News Archive 2011
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Taking Medicine to the Front Lines
December 21, 2011
In an age of smartphones and high-tech gadgets galore, it may be surprising to hear that one of the next “big things” coming out of the electronics arena is being spearheaded by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) at Fort Detrick, MD.
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Vet Walks with Bionic Foot
December 15, 2011
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI - Steve Hendricks is the first Mississippi veteran to receive a bionick ankle through the VA Medical Center. Designed by iWalk, the foot is battery-operated and calibrated and programmed through Bluetooth.
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Writing Therapy to Foster Wounded Warriors' Recovery
December 15, 2011
BETHESDA, MD., Dec. 15, 2011 - At a major medical center where troops are healing from the most severe of traumatic brain injuries and psychological issues, officials are adding a key ingredient to their comprehensive care: expressive writing workshops.
Announced Dec. 13 at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, on the campus of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center here, the center has partnered with the National Endowment for the Arts' Operation Homecoming for a yearlong pilot program that's slated to begin in January, said Navy Rear Adm. (Dr.) Alton L. Stocks, the medical center's commander.
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New Brace Salvages Limbs, Mobility, Morale
December 8, 2011
SAN ANTONIO, Dec. 8, 2011 - A wounded warrior limped into Ryan Blanck's office at the Center for the Intrepid here one day with a plea for help.
The doctors at Brooke Army Medical Center had saved the service member's leg after a combat injury, but due to the pain, he couldn't walk comfortably, let alone run.
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The "Business" Side of Saving Lives
November 29, 2011
In an age of smart phones and high-tech gadgets galore, it may be surprising to hear that the next “big thing” coming out of the electronics arena is being spearheaded by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command at Fort Detrick, Md. Since 2009, the USAMRMC has been directing several efforts to design, develop or refine handheld telemedicine devices that could help to save lives in theater.
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Chilling Trauma Patients to Try to Save Them
November 15, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — Suspended animation may not be just for sci-fi movies anymore: Trauma surgeons soon will try plunging some critically injured people into a deep chill — cooling their body temperatures as low as 50 degrees — in hopes of saving their lives.
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U.S. Army Tests 3G Network For Squad Use
November 11, 2011
FT. BENNING, Ga. — For the first time, the U.S. Army has used a 3G wireless network to tie various smartphones, tablets, and radio systems to a multitude of sensors and unmanned ground and air assets, pushing information down to squad and fire team leaders.
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Army Advances Smartphone Strategy: Defense Department looks to procure smartphones, tablets, and personal Wi-Fi hotspots for soldiers
November 11, 2011
Military IT leadership has been increasingly talking about equipping soldiers with smartphones, and now the Army's 5th Signal Command, via a procurement run by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), is looking at the possibility of buying thousands of mobile devices in a move that could help get that strategy up and running.
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Panetta Dedicates New Bethesda Military Medical Center
November 10, 2011
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta presided over the opening of what he called "a 21st-century place of miracles" here today.
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Army to outfit combat teams with networking radios
November 4, 2011
The Army is expanding its efforts to field networking waveform radios for its brigade combat modernization teams through the award of a $66 million contract to outfit eight teams with AN/PRC-117G radios, Army officials said Nov. 4.
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Next stop for Army mobile devices: Tablet central
November 2, 2011
The Army knows what its soldiers want for the field: the same handheld technologies they use at home. Now that demand is being met as the Army looks beyond smart phones and explores the best ways tablet computers can be used on base, in the classroom and in combat.
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Wounded elephant walks again, thanks to jumbo-sized false foot
November 2, 2011
"I really thought he would never make it," said Nick Marx, stroking Chhouk's trunk with a sense of pride and affection.
"He was seriously injured. He was extremely young, emaciated and very, very sick."
Chhouk, a bull elephant now 5 yea
rs old, was found in the Cambodian jungle in 2007, alone and close to death, his left front foot mangled by a poacher's trap.
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Telehealth: Bridging Care in Afghanistan" : A Blog by entry by COL Poropatich
November 2, 2011
Telebehavioral health (TBH) has demonstrated to be a valuable tool in overcoming the terrain challenges in Afghanistan that severely limit in-person meetings between far-forward deployed Soldiers and behavioral health care providers. TBH is a low cost solution that increases a Soldier's access to health care in the combat zone.
