Combat Readiness – Medical Research Program (CRRP)

Fiscal Year 2019 State of the Science

A Combat Readiness – Medical Research Program (CRRP) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 has been included in the United States FY19 Department of Defense appropriation at $15 Million (M). The CRRP will be established as a program of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) to research forward-deployable solutions that can promptly address life threatening injuries and medical diagnostics, threats, and treatments, and medical threats and treatments for Service members in battlefield settings.

To efficiently manage CRRP, the CDMRP will utilize its two tiered review process (http://cdmrp.army.mil/about/2tierRevProcess).  Traditionally for new programs, the CDMRP holds an inaugural Stakeholders meeting where experts from different subject areas are brought together to identify knowledge gaps, outcome and product needs for the state of the science and patient care, etc. After the Stakeholders Meeting, a Vision Setting meeting is held to recommend an investment strategy to answer some of the unmet medical needs, knowledge gaps, and consumer concerns. In order to expedite the process, the CDMRP is currently soliciting information on the identification of current research efforts and knowledge gaps in medical planning and resources for providing wounded Service members lifesaving care within the “golden hour” after an injury occurs, as well as medical capabilities that may mitigate fatalities.

Medical combat readiness focuses on the immediate medical needs of the warfighter on the battlefield following life-threatening injury or environmental exposure. Injuries or exposures include, but are not limited to, neurological injuries, hemorrhage, and exposures to chemical and biological threats. In order to address the diagnosis and treatment of battlefield injuries, there is urgent need for forward- and rapidly-deployable diagnostics, therapeutics, telemedicine (to include monitoring and data transfer technologies), and countermeasures to chemical and infectious disease exposures.

Please take the time to answer the following survey on medical combat readiness research, the state of the science, and medical care. Consider in your answers the program’s Congressional direction to support military-relevant advanced technology and therapeutic research related to the following focus areas:

(1)   Enhancing battlefield diagnostics for neurological injuries and hemorrhage;

(2)   Integrated wound care and tissue regeneration therapies;

(3)   Environmental and wearable sensors, combined with advanced computing, for surveillance and monitoring of chemical and biological threat exposures;

(4)   Telemedicine applications for battlefield medicine, to allow for better collection, integration, and transfer of patient data from battlefield medical units through transport and treatment;

(5)   Chemical and biological exposure, countermeasures, and management strategies; and

(6)   Solutions for infectious disease management, including sepsis.

Provide answers within your area(s) of expertise and aligned with these topics identified by the CRRP.
All answers should be submitted by 31 January 2019.