Welcome & Letter of Intent

Held in conjunction with the American Telemedicine Association's (ATA) 16th Annual Conference & Symposium, May 1-3, 2011 in Tampa, Florida.

Welcome to TATRC’s Session on: 
"Tip of the Spear Medicine: Emerging Technologies for Special Operations Forces.”

The U.S. Army Medical Research & Materiel Command, (USAMRMC) through its Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) is proud to welcome all of you to the eleventh annual edition of the “Army Telemedicine Partnership Series: Meeting Medical Challenges in a Changing World.”  Last year's meeting on “Mobile Health: The Use of Cell Phones for Healthcare Applications” was well-received and sparked many conversations related to how mobile technologies are changing the face of healthcare delivery.  We are excited to continue this important dialogue at this year’s meeting, with the focus and theme centering on: “Tip of the Spear Medicine: Emerging Technologies for Special Operations Forces”.  Consistent with this year’s ATA host city, Tampa, being the location of the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) Headquarters, the purpose of the TATRC meeting is to convene government, academia and private sector subject matter experts to explore emerging telemedicine, medical informatics and other medical technologies with direct application to Special Operations medicine in unconventional & asynchronous warfare; stability, security, transition & reconstruction (SSTR) operations; and humanitarian missions.   Military representatives from the Special Operations community will present overviews of special operations type missions in both urban and austere environments and their continuing efforts to adopt and adapt emerging medical technologies to support those missions.  Over  25 distinguished speakers and panelists from the military, federal government, academia and private industry will present emerging medical technologies as well as associated research sponsored by USAMRMC, TATRC, SOCOM and other military organizations, followed by interactive discussions among participants and panelists of the applicability of these technologies to ongoing and future Special Operations missions or similar civilian SSTR & humanitarian operations.

The meeting will kick-off with presentations from the USAMRMC Deputy Commander,  the TATRC Leadership, and the SOCOM Surgeon, discussing the role of medical technologies in special operations, as well as the strategy for medical research and development at TATRC.  We are also honored to have Dr. Scott Lephart, Chair, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences & Director, Neuromuscular Research Laboratory University of Pittsburgh as our distinguished Luncheon keynote speaker.    Dr. Lephart heads up several Department of Defense sponsored research projects in Special Operations Injury Prevention and Performance Optimization.

It is with great pleasure that we kick off the American Telemedicine’s 16th Annual International Meeting & Exposition with a relevant and timely discussion on emerging technologies for Special Operations Medicine in the city which hosts the SOCOM Headquarters.  It is my hope that the quality of our speakers at this meeting, and the breadth of expertise in our audience, will help define the future scope and context of TATRC’s research portfolio in those areas which benefit Special Operations medical professionals, as well as the healthcare industry as a whole. 
Sincerely,