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Leaping Robot Always Lands on Wheels
October 31, 2011
U.S. Army Col. Peter Newell, head of the Rapid Equipping Force (REF), walked through the streets of Kandahar, Afghanistan, with ground commanders, who pointed to the 18-foot walls that line the many compounds both inside and outside the city.
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Headless, Humanoid Robot Preps for Army Duty
October 31, 2011
Sauntering toward you like a mechanized zombie is the Army’s newest recruit: a robot with a blinking red light where its head should be.
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Let Your Fingers Do the Healing
October 24, 2011
A new military telehealth application —mCare — is poised to help wounded active duty, Reserve, and Guard get the daily help they need to recover.
Presidents, kings, and dignitaries have a personal doctor who travels with them, who is on call — solely for them — 24/7. Most people do not have such a luxury, but the United States Army Medical Research and Material Command and its subordinate the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center are developing a new mobile phone application to offer wounded Army active duty, Reserve, and National Guard daily help to recover. The app is called mCare — a secure, bi-directional mobile messaging system for wounded warriors. In a nutshell, the mCare platform is a way to help wounded warriors keep in touch with their case manager and medical team through secured messaging using their personal mobile phones
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Military Ode to Steve Jobs
October 11, 2011
Whether a diehard Apple fan or not, it's undeniable that Jobs changed the face of technology forever. Year after year, he unveiled one cutting-edge product after another — the iMac, iPod, iPhone and the iPad — making technology as accessible and useful for a military spouse juggling schedules and kids during a deployment as for a high-powered executive balancing budgets and businesses.
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Military Research Money For Eye Trauma Caught In Cuts
October 10, 2011
A Congress intent on slashing the budget has cut military research money for finding ways to treat damaged eyes, an injury that has affected about 50,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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U gets $11M grant to improve training of combat medics
September 22, 2011
The University of Minnesota has won an $11 million grant from the Department of Defense to improve the training of combat medics.
As part of the three-year project, researchers plan to "simulate the sights, sounds and smells of the battlefield" to study how medical personnel respond, according to Dr. Robert Sweet, the lead researcher. "We want them to feel like it's real, so that they don't freeze up the first time they have to perform these skills in combat."
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Face of Defense: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Operator Guides Peer
September 21, 2011
CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan, Sept. 21, 2011 - Marine Corps Sgt. Chad John spends 12 hours a day with an aerial view of Afghanistan, but he rarely leaves the ground.
John, a native of Shiprock, N.M., is an unmanned aerial vehicle operator with Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 3.
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Report Examines Lower Body Blast Injuries
September 21, 2011
WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2011 - The Army Surgeon General's Office released its report yesterday on dismounted complex blast injuries, which more than twice as many service members have suffered annually since the 2009 troop surge in Afghanistan.
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Naval Postgraduate School Explores Next-level Telemedicine September 20, 2011
MONTEREY, Calif., Sept. 20, 2011 - Studies being done at the Naval Postgraduate School here aim to take telemedicine to the next level -- possibly using body sensors and robots on the ground and in the sky to help medics and corpsmen treat combat casualties.
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Department of Defense Offers Alzheimer’s Research Dollars
September 6, 2011
Alzheimer’s researchers in the U.S. have felt the pinch of shrinking budgets and reduced National Institute on Aging (NIA) paylines this past year, but some glimmers of hope suggest this grim outlook could improve. In one such sign, the U.S. 2011 federal budget includes a $15 million allocation to create an Alzheimer’s research program within the Department of Defense (DoD) .
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TATRC's mCare Project earns 2010 Army's Greatest Invention Award
August 24, 2011
Please see below for the Army Greatest Inventions (AGI) Award winners for Calendar Year 2010, including TATRC's mCare Project. The contributions made by these teams promise to improve the well being of Soldiers and the Army’s capability to contribute to quality of life and our national security. I would like to expressly thank you for submitting your Army Greatest Inventions nomination packages which continue to make the Army Greatest Inventions program a success. All of the nominated inventions demonstrate significant contributions to the Warfighter.
