MHSRS Young Investigator competition awards announced

Keisuke Kawata, Ph.D. (left), of the Department of Kinesiology, School of Public Health, Indiana University, receives the first-place award for â€œAssociation of Increased Serum S100B Levels with High School Football Subconcussive Head Impacts.â€ (MHS photo)

Keisuke Kawata, Ph.D. (left), of the Department of Kinesiology, School of Public Health, Indiana University, receives the first-place award for “Association of Increased Serum S100B Levels with High School Football Subconcussive Head Impacts.” (MHS photo)

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Research related to concussions, night vision technology for surgery, and an extract rich in a blood-clotting factor took top honors in the Military Health System Research Symposium Young Investigator Competition. The awards were announced today, the final of the four-day symposium at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Kissimmee, Florida.

Keisuke Kawata, Ph.D., of the Department of Kinesiology, School of Public Health, Indiana University, received the first-place award for “Association of Increased Serum S100B Levels with High School Football Subconcussive Head Impacts.”

Second place was awarded to Army Capt. Michael Derickson, Madigan Army Medical Center, Washington, for “Life-Saving Surgical Procedures in Blackout Conditions Using Night Vision Technology: Come to the Dark Side.”

The third-place awardee was Army Capt. Joshua Fenderson, Blood Research Program, U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, for “Hemostatic Characteristics of Thawed Pooled Cryoprecipitate Stored for 35 Days at Refrigerated and Room Temperatures.”

“We received a total of 356 submissions,” said Dr. Patricia Reilly of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, and the symposium co-chair. “This competition has proven to be our most popular and competitive submission category since we re-initiated it in 2014.”

To be eligible, primary authors and presenters were required to be residents, fellows, doctoral candidates or post-docs/individuals with a doctoral degree within five years of graduation from a terminal degree. Service academy cadets also were eligible.

According to Reilly, 60 topic area committees reviewed submissions and made nominations. A second committee then reviewed the abstracts nominated by all of the topic area committees, choosing 10 semifinalists for oral presentation at MHSRS on Tuesday. A third set of judges made the final awards decision.

The other seven semifinalists were:

Daniel Rhon, Center for the Intrepid, Brooke Army Medical Center, Texas: Effectiveness and Downstream Healthcare Utilization for Patients that Received Early Physical Therapy versus Usual Care for Low Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial.”
Matthew Titchenal, Stanford University, California: “A New Serum Biomarker Stress Test Correlates with Novel MRI UTE-T2* and Gait Mechanics in Patients at High Risk for Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis.”
Dr. Lauren Mioton Connor, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago: “Targeted Muscle Re-innervation Successfully Treats Neuroma Pain and Phantoms in Major Limb Amputees: A Randomized Clinical Trial.”
Timothy Haire, U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research, Joint Base San Antonio: “Therapeutic Intervention in the Prevention of Hypertrophic Scar Development—Novel Dressings.”
Jie Hui, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boston University: “Selective Eradication of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Via Photolysis of Saphyloxanthin.”
Amanda Garcia, James A. Haley Veterans Hospital, Tampa, Florida: “Obstructive Sleep Apnea Risk is Associated with Cognitive Impairment after Controlling for TBI: A Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium Study.”
Army Maj. Christopher Tarney, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland: “Tobacco Use and Prevalence of Human Papillomavirus in Self-Collected Cervicovaginal Swabs Between 2009 and 2014.”