010
Last night on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, Jon Stewart’s guest was Atul Gawande, a surgeon and author of “The Checklist Manifesto.” Gawande insists that the simple provision of a checklist for doctors prior to conducting surgery saves lives. He points to evidence that in one hospital, alone, that has instituted the checklist, 1,500 lives were saved in a year.
Gawande arrived at his surgical checklist after reviewing similar checklists used by pilots and astronauts. While highly trained doctors may bristle at the idea that they need to go through a rudimentary checklist before performing surgery, Gawande says that once they see how well it finds mistakes and prevents the spread of infections, they are likely to find it worthwhile.
Let’s hope that the exposure of the idea on this influential comedy show results in more hospitals taking it seriously! Stewart has a way of bringing important issues to the forefront, in spite of, or perhaps because of, his humorous treatment of them. Gawande says that the checklist is in effect in only 20% of hospitals nationwide–but of the doctors surveyed after using the checklist, 93% said they would want it to be used if they were undergoing surgery.
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January 26th, 2010
The Airlift Research Foundation, a non-profit based in Pittsburgh, PA, has just awarded grants totaling $400,000 to two researchers working on technology that will help injured soldiers.
Dr. Christopher Born of Rhode Island Hospital and Dr. Yunzhi Peter Yang of the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston will get $200,000 each. Born is studying how to eliminate infections in injured extremities and Yang is researching synthetic bone grafts.
The Airlift Research Foundation funds orthopedic research and increases public awareness about traumatic war injuries.
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January 24th, 2010
New research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, presented at the EAST meeting this weekend, shows that trauma victims who sustain their injuries at night or on the weekend are not susceptible to the same medical care disparities as those who suffer time-sensitive illnesses such as heart attacks and strokes. The reason is because the regionalized trauma system, which mandates that trauma victims be taken to 24-hour, fully staffed facilities (Level 1 trauma centers), insulates these people from the problems associated with lower and less specialized staffing at regular hospitals during off hours.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Brendan G. Carr, says, “We found that no matter when you are injured, you get the same type of care when you are brought to a trauma center.”
Carr believes that the study has implications beyond trauma care. “The…emergency care system as a whole can be redesigned to take better care of the sickest, most vulnerable patients,” he says.
Read the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine press release on the study.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
January 21st, 2010
In an editorial posted on the San Antonio Express News website, Joe Krier defends Kay Bailey Hutchison’s use of the much ballyhooed Congressional earmark to bring federal dollars back to Texas. He points to many examples of positive fallout for San Antonio as a result of Hutchison’s putting Texas first, including $8 million to the National Trauma Institute. “Are earmarks that provide for clinical trauma care and help cure an insidious disease good for San Antonio? I believe the answer is a resounding ‘yes’,” Klier opines.
We think he’s right, and it’s a shame that earmarks have such a negative connotation. In many instances, an earmark is the only way to secure funding for worthy projects if they are not a part of entitlement programs. In the case of NTI, trauma is unfortunately not a category funded through the Department of Health and Human Services. We have been lobbying to have it added to the HHS agenda, but in the meantime, we have had to work through Senator Hutchison and Representative Lamar Smith to secure financial attention.
We and those our research serves are grateful to Hutchison and Smith for recognizing the importance of research to improved clinical outcomes and for working to secure federal funds for this purpose–no matter what the process is called!
Posted in National Trauma Institute News, Trauma Media Coverage | No Comments »
January 19th, 2010
A blog post on the Los Angeles Times website yesterday summarizes a study published in the journal Pediatrics that shows how a doctor characterizes a mild traumatic brain injury affects the perception of that injury. While a concussion and a mild traumatic brain injury are essentially the same thing, the study found that when doctors diagnosed a child’s injury as a concussion, that child was more quickly discharged and more quickly resumed normal activities.
Parents simply don’t take a diagnosis of “concussion” as seriously as “TBI,” the study found. The lead researcher said that returning to normal activity too soon can put children at risk of a second injury, poor school performance and other complications. Lingering effects of a concussion (TBI) include hearing loss, memory loss, dizziness, headaches and depression. A rising awareness of these complications is due to the experience military doctors are gaining as more and more servicepeople sustain brain injuries in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Once more, we’re seeing that very thin silver lining around the cloud that is war. With a better understanding of how the brain heals after such an injury, better treatment protocols are sure to follow.
Posted in Trauma Media Coverage, Trauma Research, Uncategorized | No Comments »