JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
The 2017 Military Health System Research Symposium award for Outstanding Research Accomplishment (military/individual) was presented to Maj. (Dr.) Steven Schauer of the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston during the conference in Kissimmee, Fla., Aug. 26.
Schauer was the USAISR Medical Director for the Combat Casualty Care task area and is now the liaison to the Air Force En Route Care Research Center (59th Medical Wing/Science and Technology).
“I greatly appreciate the recognition in receiving the award,” Schauer said. “It’s really just a mark of the highly motivated investigators, mentors and staff that I‘ve been able to work with –they know who they are.”
According to his nomination, “Schauer made several significant contributions to military operational medicine by way of original research and institutional policy recommendations. More impressive, he accomplished this while deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, for nine months in the sole Role 3 military treatment facility supporting Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria.”
During his nine-month deployment, Schauer devised 14 original research projects focused on prehospital management of critical injuries and led efforts to analyze previously untouched data from the Joint Trauma System’s Prehospital Trauma Registry.
He also led the Foreign Internal Defense initiatives to establish and enhance military medical capabilities, and submitted multiple grant applications seeking $3 million to fund research projects dedicated to warfighters.
“The biggest driving factor for me to be so passionate about my work is the chance to have a macro-level impact on the way we care for combat causalities” Schauer added. “When we see a patient in the clinical setting, we have a chance to change the outcome for that one person. When we improve the science of battlefield medicine, we have the chance to impact the care of a multitude of casualties. After spending time at USAISR and deployed working with so many great service members, I hope that the science I am passionate about will one day improve the way they are taken care of if they are ever injured in combat.”
The annual MHSRS Outstanding Research Accomplishment award is designed to recognize outstanding research contributions by an individual research scientist with the focus on significant accomplishments of high impact achieved during the past year.
Maj. Jason Naylor, PA-C was the officer-in-charge of the Role 3 hospital emergency department during Schauer’s deployment to Iraq and submitted him for the award.
“Schauer is uniquely trained and experienced to lead prehospital research projects producing policy and trauma management recommendations that hopefully will result in improved survival rates among U.S. service members in future conflicts,” Naylor said.