The need for a TATRC- like organization was recognized as early as 1990, when the Army and Air Force medical departments wanted to jointly develop, procure, and deploy a filmless medical diagnostic imaging system (MDIS), at a time when such a system did not exist. On 1 November 1991, Lieutenant Colonel Fred Goeringer was assigned as the MDIS project officer, and by 1993 under his leadership, the Navy had also joined this effort and a formal organization, the Medical Advanced Technology Management Office (MATMO) was established. MATMO, as it was referred to, became better known as the DOD “Telemedicine Test Bed” after the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs designated the Army as Executive Agent for telemedicine in 1994.
During the mid 1990’s, a broad array of advanced and developing technologies were used to meet military medicine requirements including biomedical science, a secure global positioning system, wireless networking, data compression, and adaptable tactical and mobile networks. In 1998, MATMO was re-organized and renamed the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) to better reflect the far-reaching and innovative research the organization had undertaken.
Since its inception, TATRC has always been at the tip of the spear and played a prominent role in developing advanced technologies in areas such as: health informatics; medical imaging; mobile computing and remote monitoring; and simulation and training. TATRC also served an important role in championing organizations such as The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) during its early years, and has continued to be an important thought leader in areas such as the use of virtual reality tools, biomaterials and hospital-of-the-future concepts. The use of advanced medical technologies to support deployed forces has been a common theme for our organization as far back as 1993, when then LTC Ronald Poropatich, MD, with dual appointments at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and MATMO, deployed to Somalia and utilized telemedicine capabilities during Operation Restore Hope.
Between 1993 and 1996, tertiary care telemedicine was supported from the Walter Reed Telemedicine Directorate and was deployed for military medical missions in 12 countries. TATRC has been exploring and implementing telemedicine and other advanced medical technology solutions for nearly 30 years. By exploring new developments, TATRC strives to improve health care for the U.S. Armed Forces, their families and the public sector.
During the height of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) from 2001-2010, TATRC managed more than $500 million annually, primarily through Congressional Special Interest (CSI) funding. TATRC significantly expanded its mission to include medical research portfolios in the areas of: rehabilitation, blood products, proteomics and genomics, pain management, TBI, health and wellness, and computational biology. Similarly during this period, TATRC expanded its global presence with the addition of remote offices at Ft. Gordon, GA, California, Hawaii, and Europe.
In 2010, when CSI research funding ended, TATRC refocused and streamlined its workforce and footprint to Ft. Detrick and Ft. Gordon. Also, beginning in 2014, TATRC transitioned extramural execution management (EM) functions to a consolidated MRMC EM agency and re-engineered focusing solely on intramural laboratory functions. As part of this re-engineering effort, TATRC identified six core competencies that integrated across five TATRC key laboratories and one core program. Those core competencies were in the areas of: teleHealth, health information technology, medical simulation and training, intelligent medical systems, medical humanitarian assistance/disaster relief communications support, and medical technology innovation programs.
In 2019, the Department of the Army saw significant changes at the highest levels. USAMRMC was renamed the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command and was moved under Army Futures Command. In March 2020, as part of that effort, the MRDC Commanding General identified the unique resources and capabilities at TATRC and designated the organization a provisional command (USATATRC (P)) to better reflect TATRC’s functions, portfolio of work and ultimately it’s potential for future impact on operational medicine.
In 2020, the world experienced the COVID-19 pandemic which gave USATATRC (P) the opportunity to develop an accelerated Technology in Disaster Environments (TiDE) portfolio and to lead the development of the National Emergency Tele-Critical Care Network (NETCCN). NETCCN, a joint effort funded by HHS and DoD, developed, deployed, and delivered tele-critical care to hospitals, patients and medical providers across the nation to help fill the gap of critical care during COVID-19 and care for some of the sickest patients. Also in 2020, TATRC established and built the Nexus, a high-fidelity simulation lab and some of its first experiments involved testing the NETCCN applications.
In the Spring of 2023, TATRC restructured and reorganized to focus on the future and our new mission of automating casualty care, and how we can best play a part in modernizing military medicine. In order to achieve this mission, TATRC internally transitioned and realigned many of its resources and assets, which will allow for more integration amongst our functional teams.
TATRC’s new mission shifted to automating casualty care by fusing data, humans and machines into trustworthy solutions that optimize medical performance and casualty outcomes by reducing the human burden of casualty care and maximizing the capability and capacity of the Military Health System across the continuum of care.
In short, our future vision is fully autonomous casualty care – a concept that is certainly not achievable in our lifetimes, and potentially impossible to fully achieve. Nevertheless, the journey toward fully autonomous care from where we are today, in which medical care is 100% in the human domain, will produce novel human-technology teaming (HTT) solutions that:
Nearly three decades after its inception, TATRC continues to actively partner with numerous universities, commercial enterprises and other federal agencies supporting a multitude of projects. TATRC’s vision, as an important extension of its legacy, encompasses the creation of opportunities for technology transfer to the public sector as well as the battlefield.