New Precision Diagnostics May Save More Trauma Patients

Trauma patients—with injuries ranging from those suffered in auto accidents to battlefield wounds—often seem, initially, to be stable, only to deteriorate without warning. If not recognized early, this deterioration in condition can lead to shock or even death.

Doctors and researchers in the Emergency Department at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC), as well as colleagues at Dartmouth College, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Geisel School of Medicine, hope to improve care for seriously injured patients with a new $3 million Precision Trauma Care Research Award from the Department of Defense’s Combat Casualty Care Research Program.

The three-year grant will develop an easy-to-use, noninvasive system for the detection of ongoing internal hemorrhaging in soldiers or other seriously injured patients initially classified as injured but stable. The Dartmouth-Hitchcock/Dartmouth College group will collaborate with the Mayo Clinic, the Ohio State University, and Maryland Shock Trauma.