Photo By Rebecca Perron | 180711-N-GM597 Portsmouth, Va. (July 11, 2018) Members of Naval Medical Center...... read more read more
Naval Medical Center Portsmouth’s (NMCP) Combat Trauma Research Group (CTRG) received the Research Accomplishments/Military – Large Team award during the Military Health System Research Symposium on Aug. 20 in Kissimmee, Florida.
The award recognized the contributions of NMCP’s team of researchers and their impact on improvements and standardization of care for the Tactical Combat Casualty Care’s (TCCC) official guidelines, which are guidelines for the standard of care for prehospital battlefield medicine. Such improvements to battlefield medicine can also impact the guidelines for care given by emergency medical services in communities throughout the country.
“Congratulations on another award and well-deserved recognition of your contribution to the care of our wounded warriors,” said Cmdr. John J. Devlin, the program director for NMCP’s Emergency Medicine Residency Program. “Your team is phenomenal and continues to serve as an example of what a group of committed, like-minded professionals can accomplish with hard work. Further, thank you for being a part of what makes Naval Medical Center Portsmouth a site of operational medical excellence.”
The research group is formally part of NMCP’s Emergency Medicine Department and began its research mission within the department more than a dozen years ago. Today, the group is a multidisciplinary team that also includes doctors, residents and interns who specialize in general surgery, trauma surgery, anesthesia and internal medicine, as well as transitional interns.
During the last year, the CTRG published a significant amount of outcomes from completed research projects that focused on subjects such as hemostatic gauzes, vasopressors (a drug causing the constriction of blood vessels), intraosseous blood transfusions (injecting directly into the marrow of a bone), tension hemopneumothorax decompression devices and junctional tourniquets.
Many of these research projects tested products to determine which is superior in their battlefield use, and make recommendations for updates to the TCCC guidelines.
“We are a group of staff and residents who conducts research that focus on gaps in medical knowledge identified by the Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care,” Lt. Cmdr. Micah Gaspary, the medical director of NMCP’s CTRG. “First, we attempt to improve battlefield care delivered by first responders, which in this case is mostly Navy corpsmen, with a secondary focus on resuscitation from trauma. We test products such as hemorrhage control products.”
Examples of research include a study that showed successful transfusion rates using intraosseous access.
“This study should change the method we use to transfuse blood in theater,” Gaspary said. “For a person with major bleeding, it’s often difficult to establish IV access. We showed that we can rapidly transfuse blood using a pressure bag as long as the catheter is properly placed, so that should change the way transfusions are done for those types of patients.”
Another study showed the effect of saltwater exposure on hemostasis dressings and produced results that are important to Navy Medicine. According to Gaspary, the testing showed that one of the products is superior when exposed to saltwater, and at least for Navy commands that are operating in a maritime environment, that should change which product they use.
The junctional tourniquet study was important as well.
“We tested several tourniquets and found that once the patient is moved, we would lose control (of bleeding) more than half the time,” Gaspary said. “One tourniquet is superior to the others in almost all cases (of controlling bleeding) and that should change procurement and use of tourniquets.”
Ultimately, the goal is to save the lives of service members and improve battlefield care.
“We have made major contributions to the TCCC guidelines and those overall are leading to improvements in battlefield care and standardization as well,” Gaspary said. “Our main effect is affecting those guidelines which are distributed throughout the military, and the civilian world as well in the EMS communities as they look at military research to make decisions.
“I am happy and proud that we were recognized for our efforts with this award,” Gaspary added.
As the U. S. Navy's oldest, continuously-operating hospital since 1830,
Naval Medical Center Portsmouth proudly serves past and present military
members and their families. The nationally acclaimed, state-of-the-art
medical center, including its nine branch clinics located throughout the
Hampton Roads area, additionally offers premier research and teaching
programs designed to prepare new doctors, nurses and hospital corpsmen for future roles in healing and wellness.
| Date Taken: | 08.20.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 08.24.2018 13:19 |
| Story ID: | 290205 |
| Location: | PORTSMOUTH, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 237 |
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