The nomination packages were judged by a panel of non-commissioned officers with recent combat experience as well as hands on, practical experience, in addition to a panel of TRADOC field grade officers. The 2010 Award winners demonstrated significant impact to Army capabilities, potential benefits outside of the Army, and inventiveness. This program's unique selection process reflects the voice of the Warfighter and insight into the future of Army equipment. The AGI awards are truly "Soldiers' Choice Awards." After careful consideration by the evaluation panels, the following recipients (listed alphabetically) have been selected to receive the 2010 Army Greatest Inventions Awards and Soldier Greatest Inventions Awards.
2010 Army Greatest Inventions Award Winners
- 40mm Infrared Illuminant Cartridge, M992 (ARDEC)
- 5.56mm M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round (EPR) (ARDEC)
- Green Eyes – Escalation of Force Kit Integration with the CROWS System (ARDEC)
- Husky Mark III 2G 2 Seat Prototype (AMRDEC)
- Jackal Explosive Hazard Pre-Detonation System (ARDEC)
- M240L 7.62mm Lightweight Medium Machine Gun (ARDEC)
- mCare Project (MRMC)
- Mortar Fire Control System – Dismounted (MFCS-D) (ARDEC)
- RG-31 Robot Deployment System (RDS) (TARDEC)
- Soldier Wearable Integrated Power Equipment System (SWIPES), (CERDEC)
2010 Soldier Greatest Inventions Award Winners
- Ironman Pack' Ammunition Pack System for Small Dismounted Teams
- Culvert Denial Process
The award winners will be recognized at a ceremony in conjunction with the Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting 10-12 OCT 2011 in Washington, DC. The Army Greatest Inventions Awards will be presented by GEN Ann Dunwoody, Commanding General, Army Materiel Command.
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NIH releases best practices for combining qualitative and quantitative research
August 23, 2011
The National Institutes of Health today released recommendations or best practices for scientists conducting mixed methods health research. Mixed methods research combines the strengths of quantitative research and qualitative research. Despite the increased interest in mixed methods research in health fields and at NIH, prior to this report, there was limited guidance to help scientists developing applications for NIH funding that featured mixed methods designs, nor was there guidance for the reviewers at NIH who assess the quality of these applications.
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Tackling the Unseen Wounds of War
July 29, 2011
In June 2008, Defense Secretary Robert Gates identified five targets for military research and development. These targets emphasized research into the treatment of post traumatic stress (PTS), and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and treatment options to benefit troops with the types of physical injuries they are currently receiving on the battlefield.
The Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) was way ahead of the curve when it came to the invisible wounds of war.
“TATRC is the research scout for all military medicine,” said Army Colonel Karl Friedl, TATRC's director. “We are working with and funding some of the best and brightest people in medicine, academia, and industry to better protect, treat, and care for our military.”
Please see story.
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Retired Marine moves into house built by volunteers
July 17, 2011
When retired Marine Sgt. Adam Kisielewski and his family moved into their new handicap-accessible home Saturday morning, it marked the culmination of thousands of volunteer hours, hundreds of thousands of dollars in donated goods and services, and immeasurable community support.
Kisielewski lost his left arm and right leg in an explosion while serving in Iraq in 2005. He and his wife, Carrie, bought a three-story house in January 2006, which at the time he thought he could navigate on his prosthetic leg even if his wheelchair couldn't handle the narrow doorways and stairs.
Please see story.
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Ft. Detrick Research Onboard Shuttle Atlantis
July 17, 2011
When the space shuttle Atlantis took off July 8 on its final mission, the science experiments it carried included some with local ties.
The Space Tissue Loss program, a collaboration between NASA and the Department of Defense, has sent 20 sets of experiments into space on 18 shuttle launches since March 1992. Among the collaborators are the U.S. Army Center for Environmental Health Research and the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, both located at Fort Detrick.
The program sent three experiments into space on Atlantis, which is set to return to Earth on July 20.
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S.A.-based study has GIs bending all they can bend
9 June 2011
A military study launched in San Antonio aims to reduce the number of GIs who cannot go to war because of debilitating bone and skeletal injuries — by predicting those wounds before they occur.
Fort Sam Houston launched the Military Power, Performance and Prevention study this year to find new ways of coping with the growing incidence of non-combat injuries that have bedeviled an Army that has struggled to send soldiers to war.
