Written by / Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
Walter Reed Marks 100th Anniversary
The Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., recently passed its 100th anniversary as DoD’s largest military hospital. The center originally opened with 80 beds and today is a 247-bed facility with 60 outpatient clinics, 16 operating rooms and a staff that does patient care, teaching and research. Its most recent addition is the 31,000-square-foot Military Advanced Training Center, a nearly $9 million rehabilitation center and gym that opened in September 2007. Troops who have undergone amputations have used the center’s computer- and video-monitoring systems, infrared cameraassisted motion analysis and other sophisticated technology to help them adapt to new prosthetic limbs. DoD noted in an article from its public affairs department that the Washington Post in 2007 published a series of articles on poor conditions and “a cumbersome bureaucracy” at the hospital’s facilities, but that the hospital subsequently implemented a number of reforms. “So many great initiatives have developed out of that crisis,” said Army Colonel Norvell V. Coots, M.D., commander of the Walter Reed Health Care System. “National and military leadership from around the world come to Walter Reed to see and learn about [the facility.]”The Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., recently passed its 100th anniversary as DoD’s largest military hospital. The center originally opened with 80 beds and today is a 247-bed facility with 60 outpatient clinics, 16 operating rooms and a staff that does patient care, teaching and research. Its most recent addition is the 31,000-square-foot Military Advanced Training Center, a nearly $9 million rehabilitation center and gym that opened in September 2007.
Troops who have undergone amputations have used the center’s computer- and video-monitoring systems, infrared cameraassisted motion analysis and other sophisticated technology to help them adapt to new prosthetic limbs. DoD noted in an article from its public affairs department that the Washington Post in 2007 published a series of articles on poor conditions and “a cumbersome bureaucracy” at the hospital’s facilities, but that the hospital subsequently implemented a number of reforms.
“So many great initiatives have developed out of that crisis,” said Army Colonel Norvell V. Coots, M.D., commander of the Walter Reed Health Care System. “National and military leadership from around the world come to Walter Reed to see and learn about [the facility.]”
In other news, the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Md., introduced an updated exhibit on modern battlefield medicine and medical equipment, the Associated Press reported. “Building on Our Past: Military Medicine Into the Future,” as the exhibit is called, originally opened in 2004 and was developed in partnership with Fort Detrick, Md. Among other things, the updated exhibit highlights military medical advances stemming from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Prototype Swine Flu Vaccine in Works
As part of its program to develop a vaccine against H1N1 influenza (also known as swine flu) on behalf of the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC), San Diego, Calif.- based Vical said that it has developed a prototype H1 vaccine, produced an initial supply of research-grade material and begun testing of immunogenicity in animals. The next step, assuming tests go well and additional funding is established, will be large-scale manufacturing of the vaccine for human clinical trials by the U.S. Navy.
Vical and the NMRC previously formed a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) to do clinical testing as quickly as possible of a Vaxfectin-formulated H1 DNA vaccine. “The ongoing H1N1 influenza outbreaks remain a focal point of international discussions regarding the need for and feasibility of producing an H1 vaccine,” said Vical President and CEO Vijay B. Samant.
In other news, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in early May designated the Naval Health Research Center (NHRC) in San Diego as an H1N1 confirmatory lab, which Navy Medicine Support Command public affairs said in a news release “can allow more effective treatment of severe cases and enable more efficient tracking of the spread of cases alone and in combination with other pathogens.”
NHRC has been doing advanced testing of H1N1 for local military clinics since the U.S. outbreak began and is considered a key center for providing disease surveillance in the southwestern United States.
“Given the fact that San Diego is a major fleet concentration area, and located on an international border, this transformation was a natural evolution,” said Dr. Karl Van Orden, NHRC scientific director. “The respiratory disease research laboratory, directed by Commander Patrick Blair, is poised to work with CDC to examine the H1N1 virus over the weeks and months ahead for signs of mutation and for the emergence of other pathogens.”
NHRC processes around 5,500 specimens a year, about two-thirds of them during the influenza season from October to February, Van Orden said.
New VA Project to Mine EHR
Salt Lake City’s Veterans Medical Center will lead a new effort to study the effectiveness of past treatments for staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections and post traumatic stress disorder by using new software to sift through patients’ electronic health records.
The $10 million Consortium for Healthcare Informatics Research, as the project is called, will also include researchers in Nashville, Tampa, Boston, Pittsburgh and elsewhere around the country.
The project will look at outpatient pharmacy records, lab reports, notes by nurses and doctors, radiology reports, discharge summaries and other documents that have not to date been searchable in a comprehensive way, with the aim of discovering novel, effective treatments.
TRICARE Unveils OPPS
TRICARE Management Activity launched a new Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) that will allow hospitals to know in advance how their claims will be processed. The system, which sets standardized national payment rates adjusted for geographic wage differences, should save TRICARE about $458 million in administrative costs, the organization said.
Providers will also have the option of paying more for software that speeds the process of filing and payment of outpatient claims with TRICARE claims processors. More information on the new systems can be found at www.tricare.mil/opps.
SAIC Wins $96 Million USMC CBRN Contract
U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command renewed an SAIC prime contract worth as much as $96 million to provide chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) and incident response program support for up to five years.
The one-year deal, with four one-year options to renew, requires SAIC to provide Marine Corps Systems Command’s family of incident response systems (FIRS) team with support services and equipment procurement. The FIRS team assists various federal agencies, including DoD, FEMA and the U.S. Marine Corps itself. Work by SAIC, which has offices in San Diego and McLean, Va., will include equipment procurement, inventory management, training and maintenance.
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