News Summary

University of Minnesota Medical School researchers have been awarded a three-year, $11 million grant from the United States Department of Defense to lead a consortium that will define the future training of combat medics.

Quotes

“New training capabilities may potentially save the lives of service members as training shifts to state-of-the-art approaches to combat medicine,” said Robert M. Sweet, MD, FACS, the principal investigator on the grant, who also directs the U of M Medical School’s Simulation Programs. “With our military partners, we plan on providing means of skills assessment and recommendations on revising training curricula for some of the most critical injuries and trauma routinely seen on the battlefield: massive bleeding (hemorrhage) and airway management.”

“This isn’t just another research project for us – we all feel very patriotic and are humbled by our responsibilities and the implications of this effort.”

“It’s one thing to effectively and safely perform these skills in a controlled setting; it’s another to do it under the duress of battle,” said Sweet. “Our facilities will simulate the sights, sounds and smells of the battlefield and our human factors team will be monitoring medics’ stress responses to the situation as they perform these life-saving maneuvers. We want them to feel like it’s real so that they don’t freeze up the first time they have to perform these skills in combat.”

"This competitive grant award represents a significant new initiative for the Department of Defense in military medical training research,” said Col. Karl Friedl, Ph.D., director of the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center and current Joint Program Committee chair. “The elements of this consortium bring together the best of medical training and modern technologies in a convergence science effort that will enable more effective, agile, and affordable options to meet future training requirements.”

Full Text

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (September 20, 2011)—University of Minnesota Medical School researchers have been awarded a three-year, $11 million grant from the United States Department of Defense to lead a consortium that will define the future training of combat medics.

The grant will allow U of M researchers and their consortium partners to perform a gap analysis of relevant trauma training technology. They’ll then develop and validate assessment tools to evaluate training, retention, and competence of medics in pre-hospital Tactical Combat Casualty Care.

According to University of Minnesota urologic surgeon and simulation expert Robert M. Sweet, MD, FACS, the principal investigator on the grant, the consortium will examine the external and human factors that influence performance of battlefield medics’ life-saving skills and provide the DOD with a roadmap for the development of novel simulation tools to facilitate and optimize training.

The end goal is to ensure and maintain combat readiness for military first responders.

“New training capabilities may potentially save the lives of service members as training shifts to state-of-the-art approaches to combat medicine,” said Sweet, who also directs the U of M Medical School’s Simulation Programs. “With our military partners, we plan on providing means of skills assessment and recommendations on revising training curricula for some of the most critical injuries and trauma routinely seen on the battlefield: massive bleeding (hemorrhage) and airway management.”

According to Sweet, during this time of war, it is a great honor and privilege for the University of Minnesota to join forces with military colleagues and do their part. “This isn’t just another research project for us – we all feel very patriotic and are humbled by our responsibilities and the implications of this effort.”

A technological training approach

Simulation-applications in health care have made great strides in the last decade, but the technology is still in its infancy compared with other industries such as aviation and aerospace.

The military can’t capitalize on such technology without evidence of feasibility, cost-effectiveness, validity and improved efficacy when compared with current training methods. Furthermore, much of the technology is either undeveloped or untested. This is where the U of M will step in to lead the effort.

“It’s one thing to effectively and safely perform these skills in a controlled setting; it’s another to do it under the duress of battle” said Sweet. “Our facilities will simulate the sights, sounds and smells of the battlefield and our human factors team will be monitoring medics’ stress responses to the situation as they perform these life-saving maneuvers. We want them to feel like it’s real so that they don’t freeze up the first time they have to perform these skills in combat.”

"This competitive grant award represents a significant new initiative for the Department of Defense in military medical training research,” said Col. Karl Friedl, Ph.D., director of the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center and current Joint Program Committee chair. “The elements of this consortium bring together the best of medical training and modern technologies in a convergence science effort that will enable more effective, agile, and affordable options to meet future training requirements.”

The CCTC will feature a team of civilian and military experts across the country, and at the epicenter lays Sweet, a world-recognized expert in simulation technology and SimPORTAL Director of Operations Troy E. Reihsen, a First Sergeant in the Minnesota Army National Guard and a combat medic.

The U of M has an 80-year history of patient care and surgical innovation, and is home to one of the earliest critical care and trauma training programs in the country; training health professionals to care for trauma patients for more than 31 years. Specifically over the last decade, U of M teams led by CCTC members and U of M faculty Drs. Greg Beilman and Richard Bianco have developed new therapies and tools for the treatment of trauma and hemorrhagic shock. Novel airway training-methods have also been developed and implemented by emergency medicine specialist and team-member Dr. Joe Clinton.

In addition, Sweet noted that they will be benchmarking the behavior of the specific materials in existing simulation tools against their “one-of-a-kind” human tissue-property database. This database will allow them and their partners to create the simulation tools of the future that look and, more importantly, behave like real tissue.

Consortium partners include: the American College of Surgeons, National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians, The U.S. Army Medical Department, the Defense Medical Readiness Training Institute, Madigan Army Medical Center, the Uniformed Services University for Health Sciences, U.S. Army Research Development and Engineering Command, Applied Research Associates, Inc., and the Program Executive Office for Simulation Training and Instrumentation.