Pitt to lead trauma network, up to $90M in Department of Defense-funded trauma research

The University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences has been awarded a contract from the Department of Defense that could lead to $90 million in research over the next decade to improve trauma care for both civilians and military personnel.

The contract will kick off with a $10.8 million project to develop a nationwide network of trauma systems and centers tasked with conducting research to improve military trauma care. The Linking Investigations in Trauma and Emergency Services Network will include extensive data collection to obtain and connect information covering pre-hospital care through recovery after discharge on potentially thousands of trauma cases across the country.

"Our immediate goal is to characterize what our network can do by obtaining intensive data from the pre-hospital and in-hospital settings, which is beyond what is normally obtained by trauma centers across the country," said Jason L. Sperry, MD, principal investigator, professor of surgery and critical care medicine at Pitt's School of Medicine, and trauma surgeon at UPMC. "Our sense is that after approximately two years of accruing large amounts of data, we'll be able to launch subsequent projects at the DOD's request — including the gold standard: randomized clinical trials — to find out what approach to care works best to keep people who are injured in a trauma from dying."

In its initial project, the LITES Network is expected to provide epidemiological data on moderate and severe injuries in the U.S. and identify any regional variations in the types of injuries and the way they're managed. 

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