Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) scientists finished presenting how their work supports the unique medical needs of the warfighter at the 2019 Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS) Aug. 22.

During the symposium, held at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Kissimmee, Florida they were joined by their colleagues from across the Navy Medicine Research and Development Enterprise, some traveling from as far away as Ghana, Lima, and Singapore. The theme for this year’s MHSRS was "Research for Readiness" and focused on four primary areas: warfighter medical readiness, expeditionary medicine, warfighter performance, and return to duty.

Enterprise scientists presented their work on countering wound infections, malaria, decompression sickness, blast overpressure exposure, aeromedical evacuation effects, the health and readiness of military families, enhancing human performance and survivability in extreme environments, managing physiological episodes in military aviation and more, and discussed how to best protect the health of warfighters on and off the battlefield.

“The great thing about MHSRS is it encourages an assortment of diverse conversations, builds critical relationships and allows one to gain visibility on ideas that can transition into future research,” said Capt. Adam Armstrong, commander, Naval Medical Research Center.

As the Department of Defense’s (DoD) premier scientific meeting, MHSRS provides a cooperative environment for military medical care providers with deployment experience, DoD scientists, academia, and industry to exchange information on research and health care advancements within the areas of combat casualty care, military operational medicine, clinical and rehabilitative medicine, and military infectious disease research programs. It emphasizes common areas of knowledge to maximize synergy among all branches of the military service while acknowledging service-specific capabilities. It is the only scientific meeting that addresses the unique medical needs of the warfighter.

“Research is about advancing our knowledge. We use it to protect our warfighters, and we must be innovative. We focus on solutions to operational medical problems such as battlefield neurotrauma and wound infections, decompression sickness, naturally occurring infectious diseases, and biological threat agents,” Armstrong said. “Innovation creates opportunity, but it takes teamwork to make it happen, as shown this week.”

NMRC's eight laboratories are engaged in a broad spectrum of activity from basic science in the laboratory to field studies at sites in austere and remote areas of the world to operational environments. In support of the Navy, Marine Corps, and joint U.S. warfighters, researchers study infectious diseases; biological warfare detection and defense; combat casualty care; environmental health concerns; aerospace and undersea medicine; medical modeling, simulation and operational mission support; and epidemiology and behavioral sciences.

“Navy Medicine’s R&D Enterprise is entrusted to deliver high-value, high-impact research products to support and protect today’s warfighters,” said Armstrong. “Engaging our sister services and partners in industry, host countries and academia to meet the research requirements we address is crucial for success and development of the military medical research portfolio.”

Get more information about the Navy from US Navy facebook or twitter.

For more news from Naval Medical Research Center, visit www.navy.mil/.