Dubbed MP3, the study, involving the U.S. Army-Baylor University doctoral program in physical therapy and three other schools, enters a new phase Monday at Fort Lewis, Wash., when it begins to put 1,500 soldiers through a series of tests. It will run a year and compare the results with the number of GIs who were injured.
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The Wizardly Ways of a Tech Lab
4 June 2011
In Goethe's 1797 poem "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"—and in countless later versions of the story, including the famous sequence in Disney's "Fantasia" in 1940—disaster results when a young man, taking advantage of his wizardly master's absence, uses sorcery to lighten his chores. The poem ends with the admonition that magic should be used solely by experienced sorcerers.
No such prohibition applies in Frank Moss's "The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices"—the students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab don't have to wait until the professors aren't around before they can start tinkering. The students work essentially as partners with their teachers, and together they have produced technological innovations that often seem touched by magic, from the e-reader to the lifelike robotic prosthesis now in development.
The Media Lab was founded about 25 years ago by Jerome Wiesner, MIT's president at the time, and computer-savvy architect Nicholas Negroponte, who became its first director. Mr. Moss, who was the lab's director from 2006 until he recently stepped down, tells us in "The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices" that the lab remains administratively where it was founded, in MIT's School of Architecture and Planning, but its reach has stretched well beyond that. And the term "media" in the lab's title has taken on seemingly unbounded meaning.
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Can a wave of the hand ward off war's wounds?
23 May 2011
Can post traumatic stress disorder, suffered by one in five service members coming home from Afghanistan and Iraq and a contributing factor in suicides, homicides and drug addiction, be treated with the wave of a few fingers?
Researchers from the University of South Florida's College of Nursing believe it can. And they are using part of a $2.1 million U.S. Army grant to prove it.
The treatment is called accelerated resolution therapy. Discovered about four years ago by a Connecticut therapist named Laney Rosenzweig, it involves a therapist rhythmically waving fingers in front of a client's face to induce eye movements similar to those occurring during the deepest part of sleep.
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MIT-West Point Challenge Yields New Soldier Technologies
18 May 2011
Rocket-propelled grenades explode, villagers scream in Arabic, squad members move together through the rough streets past animal pens and bazaar stalls, and the hot air carries local sounds and smells.Every year since 2003, cadets from the U.S. Military Academy and students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have competed to develop technologies that help soldiers and Marines on the battlefield.
This year, six teams took home awards for advances such as slashing the time it takes to set up sand-filled barriers, designing a safer way to airdrop water supplies, harvesting wind energy from a cell-phone-sized generator, and more.
The MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, a research center founded in 2002 with a five-year, $50 million Army research contract, holds the Soldier Design Competition.
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ZeroG: Overground gait and balance training system
17 May 2011
From the Journal of Rehabilitation Research & Development article:
The integration of body-weight support (BWS) systems into gait rehabilitation strategies following stroke, spinal cord injury, and other neurological disorders has continued to expand over the last two decades [1-4]. While the conceptual framework for utilizing BWS is beyond the scope of the present discussion, at its core, unloading the paretic lower limbs allows patients with gait impairments to practice a high number of steps in a safe, controlled manner (Hidler et al. [5]). Varying BWS can also be used to alter the intensity of gait therapy since unloading the patient decreases both muscle demands and, subsequently, muscle forces throughout the lower limbs [6-8]. This can be particularly important during the early stages of neurological injury when patients are often sick and have poor cardiovascular endurance [9].
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Immersive Technology Fuels Infantry Simulators
13 May 2011
Rocket-propelled grenades explode, villagers scream in Arabic, squad members move together through the rough streets past animal pens and bazaar stalls, and the hot air carries local sounds and smells.
It's not Afghanistan's Helmand province. It's a 130,000-square-foot building on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in southern California.
There, at the Infantry Immersion Trainer, a Defense Department program combines infrastructure, actors, and three-dimensional immersive technologies that replicate the sights, situations and smells of war in the Middle East to help Marines and soldiers make better, faster decisions on the ground.
