AUSTIN, Texas –
To develop and maintain relationships with leading experts and scientists in force health protection, research scientists from Naval Medical Research Unit San Antonio at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston attended the Office of Naval Research’s annual Naval Force Health Protection Program Review held at the University of Texas’s Engineering Education and Research Center in Austin, Texas, from July 9-10.
The aim of the Naval Force Health Protection program is to research and develop innovative capabilities to protect the warfighter, reduce injury risk and improve combat casualty care while also optimizing performance.
“It is imperative that we aggressively research and provide novel medical methods to protect and enhance our warfighting Navy to ensure their preeminence as a fighting force as they maneuver jointly in extremely difficult and dangerous times,” said Dr. Darrin L. Frye, NAMRU San Antonio’s Chief Science Director. “This is why it is important to develop relationships with leading experts and scientists in Force Health Protection, not only to foster situational awareness, but to find opportunities to collaborate and create synergistic programs of effort.”
The program seeks basic and applied research in neuroscience, bioengineering, biophysics, bio-nano-technology, autonomy and material science to understand the underlying mechanisms of injury and repair, which can be applied broadly to ensure Naval Force Health Protection and Readiness.
More than 20 scientists and their teams presented their contributions spanning on a diverse range of topics focused on brain and body health threats from directed energy, trauma, infection, and other sources.
Dr. William D’Angelo, the lead biomedical engineer assigned to NAMRU San Antonio’s Biomedical Systems Engineering and Evaluation Department, accompanied Frye to the program review.
“It was an impressive set of presentations by scientists who attended from across the nation, each delineating their research progress and direction in detail,” D’Angelo said.
Directed Energy Health Effects is one of NAMRU San Antonio’s core research capabilities which develops diagnostic tools to aid first responders and physicians in identification of distinct injury patterns caused by directed energy sources and determines the etiology and treatment of directed-energy casualties.
In addition to evaluating directed-energy non-lethal weapon health effects and effectiveness, NAMRU San Antonio’s research establishes safety standards for training of combat forces in directed-energy operating environments and develops battlefield directed-energy threat countermeasures.
NAMRU San Antonio’s mission is to conduct gap driven combat casualty care, craniofacial, and directed energy research to improve survival, operational readiness, and safety of Department of Defense personnel engaged in routine and expeditionary operations.
It is one of the leading research and development laboratories for the U.S. Navy under the DOD and is one of eight subordinate research commands in the global network of laboratories operating under the Naval Medical Research Command in Silver Spring, Maryland.