The Mayo Clinic reports in the most recent issue of Discovery’s Edge that Dr. Michael Yaszemski, an orthopedic surgeon and biomedical engineer, and Dr. Anthony Windebank, a neurologist and molecular neuroscientist, are making progress on regenerating peripheral nerves and bone that have been damaged in warfare.

The two Mayo Clinic surgeons are co-directors for nerve injury research in AFIRM (the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine), a consortium of 16 institutions that has been granted $85 million to develop new treatments for war wounded.

While more than 90 percent of the soldiers injured in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan survive, many have serious injuries that involve severed nerves and are life changing. The Mayo clinic doctors have been studying the use of biodegradable synthetic polymer scaffolds that can deliver cells and nerve growth factors to severed nerves. The regenerated nerves will restore patients’ functions and feelings.

“Our overall goal in this endeavor is to improve the lives and functions of our patients,” Dr. Windebank is quoted as saying. “We’re focused on helping service personnel with terrible injuries, but what will come out of this will have applications for anyone with a serious limb injury from whatever misadventure.”

With FDA and Mayo Clinic Institutional Review Board approval, human clinical trials are the next step.

Last month, the firm Vicor Technologies announced that its proprietary PD2i® nonlinear algorithm and software had been touted by a researcher at the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR) as “the most promising diagnostic for in-field trauma triage.” Andriy Batchinsky, MD, presented his research on the device November 14 at the American Heart Association’s Resuscitation Science Symposium.

The device uses one to two minutes of EKG data to evaluate heart rate complexity and is not derailed by “noisy” data—an issue faced in real-world applications on the battlefield as well as in civilian trauma situations. In his evaluation, Dr. Batchinsky found the PD2i® diagnostic to consistently and accurately identify those requiring lifesaving intervention.

Dr. Batchinsky’s work is a wonderful example of the kind of actionable research that NTI supports and funds. At our own Symposium in August and September, Dr. Richard Schwartz, director of the Emergency Medical Support Program at the Medical College of Georgia, reported that the Terrorism Injury Information Dissemination and Exchange (TIDE) project had been looking at this very issue of triage and had worked on developing a new system that adopted the best components of the many existing systems. Also critical, he said, is the issue of identifying better vital signs that can more accurately help first responders assess patient status.

We are hopeful that new technology like the PD2i® and many other devices currently moving through the development pipeline can begin to make a real difference for victims of trauma. Continued funding for research is the key!