FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
Researchers and
clinicians from the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research at Fort Sam
Houston were among the 2,005 attendees at the 2015 Military Health System
Research Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Aug. 17-20.
The four-day conference was designed for communicating and
disseminating new scientific knowledge resulting from military-specific
research and development specifically for the medical needs of the warfighter.
The MHSRS is the Department of Defense’s premier scientific
meeting sponsored by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs that brings together military,
academia and industry leaders and researchers to share and discuss research
topics related to healthcare initiatives under the topics of combat casualty
care, military operational medicine, clinical and rehabilitative medicine and
military infectious diseases to maximize research synergy for the DOD.
USAISR staff members presented 73 posters, 28 oral
presentations and were moderators and co-moderators of 11 sessions during the
conference.
“This is an important conference for our staff to attend,”
said USASIR Commander Col. (Dr.) Michael Wirt. “It’s an opportunity for us to
highlight the work that is done every day at the Institute to optimize combat
casualty care. It is also an opportunity see what other combat casualty care
researchers are doing and establish and maintain enduring relationships for
possible future collaborations.”
During the conference, Lt. Col. (Dr.) Andrew Cap, chief of
the USAISR coagulation and blood research program, was awarded the individual
military outstanding research accomplishment award for research on cold-stored
platelets.
In the poster competition, USAISR took first place with the
poster titled “Burn Scars Modulation Through Laser Delivery of Stem Cells”
which included Robert Christy, Ph.D., Sandra Becerra, and Shanmugasundaram
Natesan, Ph.D., on the research team.
Receiving an honorable mention was the poster titled
“Antibiotic-Loaded Keratin Hydrogels as a First-Line Therapy for Battlefield
Burns” which included Daniel Roy, Ph.D., Christine Kowalczewski, Ph.D., Robert
Christy, Ph.D., and Kameel Isaac on the research team.
“This was one of the most productive MHSRS conferences in
recent memory,” said USAISR director of research Lt. Col. (Dr.) Kevin Chung.
“Overall, there was a high palpable level of enthusiasm for and dedication to
serving wounded service members through innovative research. USAISR maintained
an elite presence throughout the conference.”
“I am very proud of everyone’s work before and during the
conference,” Wirt said. “We are the Army’s premiere combat casualty care
research laboratory and we prove it every day.”
MHSRS combined three previous conferences, including the
former Advanced Technology Applications for Combat Casualty Care Conference,
the Air Force Medical Service Medical Research Symposium and the Navy Medicine
Research Conference.
By combining these conferences into one event, the meeting
serves as a critical strategy session for leaders to set future milestones for
the DOD’s deployment-related medical research programs, centered on the needs
of the warfighter.