Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst announces $5M TETF investment in UTHSC-H trauma research

“The Texas Medical Center, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System are all aggressively pursuing trauma research,” said Holcomb, who is retiring from the United States Army following a 27-year military career. “I’m proud to be a part of their efforts.”

Since 2002, Holcomb has served as commander of the United States Army’s Institute of Surgical Research at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, which cares for combat casualties and creates products for the treatment of injured soldiers. His contributions are in the areas of increased hemorrhage control through dressings, tourniquets and intravenous methods, as well as trauma informatics and systems.

“The daunting statistics on trauma in Texas and the United States point to the fact that there is an unmet need for interventions that improve the outcomes of people with injury,” Willerson said. “There are presently limited treatment options for people with brain injuries.”

The National Trauma Institute describes trauma as a $400 billion problem and reports there is no single center or institute devoted exclusively to trauma research at the National Institutes of Health. “The amount of funding for injury is disproportionately low compared to other chronic diseases,” Holcomb said.

Examples of projects that may be tackled at the Center for Translational Injury Research include studies on the impact of optimal methods of breathing support in the prehospital emergency environment, improving care of bleeding patients, developing new monitors so live-saving treatments can commence sooner and the possible use of regenerative medicine in skin replacement therapy. Much research will be conducted with Memorial Hermann - Texas Medical Center, a top trauma center and the home of the Life Flight aerial ambulance service.

The center will also build on existing research.

Researchers at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston and Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital are in the midst of a unique clinical trial to gauge the safety and potential of treating children suffering traumatic brain injury with stem cells derived from their own bone marrow. Investigators include Charles Cox Jr., M.D., The Children's Fund Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at the UT Medical School at Houston, and James Baumgartner, M.D., a research collaborator at the UT Medical School at Houston. Both are members of the medical staff at Memorial Hermann - Texas Medical Center.