More than 60 Geneva abstracts were accepted for oral and poster presentations for the Department of Defense hosted Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS). This premier scientific meeting is designed for military, government, academia, and industry experts to collaborate and discuss scientific medical advancements specific to the Warfighter.

This year’s meeting was canceled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic but 80+ of Geneva’s employees, researchers, Scientific Advisory Board members, and Geneva’s Researcher of the Year recipients have shared research on MHSRS’s conference website which spans 25+ Warfighter related topics. MHSRS identified four focus areas for this year’s themes – Warfighter Medical Readiness, Expeditionary Medicine, Warfighter Performance, and Return-to-Duty.

Geneva researchers were also selected to moderate and lead sessions for their expertise in the 4D Bio³ and MIRROR programs. “Although this year’s meeting wasn’t able to happen, we are excited about sharing our research to advance military medicine,” said Geneva Program Manager Linzie Wagner.

Below is a sample of Geneva’s selected studies highlighted within each MHSRS topic area:

WARFIGHTER MEDICAL READINESS

On-Demand Blood: Protocol Robustness Assessment of Manufactured Red Blood Cells for Warfighters

• • Geneva Presenter: Geneva Senior Research Scientist Joel Gaston, PhD
  • Co-Authors: Joel Gaston, PhD, Janice Moser, PhD, Katie Glen, PhD, Kelly Haupfear, Colleen Delaney, PhD, MSc, Joe Blake, Jody Cook, Michael Mansour, MD, PhD, Kyle Meetze, MBA, Rob Thomas, PhD, Kenneth Church, PhD, Vince Ho, MD
  • Site: USU-4D Bio³ Center
  • Area of Focus: Leveraging Biotechnology to Improve Warfighter Readiness & Lethality
  • Abstract: “Red blood cells (RBCs) are currently the most transfused blood products in trauma care, however their availability is severely affected by safety concerns, supply issues, and efficacy. Currently, all RBCs used in trauma care are obtained from human donors and therefore reliant on donor health. As such, time and money must be spent on pathogen screening and storage (freezing) prior use. Recent efforts have focused on using stem cell platforms to eliminate the need for human donors through massive expansion and differentiation protocols.” Continue reading: MHSRS-20-01745

EXPEDITIONARY MEDICINE

Effects of Humerus and Intravenous Epinephrine Administration in a Hypovolemic Pediatric Cardiac Arrest Model in Swine

• • Geneva Presenter: Geneva employee Researcher Arthur Johnson, PhD
  • Co-Authors: Arthur Johnson, PhD, COL Denise Beaumont, DNAP, LTC John Yauger, PhD, LTC Michael Neill, PhD, Joseph O’Sullivan, PhD, Julie G. Hensler, PhD, Dawn Blouin, BS, LTC Steven Kertes, DNP, LTC Michelle Johnson, DNP
  • Site: Brooke Army Medical Center
  • Area of Focus: En Route Care Innovation – Increasing Effects of En Route Combat Casualty
  • Snapshot of Abstract: “The primary mission of the military is to take care of active duty personnel; however, another important mission is to care for dependents and children who may be victims of accidents, terrorism, and/or natural disasters. On the battlefield, the mission is to care not only for our Soldiers but also to provide care to civilian victims of war many of whom are children. In addition, the US Army, Air Force, and Navy have a rich history of caring for civilian adults and children who are victims of horrific events all over the world.” Continue reading: MHSRS-20-01493

WARFIGHTER PERFORMANCE

Early Transcriptomic Markers to Predict the Outcome of a Critical Sized Tibial Bone Defect: Whole Genome Analysis of a Miniature Pig Model

• • Geneva Presenter: Geneva employee Research Scientist Nabarun Chakraborty, MS, MBA
  • Co-Authors: Nabarun Chakraborty, Roman M Natoli, Stacy Ann-Miller, Tien-Min G. Chu, Aarti Gautam, Jeffrey Anglen, Todd O. McKinley, Rasha Hammamieh and Melissa A Kacena
  • Site: Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
  • Area of Focus: Musculoskeletal Injury Treatment: From Warfighter Readiness & Return to Duty to Definitive Care & Quality of Life
  • Snapshot of Abstract: “Fracture non-union, a state where a fracture does not heal appropriately leaving bone segments unconnected, has a detrimental effect on patient quality of life. At the root of all fracture non-union is a problem of improper, stalled, or otherwise errant biologic processes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines a non-union as a fracture that is at least 9 months old and has not shown any signs of healing for 3 consecutive months. The current standard of care is that patients are followed with serial radiographs. While most surgeons may have a ‘suspicion’ that the fracture is not healing correctly by 3 months, re-operation to promote bony union in long bones (e.g., tibia, femur) is typically not undertaken until 6 months. The rationale for early prediction is that such predictive marker can systematically inform the clinical intervention; surgical and/or medical intervention could be undertaken earlier rather than waiting for the 6 months or more to declare a fracture non-union.” Continue reading: MHSRS-20-00280

RETURN-TO-DUTY

Further Development of the Portable Warrior Test of Tactical Agility: A Test of Return to Duty Readiness

• • Geneva Presenter: Geneva employee Clinical Research Coordinator II Amy Cecchini, DPT
  • Co-Authors: Karen McCulloch, PhD, PT, NCS, Amy Cecchini, DPT, Lisa O’Block, DPT, Julianna Prim,PhD, Annabell Oh, MS, Wanqing Zhang, PhD
  • Site: Fort Bragg Intrepid Spirit Clinic
  • Area of Focus: Improving Neurosensory Function after TBI
  • Snapshot of Abstract: “Return-to-duty (RTD) readiness assessment for active duty service members (ADSM) following concussion requires complex clinical considerations of a myriad of impairments. Following a concussive event, many service members present with early deficits in balance, agility, memory, vision and dual or multi-tasking.  Many single task assessments are available for clinicians to use when evaluating an individual who has sustained a concussion, however to date, none include military specific skills and none have been fully validated in an active duty population. An important emerging result from the expanding concussion literature is that both exertion and dual tasking may uncover persistent impairments that appear to have recovered to baseline or normal performance when tested alone and at rest in individuals who have been concussed and are being evaluated for return to play, return to work, or return to duty. Persistent impairments under these conditions are particularly relevant to a military population as service members (SM) frequently have uniquely challenging occupational demands and are placed in complex and often dangerous environments where persistent impairments could be unmasked and would have significantly more dire consequences to the individual or the mission.  The Portable Warrior Test of Tactical Agility (POWAR-TOTAL) is a performance-based, exertional and dual-task assessment which requires less time, space, and technology than previous laboratory-based RTD assessments.” Continue reading: MHSRS-20-01643

To learn more about the research highlighted above or any other Geneva studies selected for MHSRS presentations, contact our Business Development team. To view the online versions of all accepted abstracts, click here.