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Southern California Wireless Innovators Win Funding for Inventions
12 May 2011
Southern California researchers working on wireless health technologies recently won commercialization support and research funding through the TATRC/Qualcomm Wireless Health Innovation Challenge. The awards will support UC San Diego work on artificial retinas made from nanowires, a UCLA system that helps people re-learn to walk after a traumatic injury, and USC tools that enable doctors to monitor and modify – from afar – drugs administered by infusion pumps.
The TATRC/Qualcomm Wireless Health Innovation Challenge aims to nurture and accelerate the commercialization of selected wireless health technologies developed in Southern California that have the greatest potential to improve healthcare delivery to U.S. military personnel and their families. The year-long program is hosted by the von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering with its program sponsors, the U.S. Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) and Qualcomm Wireless Health.
Over the next twelve months, winners of the program will receive up to $92,000 to conduct proof of concept studies, technology development and preliminary market research to determine the commercial feasibility of their technologies. The teams will also receive mentoring assistance from the von Liebig Center’s Technology and Business advisors to help advance their technologies toward commercialization. The three projects representing three different universities in Southern California were selected out of 45 applications from ten universities and research institutes.
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Chiarelli: Stress Disorder, Brain Injury Science Lacking
12 May 2011
The therapies used for the treatment of brain injuries lag behind the advanced medical science employed for treating mechanical injuries, such as missing limbs, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli told reporters here today at the Defense Writers Group breakfast.
Chiarelli said more work must be done to properly diagnose and treat service members suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and suicidal thoughts.
“There’s a lot of criticism with how we handle PTSD and TBI and other behavioral health issues,” he said. “I think a lot of that is unfair, because if you study this, we don’t know as much about the brain. That is the basis of the problem.”
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Virtual Worlds Form Defense Training Frontier
9 May 2011
Five years from now, if Frank C. DiGiovanni has his way, warfighters from every service will learn aspects of their trade on a world in cyberspace.
The Defense Department will save money, time, and ultimately, lives, he said, and it's his job to make that virtual world a reality.
DiGiovanni is director of training readiness and strategy in the office of the deputy assistant secretary of defense for readiness. He's also a retired Air Force colonel and a senior aviator.
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Medevac Initiatives Save Lives in Afghanistan
25 April 2011
While Congress pokes around for budget cuts, few lawmakers want to drop programs that not only save wounded soldiers' lives, but put their bodies back together again.
One of those initiatives is the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM), a Defense Department (DOD) program that advances miraculous medical techniques for the thousands of soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Started by Ret. Army Col. Robert H. Vandre Jr., AFIRM is a consortium of 200 scientists and 50 academic and private sector partners who are engaged in clinical trials involving hand transplants, regenerated muscles and new skin for patients. Additionally, regenerative medicine technologies are being prepared for human clinical trials.
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New Department of Defense Program to Fund Research Relevant to both the Alzheimer's and Military Communities
15 April 2011
As the leading voluntary health organization advocating for Alzheimer's care, support and research, the Alzheimer's Association® is pleased that Congress has authorized a $15 million investment to be provided to the Department of Defense's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) to create an Alzheimer's Research Grant Program. The program will provide grants for research that will explore the causes, complications and potential treatments associated with Alzheimer's disease, particularly among those in the military.
The funding will be used to create a peer-reviewed research grant program portfolio which will include traumatic brain injury (TBI), post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other research areas. The Alzheimer's Association joined US Against Alzheimer's in support of the creation of this very important program which will make a significant contribution to greater understanding about Alzheimer's.
Today an estimated 5.4 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease and that number is expected to climb to 16 million by mid-century without the discovery of disease modifying treatments that prevent, cure or slow disease progression. According to the Alzheimer's Association's 2011 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures report, moderate and severe head trauma, head injury and traumatic brain injury are associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia.
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Research Examines Blast Impact on Human Brain
12 April 2011
There’s little debate about the risk of a brain injury when a service member gets a blow to the head -- whether from an enemy round or from crashing against a wall or being inside a vehicle during an explosion.
But some of the foremost academic researchers from around the world, working in cooperation with the Defense Department’s Blast Injury Research Program, are trying to determine exactly what happens to a service member’s brain when it’s exposed to a blast, but with no direct head impact.
Their answers could change the way the military protects tens of thousands of deployed troops from improvised explosive devices, mortar rounds and other explosions, Michael J. Leggieri Jr., director of the Defense Department’s Blast Injury Research Program Coordinating Office, told American Forces Press Service.
