Broadening Partnerships To Spur Medical Advances For War Injuries

Main Category: Veterans / Ex-Servicemen
Also Included In: Conferences
Article Date: 31 Jul 2010 - 1:00 PDT

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Ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have stretched the resources available for preventing and treating many of the visible and invisible wounds facing today's service members. Expanded research and options in the fields of regenerative medicine and behavioral health care services have shown some success, but without the ability to share information between military and civilian researchers and clinicians, true breakthroughs will take longer to achieve.

The USU-HJF Military Medicine Symposium will gather prominent civilian and military researchers and clinicians from across the United States to discuss and identify current research and opportunities to collaborate and share information that could speed treatments to those in need. The symposium also will bring together a broad spectrum of participants from military health leadership, federal agencies and private research institutions to philanthropists and charitable foundations, representatives of industry and policymakers.

Co-hosted by the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. (HJF) the symposium will be held September 23 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Organized through HJF's Center for Public-Private Partnerships, the symposium encourages military-civilian collaboration as a means of expanding resources for the military medical system and of spurring advances in medical technology to benefit wounded, ill, or injured service members.

The 2010 symposium will be made up of three expert-discussion panels on regenerative medicine, suicide prevention and resilience, and opportunities for civilian-military collaboration. The final panel will be comprised of a variety of prominent leaders in military medicine.

Regenerative Medicine Opening speaker Army Colonel Robert Hale, D.D.S., chief of oral and maxillofacial surgery at San Antonio Military Medical Center, will address the potential role regenerative medicine can play in treating wounded warriors with disabling cranial, jaw and facial injuries. Commissioned in the U.S. Army Reserves in 1977, Hale was called to active duty in 2003, serving tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Following Hale's presentation, a panel on regenerative medicine will feature experts from the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, USU's Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research; and the Kennedy Krieger Institute.

Suicide Prevention and Resilience Lieutenant Colonel(P) Rebecca Porter will provide an overview of service member behavioral health care and treatment. Porter, recently appointed as director of behavioral health proponency in the Office of the U.S. Army Surgeon General, has experience with the U.S. Army family programs policy and she currently focuses on behavioral health policy.

The panel on suicide prevention and resilience will facilitate discussion among U.S. researchers and clinicians from the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center at Ft. Detrick, MD, Restoration and Resilience Center at Fort Bliss, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Department of Veterans Affairs and the Red Sox Foundation.

Opportunities for Civilian-Military Collaboration Lieutenant General Charles Green, M.D. and Vice Admiral Adam Robinson, M.D., surgeons general of the Air Force and Navy, respectively, and Major General Patricia Horoho, deputy surgeon general of the Army, along with officials from TRICARE Management Activity, the Marine Corps and the Joint Staff, will address the formation of private-public partnerships as a means of bridging gaps in the military medical system.

Prior to assuming his current assignment, Green served as assistant surgeon general for health care operations and as deputy Air Force surgeon general. He also served as commander of three hospitals and Wilford Hall Medical Center, and as command surgeon for three major commands. Among his most recent assignments, Robinson served as acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, clinical and program policy; deputy chief of Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery for support operations and acting chief of the medical corps. In 2005, Dr. Robinson assumed duties as commander, Navy Medicine National Capital Area Region. He is the 36th surgeon general of the U.S. Navy. A registered nurse, Horoho served previously as Commander, Western Regional Medical Command; Commander, Madigan Army Medical Center; Commander, Walter Reed Health Care System; and Commander, DeWitt Health Care Network.

Source: Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU)

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