Simulation Group, ST & D Team to Present at Wellcome Collection in London, "War and Medicine;" Dr. Parrish Contributes Chapter to Forthcoming Book

Research developed by CIMIT’s Simulation Program headed by Steve Dawson, MD, will be exhibited in London at the Wellcome Collection from Nov. 22 through mid-February. Other researchers whose work will be presented at the prestigious event are Nathaniel Sims, MD, Michael Dempsey, and Penny Ford Carleton, who are involved with research in physiologic monitoring with ST&D Ltd., a startup in Northern Ireland, and George Velmahos, MD, PhD, CIMIT program director for trauma and a consultant to a Cambridge company that is developing a self-expanding hemostatic device for blood-loss control.

The Wellcome Collection is a division of Wellcome Trust, the largest charity in the country, and its exhibit is titled “War and Medicine.” It will focus on modern conflict through the personal experiences of surgeons, soldiers, civilians, nurses, writers and artists. After leaving London, the exhibit moves to Dresden, Germany.

In a separate development on a related topic, Executive Director John Parrish, MD, has contributed a chapter to a book titled “War and Medicine” and published by the Wellcome Collection and Black Dog Publishing in collaboration with the Deutsches Hygiene Museum. About 20 authors contributed to the work, which goes on sale with the opening of the exhibition.

Steve Dawson, MD, an interventional radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and leader of The Simulation Group, and his team will display the VIRGIL system, which combines the use of a life-like mannequin with a PC-based graphical interface to create a realistic training tool for medics and military doctors. U.S. Army officials have called the Virgil Chest Tube Insertion Simulator one of the top medical developments in recent years. Dr. Dawson is program leader of CIMIT’s Simulation Program.

About the Virgil simulator, Dr. Dawson said, “Battlefield medicine is urgent and austere. Every medic must know how to treat injuries that can be lethal if not properly treated. The #2 cause of preventable death in battle is chest trauma. VIRGIL combines familiar elements – computer displays, movies, pictures – with split second actions to make learning life-saving skills simple. Done right, these techniques save a life; done wrong, or not done at all, and young lives are lost.”

The Simulation Group presented their technology at the Boston Museum of Science on Nov. 11, Veterans Day. The museum’s presentation was called “Military Medicine,” and focused on cutting-edge military technology.

Dr. Sims, a nationally-recognized innovator at Massachusetts General Hospital and leader of the Sims Innovaton Laboratory, and his team from CIMIT and ST+D will be exhibiting a prototype of a miniaturized, wearable physiologic monitor.

A spokesperson for the team said, “Wartime casualties must be located and triaged rapidly to improve survival. In addition, medics and aircraft must be protected from danger when responding to already deceased casualties. A miniaturized, adhesive chest patch could be worn by soldiers to monitor heart rate, respiration, motion, and temperature. Data would be transmitted through advanced communication technologies to medical personnel in the field or to hospitals for remote surveillance and improved casualty triage. A physiologic monitoring ‘band aid’ could also be of value to civilians in the event of a widespread health threat, such as a pandemic flu outbreak or mass casualty incident.”

CIMIT facilitated a third project being exhibited, the self-expanding hemostatic device for controlling loss of blood. The device is being developed by Aurora Flight Sciences Corp., of Cambridge. Consultant on the project has been George Velmahos, MD, PhD, who is program leader of CIMIT’s Trauma and Casualty Care Program, and Chief of the Division of Trauma, Emergency Surgery and Surgical Care at MGH.

A team spokesperson said, "Uncontrolled hemorrhage is a leading cause of combat deaths. The Swelling Hemostat has proven effective for early hemorrhage control showing none of the thermal side effects or geometric limitations of other devices. It contains a superabsorbent polymer that absorbs the aqueous component of blood and swells to approximately 30 times its initial weight within 2 minutes. Fluid is absorbed into the polymer's matrix, allowing the device to exert pressure as it swells and conforms to the wound. Hemorrhage is stopped by subsequent concentration of clotting factors and direct compression of bleeding sites."

Long dedicated to improving soldier medicine, CIMIT receives funding from the Department of Defense.