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A “Grand Challenge” to Find Innovative Solutions for Military Medicine
6 April 2011
The first winners of the Grand Challenges in Bioengineering competition are receiving their funding, and a new group of undergraduate and graduate researchers will present their innovative ideas at the 12th Annual University of California Systemwide Bioengineering Symposium June 13-15 hosted by UC Santa Barbara. One grand winner and two finalists will be announced at the symposium.
“TATRC is proud to be able to involve young minds from top academic institutions in a concerted research endeavor dedicated to military medicine. We look forward to wider involvement on the part of the military and academia in these efforts that promise hope and a better return for the warfighter,” said TATRC director Col. Karl Friedl.
The UC competition stems from a special “grand challenge” that the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command’s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center issued to the student research community at UC’s 2009 symposium. TATRC Chief Scientist Dr. Charles Peterson described current and emergent problems in military medicine and challenged students to develop research projects focused on addressing those problems.
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Gates, Shinseki Agree to Joint Electronic Records
5 April 2011
Two years after they joined President Barack Obama in announcing plans to create a Joint Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki have agreed to create a joint common platform for their departments' electronic medical records.
Gates and Shinseki agreed in concept to create the joint common platform during a March 17 session, giving their staffs an early May deadline to come up with an implementation plan, VA Deputy Secretary W. Scott Gould told American Forces Press Service.
"They slapped the table and said, 'Okay, in concept we agree,'" Gould said during an interview while attending the 25th National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic in Snowmass Village, Colo.
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Pentagon's Uphill Battle
Afghan Campaign Spurs Military to Seek Remedy for Troops' Altitude Sickness 25 March 2011
Benjamin Levine is spending the spring recruiting college students in Dallas for an all-expense-paid vacation to the Rocky Mountains. Naturally, there's a catch.
The students will spend their time in Breckenridge, Colo., doing sit-ups, push-ups, wind sprints and a 12-mile hike to an elevation of 12,000 feet. If all goes as planned, some will also get quite sick.
The $2.5 million research project, funded by the Pentagon, aims to solve a difficult problem for the military. When troops are parachuted into high-altitude battlefields, many come down with acute mountain sickness. Accompanying headaches, nausea, dizziness and fatigue can be so debilitating some troops have trouble standing, much less maneuvering in combat.
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Medevac Initiatives Save Lives in Afghanistan22 March 2011
New ambulances designed to negotiate Afghanistan's rough, narrow roads, kits that quickly convert standard combat vehicles for casualty evacuation and state-of-the-art field medical packages are improving battlefield medicine and saving lives, an official involved in developing and fielding the new equipment reported.
'What we are doing is getting better technology far forward to the wounded, and as a result, we are seeing a decrease in mortality,' Jaime Lee, a product manager at the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity's Medical Support Systems Division, told American Forces Press Service.
'We have improved getting care to the soldier in that far forward area, and getting it to him in that 'golden hour' - that first hour after he has been wounded,' he said.
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Soldier Inspires Others With Brain-injury Recovery22 March 2011
His first significant brain injury was a setback, but when he experienced several more a few years later, Army Capt. Galen Peterson figured he'd reached the end of his military career.
'One of the biggest things that I struggled with when I was going through [traumatic brain injury] is the impression that my career and life as I knew it was over, that there was no way I could stay on active duty, much less an armor officer,' he said.
But with hard work and perseverance, he was able not only to remain on active duty, but also to take on his current job as the rear detachment commander for the 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, at Fort Carson, Colo.
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Clinical Trials Seek to Improve Warriors' Burn Care 18 March 2011
New hope is on the horizon for wounded warriors suffering debilitating burns as the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine and its partners at leading medical research centers launch three promising clinical trials.
Burns are among the most painful and debilitating battlefield wounds and often turn deadly if infection sets in. In an effort to speed up the development of revolutionary new treatments for burns and other common battlefield injuries, the Defense Department launched AFIRM in 2008.
Just three years into the program, AFIRM is seeing big signs of success as it helps advance technologies that use laboratory-grown tissues and biosynthetically developed compounds to treat injuries and illnesses. The ultimate aim of regenerative medicine is to enable patients' bodies to re-grow bones, skin and tissues -- even whole organs and limbs.
