Team TATRC Goes Virtual Amidst Quarantine
March 31, 2020 | Download PDF
TATRC’s first-ever Virtual Town Hall held amidst the quarantine.
Not even COVID-19 could slow us down here at Team TATRC! In the wake of the Coronavirus, the entire organization went remote and “virtual” on 17 March, and completely shifted to telework due to statewide “stay-at-home” orders and social distancing guidelines. Understandably, these conditions have added some complexity to work life, not the least of which includes the quarterly Town Hall meetings held by Director COL Jeremy Pamplin. However, utilizing technology for virtual communications is no stranger to the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center! So, COL Pamplin set about creating and distributing the organization’s first-ever Virtual Town Hall! Using a solution as simple as PowerPoint, an audio recording and an email, COL Pamplin was able to get the message out to the team when it perhaps needed it the most.
A major component of the Virtual Town Hall was distribution of critical information regarding the current state of the outbreak of the virus, as well as important steps for staying aware, protected, and proactive for personal health and safety. Through various slides and imagery, the topics ranged from the history of the virus and others like it, infection prevention information, explanation of social distancing guidelines, and the state of the outbreak nation-wide, as well as the military’s role and specifically, some of the initiatives TATRC is working on in response to COVID 19.
This part of the message set the stage for COL Pamplin’s next point, which was one of ‘Stay the Course.’ He stressed that the efforts TATRC has been making for years has uniquely positioned us to “lead the technology response to the disaster through our work in Digital Health and Telemedicine, our knowledge of Information Technologies and how to adapt them to austere medical environments, our efforts to automate critical systems, and ultimately our vision to bring them together into one intelligent medical system.”
It was also important to note that the work TATRC would do to accelerate technologies during COVID-19 is the same work we had been doing for years to help support the Warfighter. Avoiding injury and illness, optimizing casualty care – all important, necessary work to be successful in the fight against our newest viral foe.
Throughout our time of working remotely, sincere, dedicated efforts have been made organization-wide to ensure the continuation and progression of TATRC’s mission. Whether its being relegated to video conferences for meetings, navigating VPN access, or simply not being able to catch up with coworkers over coffee – the hurdles have certainly been real, but as a Team we have jumped them all and continued pushing on. Thus, now, perhaps more than ever, reassurance from our Leadership that the work we are doing is important and the strength of our Team is unbreakable is so valuable.
As COL Pamplin said in closing, “We are TEAM TATRC!” Thank you to every member of the Team for your dedication, patience and efforts, and we look forward to seeing everyone around the office again soon!
This article was published in the September 2020 issue of the TATRC Times.