MAST Virtual Health FY20 Update
December 31, 2019 | Download PDF
This fiscal year is the second year that the newly established Virtual Health (VH) Research Task Area is able to support research proposals with Army S&T funding. The focus of this research is to support the medical needs of the far-forward Multi-Domain Battlefield. Considerations for virtual health to support in prolonged field care scenarios and limited and/or non-existent communications due to electronic warfare, are key aspects of this research funding.
This exciting new research area falls under the Army Medical Simulation and Information Sciences (MSIS) Research Program portfolio. The nature of this research is Army 6.2 funding, that is applied research, which is defined as “systematic study to gain knowledge or understanding necessary to determine the means by which a recognized and specific need may be met.” Ms. Jeanette Little, who is Lab Director of TATRC’s Mobile Health Innovation Center, also serves as the Capability Area Manager (CAM) for the new Virtual Health Research Task Area and is excited about the foundational work these intramural / extramural efforts will provide to the research portfolio. “The second year of Virtual Health research projects were vetted by an external peer review team and an internal Virtual Health Steering committee prior to being selected for funding. All of the projects focus on identifying common ground with other government, academic and industrial research efforts, modeling and visualizing the future multi-domain needs, ensuring that semi-autonomous patient monitoring considers the consequences of cyber vulnerabilities and electronic warfare, and how virtual reality can augment care,” said Ms. Jeanette Little.
Use of Augmented Reality Concepts to Deliver Critical Care in Prolonged Field Care Environment is one of the key intramural effort that will be funded unde the Virtual Health research portfolio.
In FY20, the MSIS Medical Assisted Support Technology (MAST) Virtual Health Research Area will support both intramural and extramural research efforts. Two of the key intramural efforts that will be funded under the Virtual Health research portfolio are continuations of projects that commenced in FY19. The first project is, the “Use of Augmented Reality Concepts to Deliver Critical Care in a Prolonged Field Care Environment.” The Principal Investigator is Maria Serio-Melvin, MSN, RN from the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research. The second project entitled: “Emerging Cybersecurity and Communication Solutions to Achieve Remote, Semi-Autonomous Patient Monitoring Systems (PMS) in the Future Battlespace” is led by Principal Investigator, Mr. Ron Yeaw, from TATRC, and the Co-Investigator Eddie Eidson from Army Futures Command’s Cyber Battle Lab.
In addition to these ongoing research efforts, there will be two new intramural projects starting up in FY20. They are “Optimization and Automation of Virtual Health Data Capture, Prioritization and Communication to Improve Casualty Care” with Mr. Geoff Miller from TATRC serving as the Principal Investigator and “Vocal Behavioral Markers of Stress Response: Developing an Empirical Framework for Non-invasive Machine-Learning-Based Health Risk Indicator” with Principal Investigator Phillip J. Quartana, Ph.D. from Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
Finally, it is anticipated that there will be 2 extramural research awards in FY20, however, these efforts have not yet been awarded, and therefore cannot yet be announced. Please stay tuned as there is much more to follow in this exciting new research area!
This article was published in the July 2020 issue of the TATRC Times.