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Caught in a BEAR hug: A newly designed robot can recover casualties from battlefields, and might also be able to make itself useful to soldiers in other ways12 March 2011
KILLING a soldier removes one enemy from the fray. Wounding him removes three: the victim and the two who have to carry him from the battlefield. That cynical calculation lies behind the design of many weapons that are intended to incapacitate rather than annihilate. But robotics may change the equation.
The Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot, or BEAR for short, is, in the words of Gary Gilbert of the United States Army's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Centre (TATRC), 'a highly agile and powerful mobile robot capable of lifting and carrying a combat casualty from a hazardous area across uneven terrain'. When it is not saving lives, it can perform difficult and repetitive tasks, such as loading and unloading ammunition.
The current prototype BEAR is a small, tracked vehicle with two hydraulic arms and a set of video cameras that provide a view of its surroundings to its operator via a wireless link. It has been developed by TATRC in collaboration with Vecna Technologies, a company based in Maryland that invented the robot. Daniel Theobald, BEAR's inventor and Vecna's boss, says versatility is at the heart of the robot's design. 'It would be completely impractical if you had robots with a sole duty to rescue soldiers, because they would spend most of their time unused,' he says. 'The whole idea from the start was to design a general-purpose robot.'
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Fort Detrick research center helps to develop products for regenerative medicine6 March 2011
Medical research can sometimes drag on for decades before patients ever see a usable product, but one research team is working to quickly create medical products to help wounded service members.
Fort Detrick's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center has funded the development of two regenerative medicine products, as well as an imaging system to detect internal bleeding. The research, which takes place at the Center for Advanced Bioengineering for Soldier Survivability at the Georgia Institute of Technology, involves medical researchers, and engineers who turn medical knowledge into a usable product. It is supported by military personnel to remind everyone why their work matters.
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Dolphin's new tail can help human amputees
Gel developed for 'Winter' makes false limbs comfortable for people2 March 2011
Prosthetic specialist Kevin Carroll travels the country tackling the toughest human amputation cases, so it was only natural that he was also drawn to Winter the only known dolphin to survive the loss of her powerful tail flukes.
'My heart went out to her, and I was thinking I could probably put a tail on her,' said Carroll, vice president of prosthetics at Hanger Orthopedic Group, Inc.
Recreating one of the most powerful swimming mechanisms in nature turned out to be a lot tougher than expected. But after months of experimenting, Carroll and a unique team of experts are well on their way to, as one of them puts it, 'MacGyvering' a tail for Winter.
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Building kindness: National nonprofit makes accessible house for injured Marine veteran possible17 February 2011
Standing yards from where construction workers were pouring the footing for his new house, retired Marine Corps Sgt. Adam Kisielewski looked out on the view of horses in the pasture and the valley beyond.
'I don't even know what you could say about the kindness of others,' he said.
That kindness from family, friends and volunteers has helped him recover from severe injuries he suffered in an explosion in Iraq in 2005.'
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Robot avatar allows sick boy to go to school17 February 2011
Because the slightest cold virus could kill him, Lyndon Baty almost never leaves the house, but science has found a way to let the 15-year-old Texas boy go to school at least virtually.
A robot avatar now goes to classes and wanders school hallways for Lyndon, who had been forced to stay in isolation at his home in Knox City ever since his immune system was wiped out due to complications from kidney disease. The teen controls his avatar robot through the laptop on his desk at home, guiding it to classes and telling it to turn to face people when they speak to him.
Lyndon still wonders at the changes the robot has brought. 'It's the most wonderful thing that's happened to me since my transplant,' he told TODAY's Meredith Vieira. 'It's like being there. I feel like I'm at school. I keep saying it's like being in two places at the same time.'
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Face of Defense: Amputee Runs on Inspiration15 February 2011
The Army warrant officer often logs two to three miles per day at Fort Gilliem, Ga., to keep fit for military duty -- not bad for a soldier with a prosthetic leg.
Assigned to the 3rd Military Police Group as a human resources technician, the 14-year Army veteran hasn't let his injury hold him back. Rather, he said, being injured has spurred him to do things he never attempted before, such as running a half-marathon.
