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Monthly News & Opportunities | |
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Project to Create Teletrauma Toolkit Awarded NIH Funding | |
Recently awarded funding by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a new project led by Zain Hashmi, MD, a trauma surgeon and Director of Teletrauma at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, hopes to ensure that where someone lives doesn't determine the quality of trauma care they receive after a serious injury.
Dr. Hashmi is nationally recognized for his research on rural trauma care, injury disparities, and the use of telehealth to improve access to life-saving trauma expertise. His TRUCARE (Developing a Teletrauma Implementation Toolkit for Early Point-of-Care Delivery of Trauma Care Expertise to Injured Rural Patients) project will develop a teletrauma implementation toolkit to help hospitals build sustainable teletrauma programs.
As a project partner, CNTR will provide scientific leadership and coordination for the study's stakeholder engagement activities.
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STN and CNTR Team Up to Prioritize Geriatric Trauma Nursing Research Gaps
Upon completion of her PhD dissertation, Dr. Rochelle Flayter, chair of the Society of Trauma Nurses (STN) Research Committee, proposed a follow-on investigation of the National Trauma Research Action Plan (NTRAP) to prioritize geriatric trauma nursing research gaps.
"Older adults experience disproportionately high morbidity, mortality, and functional decline after injury, yet trauma research priorities rarely reflect the complexity of geriatric care," Dr. Flayter said. "Although the NTRAP generated a comprehensive national research agenda, nursing perspectives were minimally represented, leaving a critical gap in identifying geriatric trauma research priorities most relevant to nursing practice."
Guided by the Trauma Outcomes Model (TOM), her dissertation addressed the need for a nursing‑centered evaluation of geriatric trauma research needs.
| | CNTR Welcomes Five New Affiliate Members | |
CNTR's ranks are growing! In July, five organizations in the traumatic injury space joined the coalition as Affiliate members. We look forward to finding ways to collaborate with these new members:
The Surgical Infection Society (SIS) promotes research in the understanding, prevention and management of surgical infections.
Velocity.TX is a nonprofit that promotes and connects San Antonio's academia, industry and military medical communities.
The World Brain Mapping Foundation is a charitable foundation that facilitates multidisciplinary brain, spine and mental health research that advances cutting-edge neuroscience technologies.
The Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics is a scientific organization that hosts the annual Neuroscience20 Summit.
The Students, Residents and Fellows Trauma Advocacy Coalition is a collaborative network of emerging military and civilian physicians and healthcare professionals--they have developed state-by-state advocacy kits for the adoption of whole blood in EMS systems.
| | | CNTR Investigator Resources | | | | | Unlocking Burn and Trauma Databases: From Benchmarking to Breakthroughs | |
Join leading experts in burn research, Drs. Clifford Sheckter and Sam Mandell, and BData CEO Bart Phillips for an interactive webinar exploring the current landscape of burn and trauma databases and how investigators are using them to advance science, improve quality and shape future clinical trials.
Date: September 30, 2026
Time: 1:00 p.m. CT
Location: Zoom
You'll learn how to:
- Choose the right database for your research
- Leverage new BCQP features and resources
- Benchmark outcomes and support quality improvement
- Design more rigorous database studies
To watch recordings of past webinars, suggest topics or offer your expertise for a future session, visit the CNTR webinar page HERE.
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Papers on NTRR CDE Development Published in TSACO as the Repository Faces Closure
Six manuscripts describing the process and results of CNTR's work to identify and specify common data elements (CDEs) for studies in multiple environments of care are now published in Trauma Surgery and Acute Care Open (TSACO). The work was conducted by groups of subject matter experts and data scientists and resulted in a set of 10 core CDEs that we recommend every trauma study collect, as well as five sets of basic CDEs appropriate for collection in studies that focus on these care environments: epidemiology, prehospital, acute hospital, outcomes & rehabilitation, and social determinants of health (SDOH).
