CIMIT Innovation Congress to Feature Caring for the Injured Soldier
from Battlefield to Home

The CIMIT Innovation Congress 2009 will continue to stress our commitment to the injured soldier, and to developing innovative tools to be used on the battlefield and in the home. Sessions at the annual event will include traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder; restoration and regenerative medicine; and on-the-battlefield solutions.

CIMIT is already pursuing innovation in crucial areas. Projects relating to TBI and PTSD include novel imaging techniques for accurate diagnosis of TBI and PTSD; (Sylvain Bouix, PhD, Ross Zafonte, DO, Roger Pitman, MD, and Carl-Frederik Westin, PhD); deep brain stimulation to improve motor control in TBI (Paolo Bonato, PhD); non-invasive transcranial stimulation and robotic arm training to improve motor skills (Dr. Bonato); and fluid helmet liner for protection against blast-induced TBI (Laurence Young, ScD). Improvement in battlefield care includes the following initiatives: micromechanical forces to accelerate wound healing (Dennis Orgill, MD): a wireless, motion-tolerant respiration monitor (Mike Dempsey), and a simple, safe device for intravenous drug delivery (Nat Sims, MD). Innovation focusing on restoration and regenerative medicine, including hemorrhage control, includes a novel system to treat severe blood loss without fluid resuscitation (Hasan Alam, MD, and George Velmahos, MD, PhD); an insufflator system to treat internal bleeding (Dr. Velmahos); wearable blood-pressure sensors (Andrew Reisner, MD); a position sensor system for endotracheal tube placement (Rob Sheridan, MD); and protein analysis to regulate therapy for traumatic hemorrhagic shock (Yongging Li, MD, PhD).

 

Dr. Parrish Receives Maxwell Thurman Award
Recognized for his work in the use of advanced technologies to improve patient care.

The prestigious Thurman Award for 2009 has been awarded to John Parrish, MD, Executive Director of CIMIT.  The Award honors the late Gen. Maxwell Reid Thurman, who championed the advancement of lifesaving medical technologies within the U.S. Army. 

Presented by the U.S. Army Medical Research & Materiel Command (MRMC) and its Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), the Maxwell Thurman Award is given to a national leader who has made a substantial contribution toward the advancement of telemedicine and related medical technologies in order to improve patient care.  It is the Command’s top award and is presented each year at the American Telemedicine Associations International Meeting.    

Dr. Parrish is a nationally recognized innovator, clinician and researcher.  His career included tenures as chief of the MGH Dermatology Service and director of the MGH Cutaneous Biology Research Center. He founded the first, and now the world's largest, multidisciplinary research group to systematically study the nature of laser effects on tissue, The Wellman Center for Photomedicine.

Dr. Parrish founded and leads CIMIT, the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology.  A center of innovation, CIMIT fosters and nurtures interdisciplinary collaboration among world-class experts in medicine, science and engineering, in concert with industry and government, to rapidly improve patient care.  As a non-profit consortium of Boston area teaching hospitals and engineering schools, CIMIT provides innovators with resources to explore, develop and implement novel technological solutions for today’s most urgent healthcare problems.

Having served as a battlefield doctor during the Vietnam War, Dr. Parrish is acutely aware of the needs of soldiers and their supportive medical units.  Today, CIMIT is supporting efforts to develop technology that can care for the injured soldier in all phases of care, from front lines of the battlefield, through evacuation, restoration and transitioning home for long term care.

“Collaboration has the power to change medicine,” Dr. Parrish said in accepting the award.  “It is indeed a special honor to be recognized by MRMC and TATRC, who have become exceptional partners with CIMIT in advancing innovation on behalf of both soldiers and civilians.”

 

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Team Is Researching Best Solutions for Soldiers
Adjusting to Rapid Ascents

A team of MGH doctors, led by Aaron Baggish, MD, Peter Fagenholz, MD, and N. Stuart Harris, MD, is determining how soldiers adapt to changes in altitude, and which acclimatization routines enable the soldier to adjust the most effectively. The team, which has been carrying out research in Pikes Peak, CO, with a summit of 14,100 feet, is exploring the impact of moderate altitude staging on pulmonary artery pressure as a means to prepare troops for rapid ascent. One goal is to optimize preparedness for troop operations at high altitude, such as found in Afghanistan. The work, which CIMIT has supported, is being done in collaboration with the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (USARIEM), in Natick, and was recently accepted for a featured oral presentation at the 2009 American College of Cardiology meeting in March. Working with the physician team is Stephen Muza, PhD, leader of the thermal and mountain medicine division at USARIEM.

Read news release on Massgeneral.org: Researchers scale Mount Kilimanjaro to study effect of high altitudes .

 

 

Roger Pittman, MD, leads CIMIT
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Program

With an ever growing portfolio of CIMIT-supported projects in PTSD, Roger Pitman, MD has been recruited to lead CIMIT’s effort in guiding this important area of research for the community. CIMIT’s PTSD CIMIT’s PTSD Program seeks to expand and improve upon current approaches to diagnosis and treatment. This Program leverages the areas of innovation in the CIMIT Neurotechnology, Trauma & Casualty Care, and TBI & Neurotrauma Programs, recognizing that many patients suffer from combinations of conditions that require clinicians to draw on a range of specialty resources.

Learn more about the CIMIT Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Program.

 

Book to Which Dr. Parrish Contributed Cites CIMIT-Supported Advances

Executive Director John A. Parrish, MD, is a key contributor to a book published this winter titled, “War and Medicine,” (Black Dog Publishing, London, 2008). This illustrated text was published to coincide with the exhibition, “War and Medicine.” Dr. Parrish wrote the foreword, and also contributed to a section explaining advances in modern medicine. With William Wiesmann, MD, and Nicole Draghic, Dr. Parrish noted several advances in soldier medicine that CIMIT has supported, including the development of a portable insufflator device to control abdominal and thoracic bleeding preoperatively; the evolution of COMETS, the Combat Medic Training Systems prototype; and “The Digital Diagnostic Glove” that is designed to help medics assess and report the condition of downed soldiers. About the glove, the chapter says, “A medic can gather temperature and blood oxygen levels, blood pressure, respiration and heart-rate information on multiple patients in the field, and track their progress, even during hazardous conditions such as heavy fire.”

"War and Medicine" is available online for purchase at many online retailers including Amazon.com.

 

LiveData Utilizing TATRC Grant in Support of MD Plug-and-Play

Researchers at LiveData, Inc. are utilizing a $730,000 SBIR grant from the U.S. Army Medicine and Advanced Technology Center (TATRC) for Phase 2 development of an integrated clinical environment manager with CIMIT’s Medical Device Plug-and-Play team and MGH's Director of OR Innovation Warren Sandberg, MD. The company is focused on developing a clinical and operational workflow alert manager and IT extensible user interface for its OR-Dashboard patient safety system. CIMIT's MD-PnP initiative, led by Julian Goldman, MD, enables a new level of patient safety and hospital regulatory compliance by aligning healthcare IT and medical device standards with clinical use cases. LiveData is a Cambridge company that got its start in healthcare through CIMIT's Operating Room of the Future project.

Learn more about the CIMIT Medical Device Plug-and-Play and Operating Room of the Future Programs.