'When I first got injured, I thought if I could ever run again, I'd give it my all,' he said.
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Top Doctor Cites Importance of Psychological Health8 February 2011
Psychological health is among the military's most critical and most promising areas of medical treatment, the Defense Department's assistant secretary for health affairs said today.
Speaking at the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury's Warrior Resilience Conference in Arlington, Va., Dr. Jonathan Woodson said nearly 10 years of war has caused an 'immense' emotional toll on service members and their families.
'The work is heartbreaking and difficult, and progress is uneven and slow,' he acknowledged to an audience that included health care providers, researchers, officers and noncommissioned officers, and family members.
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Building Resilience Must Start at Basic Training, Mullen Says7 February 2011
Leadership that builds resilience in service members and their families starting with the first day of basic training is essential to the U.S. military's future, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today.
'That kind of investment up front will prevent us from the expenditure of a huge number of resources down the road,' Navy Adm. Mike Mullen told the audience of 600 people at the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury's third annual Warrior Resilience Conference in Arlington, Va.
The conference's 'Total Force Fitness' theme supports a joint strategy to build resilience for service members' multidimensional and holistic fitness.
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TRICARE Improves Online Communication, Access21 January 2011
Additions to the TRICARE military health plan's website are giving beneficiaries easier access to their personal health data, more convenient appointment scheduling and better communication with their health care providers, the top TRICARE official reported.
TRICARE Online, the military health system's patient portal, already enables users who get care at a military treatment facility to schedule appointments, track their medications, order prescription refills and view and even download their personal health records, Navy Rear Adm. (Dr.) Christine S. Hunter told American Forces Press Service.
Later this year, patients also will be able to get their laboratory and X-ray results through the portal, along with secure messaging from their health care providers, Hunter said.
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Interactive Simulation Launched to Provide Information on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder19 January 2011
The Department of Defense (DoD) announced today the launch of an interactive simulation designed to help those dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The National Center for Telehealth and Technology (T2) developed the 'Virtual PTSD Experience' to help combat veterans and their families and friends to anonymously enter a virtual world and learn about PTSD causes, symptoms and resources.
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'Virtual World' Helps With Post-traumatic Stress19 January 2011
The Defense Department is using virtual-world interactivity to educate and help warfighters and others who are reluctant to seek more direct care to deal with post-traumatic stress, said an official at the National Center for Telehealth and Technology, also known as 'T2.'
During a recent telephone briefing from the center's headquarters at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Wash., Greg Reger -- a clinical psychologist and acting chief of the center's innovative technology applications division -- said the kinds of immersive experiences available in virtual worlds, such as the internationally populated virtual world called Second Life, are designed to appeal to tech-savvy service members and their families.
'Far too many of our warriors come home and, despite difficulties they are having, are not going to come and see a psychologist, a social worker, a psychiatrist,' Reger said.
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New Technology Can Be The Best Medicine17 January 2011
We all know that smartphones, tablet computers and big-screen TVs are transforming the workplace and home. But the newest gadgets could also be a tonic for medicine and health care.
Cellphones have already proven to be a potent medical instrument in improving patient outcomes. Diabetes patients who are sent videos on their cellphones and actually view them are more likely to check blood sugar levels and comply with their care regimens, said U.S. Army Col. Ron Poropatich, who spoke at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week.
And wounded veterans sent text messages via cellphone have better follow-up treatment routines and feel more connected to caregivers, said Poropatich, deputy director of the U.S. Army's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center at Fort Detrick, Md.
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'Medical Home' Concept Improves Care, Controls Costs12 January 2011
Wouldn't it be fantastic to get the old-fashioned kind of health care, in which the doctor knew you and your family and kept track of your medical condition, but with the additional convenience and access to health care information that modern technology provides?
That's exactly what the TRICARE health insurance program is striving to provide as it rolls out the new patient-centered 'medical home' concept to an increasing number of its beneficiaries, Navy Rear Adm. (Dr.) Christine S. Hunter, the top TRICARE officer, told American Forces Press Service.
Civilian medicine has embraced the medical home concept, which introduces a team approach to health care and establishes a consistent, long-term relationship between patients and a provider team, Hunter explained.
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