National Institutes of Health Awards VCURES Grant to Study Microcirculatory Response to Hemorrhage
The National Institutes of Health and its National Heart Lung and Blood Institute have awarded VCURES a 1.9 million dollar four-year grant to study the microvascular response to hemorrhagic shock. The grant entitled Microvascular Response to Hemorrhagic Shock and Resuscitation will examine oxygen and nitric oxide transport of the body's microcirculation in the setting of severe hemorrhage and resuscitation. Full Story.

VCURES Awarded Surviving Blood Loss Grant from Defense Advanced Project Agency
The Defense Advanced Project Agency (DARPA) has awarded VCURES a 2-year grant totaling 1.3 million dollars to create novel means to survive devastating blood loss. The grant entitled Modulation of Oxygen Debt to Survive Blood Loss , was submitted in response to a DARPA initiative called “Surviving Blood Loss”. DARPA is the U.S. Department of Defense agency charged with funding and developing of very high-risk, high-payoff research. Full Story.

VCURES Awarded Two Grants from U.S. Navy for Acute Decompression Illness Research
The U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research has awarded VCURES two grants to continue its ground-breaking work in the treatment and prevention of acute decompression illness using perfluorocarbon emulsions (PFCs). Full Story.

U.S. Army Combat Casualty Care Research Program Awards Grant to VCURES:
The Department of Defense's United States Army Medical Research and Material Command and its combat casualty care research program has awarded VCURES a four-year $695,000 grant. The grant entitled Characterization of Global and Microvascular Oxygen Transport in a Lower Body Negative Pressure Model of Hemorrhagic Shock , is designed to assist the Army in developing a novel human model of hemorrhagic shock. Full Story.

VCURES Partners with Hemodyne and Bio-Track to win U.S. Army SBIR Grant
Hemodyne Inc ( www.hemodyne.com ) has partnered with VCURES and Bio•Track , LLC ( http://www.bio-track.com/ ) to win a $70,000 SBIR grant from the United States Army to develop a medical device that can be used as an alternative to the tourniquet for noncompressible hemorrhage. Full Story.

VCURES Participating in Multicenter Trial Identifying Biomarkers in Sepsis
VCURES has been chosen to participate in a multicenter trial identifying serum biomarkers that may be useful in identifying and monitoring treatment in sepsis. The trial is sponsored by Biosite Inc., San Diego , California ( http://www.biosite.com/ ). VCURES will also use this opportunity to study the hemodynamic, oxygen delivery, tissue perfusion, and microcirculation alterations during the various stages of sepsis and to compare these changes with the biomarker measurements.Full Story.

VCURES Assist American Heart Association and International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation in Developing Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Treatment Guidelines
Under the leadership of Senior VCURES fellows Drs. Mary Ann Peberdy and Joseph Ornato, VCURES was enlisted by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) to provide scientific evidence-based reviews on 22 topics related to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and emergency cardiac care (ECC). These topics range from important questions concerning acid-base treatment during cardiac arrest to issues of post-resuscitation care. No institution contributed to more reviews. Full Story.

VCURES Director Lectures on Topic of Blood Transfusion at Oxford University
On October 15, 2004, Bruce D. Spiess, MD, FAHA, Director of VCURES and Professor and Vice Chair and of the VCU Department of Anesthesiology was the keynote speaker at the Annual Meeting of the Association of Cardiac Anesthetists of Britain and Ireland .  The meeting this year was held at Oxford University , Oxford , United Kingdom .  The subject matter for the entire meeting was blood transfusion and blood shortages.  With mad cow disease problems in Western Europe , blood shortages and disease transmission are timely and politically charged issues.  Dr Spiess' presentation was entitled :"Risks of Blood Transfusion: Focus on Outcomes". Full Story.

VCURES Senior Fellow Chosen to Help Lead New NIH Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium
The National Institutes of Health's recently developed Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (ROC) has selected Senior VCURES Fellow Dr. Joseph Ornato to serve as its Co-Chair in charge of cardiac resuscitation projects. The ROC consists of 10 North American clinical trial sites in the U.S. and Canada and a Data Coordinating Center . The purpose of the consortium is to conduct multicenter outcome trials to improve survival from trauma and cardiac arrest. It is believed that the consortium will have access to over 10,000 cardiac arrest and 100,000 trauma cases a year. Dr. Ornato notes “This Consortium is the largest federal effort to conduct organized, multicenter, clinical trials research on the challenging issues relating to cardiac arrest and major trauma in the out-of-hospital setting. NIH is graciously providing $50 million to conduct this research over the next five years.” Full Story.

VCURES-U.S. Special Forces News:
The collaboration between VCURES and the U.S. Special Operations Combat Medic (SOCM) training program to assist the Special Forces in training combat medics continues to flourish. To date four classes have completed their clinical rotations at the VCU Medical Center . Full Story.

VCURES Participates in Undergraduate and Secondary Education
Ivo Torres Filho, MD, PhD, was chosen to lead an Honors Seminar course for VCU undergraduate students. Dr. Torres who is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Physiology, and Emergency Medicine and director of the VCURES Microcirculation Laboratory, chose as the course topic “How Light Can Save Your Life” ( http://www.vcu.edu/honors/howlightcan.html ). This program is part of the VCU's University Honors Program ( http://www.vcu.edu/honors/index.html ). Dr. Torres has a career of “firsts” in using light to delve into the world of the microcirculation and how tissues are oxygenated and this serves as one of the central research themes for VCURES. Full Story.

VCURES Senior Fellow Selected to Serve National Advisory Board
Dr. Marsh Cuttino, VCURES Director of Simulation and Informatics, was appointed to the Medical Advisory Board of the National Center for Space Biologic Technologies (NCSBT). The Board provides advice and direction for NASA regarding medical and related technology issues for space flight. Full Story.

VCURES Has Strong Presence at 2004 ATACCC Meeting
VCURES once again presented more scientific work than any other nonmilitary institution at the Department of Defenses' 2004 Advanced Technologies Applications for Combat Casualty Care (ATACCC) meeting in St. Petersburg , Florida . The ATACCC ( http://www.usaccc.org/ataccc/ ) is the DOD's premier research meeting on combat casualty care in which state of the art research on pathophysiology, diagnostics, and treatment are presented and discussed. VCURES presented twelve posters covering a range of topics. Two of these resulted from a joint effort with VCU's Center for Bioelectronics, Biosensors and Biochips ( http://www.c3b.vcu.edu/index.html ) and Hemodyne Inc ( www.hemodyne.com ). In addition, an oral presentation was given by several VCURES investigators including Drs. Rao Ivatury, Ivo Torres Filho, and R. Wayne Barbee. Full Story.

VCURES Successfully Competes for VCU School of Medicine 2005 Higher Education Equipment Trust Fund
VCURES was awarded an equipment grant totaling $66,000 from the VCU School of Medicine's allocation of the 2005 Higher Education Equipment Trust Fund. The funding will assist VCURES in purchasing multiparametric tissue oxygenation monitoring equipment for its clinical microcirculation assessment programs in trauma, sepsis, cardiac arrest, congestive heart failure, transfusion medicine, and sickle cell disease. Full Story.