Short title

This Act may be cited as the

National Trauma Institute Act

Findings

Congress finds the following: (1)Wars have always generated technological and medical advances. (2)Trauma is the number one killer of the Nation’s fighting soldiers, having caused over 20,000 injuries and over 3500 deaths in the Global War on Terror. (3)In the United States, civilian trauma is the leading cause of death from ages 1 to 44 and is responsible for over 160,000 deaths annually. (4)Each year trauma accounts for 37 million emergency department visits and 2.6 million hospital admissions. (5)Trauma is a disease affecting all ages of people, and the impact of life years lost is 4 times greater than heart disease or cancer. (6)Injuries in a single year will ultimately cost the United States $406 billion, with $326 billion in lost productivity and $80.2 billion in medical costs (representing approximately 6 percent of total annual health expenditures). (7)By the year 2020, injury will equal or surpass communicable diseases as the number one world-wide cause of disability-adjusted life years lost. (8)While the mechanisms of injury are different, military and civilian trauma casualties are treated similarly, thus improvements gained by focused, relevant trauma research in each group will benefit both. (9)Despite these alarming facts, within the context of years of potential life lost, the National Institutes of Health support ratio for HIV is $3.51, for cancer is $1.65, and for trauma is $0.10 cents. (10)Despite a mandate to promote research directed toward specific health issues relevant to the military forces, the Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program within the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs has spent less than a third of funding on trauma research. (11)Among more than two dozen research institutes at the National Institutes of Health, none is devoted to trauma. The National Trauma Institute (NTI) in San Antonio, Texas, can fill the gap by setting a comprehensive research agenda to award grants to the best researchers in the country. (12)By 2011, two NTI partners, Brooke Army Medical Center and Wilford Hall Medical Center will combine through the base realignment and closure process to become the largest military trauma research center in the world. (13)NTI, as a consortium of civilian and Department of Defense centers, is the natural starting point to translate battlefield innovations to civilians at home. (14)NTI, as a centralized institute to coordinate a national trauma research agenda, will substantially reduce the number of injuries and deaths to the Nation’s soldiers on the battlefield and civilians at home.

Establishment

(a)

Establishment

The Secretary of Defense shall establish a National Trauma Institute in San Antonio, Texas. (b)

Purposes

The purposes of the Institute shall be— (1)to develop and implement revolutionary medical technologies to improve injury prevention and diagnosis, survival, and quality of life for victims of trauma and burn injury; and (2)to implement a multidisciplinary, multi-center collaborative research effort, including coordination of trauma research carried out at— (A)Wilford Hall Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas; (B)University Hospital, the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas; and (C)Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas. (c)

Trauma research

The activities of the Institute shall include research on the following: (1)Injury prevention and education. (2)More effective triage. (3)Resuscitation. (4)Early, effective treatment of compressible and non-compressible bleeding. (5)Improved burn care. (6)Head injury. (7)Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. (8)Orthopedics. (9)Improved intensive care unit treatment and management. (10)Enhanced rehabilitation and recovery. (11)Outcomes.

Authorization of appropriations

There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Defense $100,000,000 for fiscal year 2009 for purposes of carrying out the activities of the National Trauma Institute as described in this Act. Such funds shall not be available for general administrative expenses of the Secretary of Defense.