State of the Science Symposia Series on Rehabilitation Research to Clinical Practice in Support of the Military Amputee Research Program

Principal Investigator/s: Rory A. Cooper, Ph.D.

Co-Investigator/s: N/A

Funding Source: DOD

The technical revolution that is currently taking place in medical, surgical, and rehabilitative care has become increasingly difficult for practitioners to keep up with.  Given the overall goal to provide world-class care to our injured soldiers and veterans, the purpose of the Symposium Series is to bring expert scientists conducting state of the art research of immediate and future clinical relevance to the Army Medical Department, especially as related to very severely war injured soldiers requiring medical rehabilitation. The Army Medical Department is saving soldiers who would have died of their wounds a decade ago. Many of these soldiers will need to adapt to physical impairments for years to come. State-of-the-science care, advanced technology, and the dedication and skill of Army, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and affiliated personnel are crucial for the successful reintegration of soldiers into their communities and when possible back to active or reserve service in the Army. Another important component is to ensure that the Army, VA and U.S. research community are effectively communicating and planning for the long-term care of soldiers leaving active duty due to the injuries that they incurred in the service of our country. The Army Medical Department is working with the VA to ensure that the process of moving patients from one healthcare system to the other is as seamless as possible. The symposia will also bring together key Army and VA medical rehabilitation leaders. As Army Secretary Dr. Francis J. Harvey said at the kick-off of Freedom Team Salute “As former soldiers, our veterans will always be permanent members of the Army family”.

The symposium series will consist of single day courses and workshops, which will cover topics of extreme relevance to the Army Medical Department – Rehabilitation Medicine Component (AMD-RMC). The topics include: Advanced Assistive Devices (Prostheses, Wheeled Mobility, Robotic Technologies), Spinal Cord Injury (Chronic Pain, Metabolic Disease, Vocational Rehabilitation, Sexual Function, Bowel/Bladder Management), Polytrauma (Pharmokinetics, Clinical Trials, Vocational Outcomes, Psycho-Social Issues, Acute Management), Sensory Impairment (Hearing Loss, Hearing Aides and Adaptive Listening, Blind Rehabilitation, Artificial Retina). These topic areas were selected based upon the injuries being experienced by soldiers serving in the Army that often result in the need for long-term medical rehabilitation. World-class clinician scientists conducting relevant research will be invited to present. This will provide important benefits for the AMD-RMC, including the training programs at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Capital Consortium.

We will not charge participants for attending the symposium. Registrations will be done on-line through the web-site www.herlpitt.org. We will broadly advertise the symposia to Department of Defense (DoD) medical personnel through e-mails, fliers, and announcements by commanders. VA and other government healthcare personnel will also be invited to participate. Pre-registration numbers will be used to ensure adequate access by Army MC personnel. CEU’s and CME’s will be offered through the University of Pittsburgh at no-cost to the symposia participants.