Joint Trauma Systems

Organizational Award Winner, 2015

Joint Trauma Systems is to improve trauma care delivery and patient outcomes across the continuum of care.The Joint Trauma Systems (JTS) emerged as a solution to the inefficiencies in the treatment and transport of casualties highlighted by the recent wars in the Middle East. In 2004, the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Health Affairs directed all branches of the service to work together to establish a single trauma registry. Thus, the Joint Trauma System was developed. The mission of the Joint Trauma Systems is to improve trauma care delivery and patient outcomes across the continuum of care, driven by the collection and analysis of data in the Department of Defense Trauma Registry (DoDTR).

The Department of Defense Trauma Registry (DoDTR) is a robust, real-time, web-accessible system that organizes injury data from the battlefield through each transfer of care. This feat of data collection and analysis allows for greater understanding of any given injury and, in turn, improved care for patients. A physician accessing the DoDTR will be familiarized with every detail of a patient’s injury within minutes. What Major Jonathan Letterman started [link to Letterman bio] by mandating record-keeping at military hospitals during the Civil War has continued today as an incredible online database allowing medical care providers to instantly access a wide spectrum of medical knowledge.

Directed by the trends that appear in the DoDTR, JTS also develops innovative products to treat the most common and dangerous forms of battlefield injury: blood loss. Hemorrhage accounts for approximately 90% of all potentially survivable pre-hospital battlefield deaths, therefore many of JTS’ product development aims to decrease the loss of blood on the battlefield. These innovations include:

  • Junctional Tourniquets: Designed to staunch bleeding at regions of the body where traditional tourniquets could not work, these products include the Combat Ready Clamp, the Junctional Emergency Treatment Tool, and the SAM Junctional Tourniquets
  • Hemostatic Dressing: Used to control bleeding while tourniquets are being prepared or when evacuation is expected to take longer than two hours, these products include QuickClot Combat Gauze, Celox Gauze, and ChitoGauze. These dressings are now used in civilian hospitals.
  • Tranexamic Acid: Used to treat internal bleeding by preventing clot break-down.

JTS also offers a variety of educational opportunities for medical care providers, including conferences, research initiatives, and clinical guidelines. These educational opportunities are often open to both military and civilian medical personnel, improving the quality of trauma care.

 

Do you know someone who carries on Letterman’s legacy today.
Nominate them for the Major Jonathan Letterman Medical Excellence Award.