We were, thus, disheartened to learn that the Federal Interagency Traumatic Brain Injury Research (FITBIR) Information System, the structure on which the NTRR resides, is being closed. While CNTR is looking for alternative funding and hosting options, the NTRR is currently undergoing an operational shutdown. Until December 31, 2026, investigators may still apply for a Data Access account and download datasets from the studies that are shared in the Datastore (Click HERE and select Datastores), but Data Submission account requests are no longer being accepted.
Read More
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ABA Masterclass | Translating the Latest Burn Care Science into Practice – August 28
The American Burn Association’s (ABA) virtual, CE-eligible Masterclass Series provides focused, clinically relevant education designed to connect the latest science with everyday patient care.
The second session, Translating Science to Practice (Friday, August 28 | 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. CT), brings together leading burn experts and multidisciplinary faculty to explore how research, innovation, and clinical advances can be applied across the continuum of burn care.
Topics include disaster preparedness and burn center readiness, fluid management and burn physiology, surgical approaches to healing and recovery, leveraging the Burn Care Quality Platform (BCQP) and other research resources, multidisciplinary collaboration, and strategies for managing hypermetabolism.
This virtual session is designed for trauma and burn surgeons, emergency physicians, nurses, APPs, pharmacists, dietitians, therapists, rehabilitation specialists, fellows, researchers, and other members of the burn care team seeking practical insights that can strengthen clinical decision-making and improve team-based care.
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2026 Burn Surgeon Forum: Advancing Surgical Practice Through Peer Exchange
The American Burn Association’s Burn Surgeon Forum provides a focused educational experience designed specifically for burn and trauma surgeons to engage with peers, explore emerging surgical strategies, and address the clinical and leadership challenges impacting today’s burn centers.
The 2026 Burn Surgeon Forum (September 23–25, 2026 | San Antonio, TX) will feature interactive discussions, expert-led sessions, and peer-to-peer learning focused on the future of burn surgery.
Topics include surgical decision-making, innovative techniques, practice management, leadership challenges, and real-world approaches to improving patient outcomes.
This meeting is designed for burn and trauma surgeons seeking meaningful discussion with colleagues, practical insights they can bring back to their teams, and opportunities to connect with the broader surgical burn care community.
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TRICARE Prehospital Blood Transfusion Demonstration Project to Launch in 2027
TRICARE, under the Defense Health Agency, has announced a 5-year Prehospital Blood Transfusion Demonstration Project to help prehospital blood agencies get reimbursed for the care they provide.
This demonstration will test the effectiveness of providing separate, unbundled add-on reimbursement to the TRICARE ambulance fee schedule for the cost of medically necessary blood products and professional services. The goal is to evaluate whether this payment modification improves health outcomes for trauma patients, impacts total cost of care, and enhances beneficiary access to care.
Learn More
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Advocacy Organization Releases Tool to Track AHRQ Grant Cancellations
AcademyHealth, a national healthcare research advocacy coalition, estimates that between 150-190 grants totaling about $250 million issued by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality have been summarily cancelled. To make sense of this recent rash of rescinded funding, AcademyHealth created a dashboard and tracker that shows what grants have been canceled, the funding that was lost, and the patients, families, and communities that work was meant to help.
The dashboard allows you to see the projects lost in specific states or by topic and includes layperson descriptions of each research project. The goal is to help policymakers and journalists understand the programs and what harm is being done across the country.
CNTR encourages investigators to share relevant information with their own legislators and request that they oppose these and other research funding cuts.
Read a recent CBS News article on the gutting of AHRQ.
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Register for the 2026 Rally for Medical Research Hill Day!
Join advocates from around the country for the 2026 Rally for Medical Research. The Hill Day will take place on Thursday, September 17, with advocates meeting their congressional representatives and their staff.
The evening before, on Wednesday, September 16, the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research is hosting a reception on Capitol Hill to celebrate medical research with all partners and participants. The goal is to call on the nation’s policymakers to make funding for NIH a national priority and raise awareness about the importance of continued investment in medical research.
REGISTER NOW!
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