Filmmaker Steven Barber (left) and Greg Strom present Dr. Rory Cooper (seated) with the first "Unbeaten Award" for serving as a great role model for wounded, ill, and injured soldiers.

The VA/University of Pittsburgh Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL) and Walter Reed Army Medical Center's (WRAMC's) Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation joined forces to host the first State of the Science Workshop in 2005. With the continuous support of numerous organizations, including the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA), this effort has grown into an entire symposia series, bringing workshops several times a year to WRAMC.

The workshops deliver to healthcare professionals the latest "state of the science" information needed to treat people with disabilities, especially returning wounded soldiers. Rehabilitation experts from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Department of Defense (DOD), universities, and private industry have gathered at the workshops to lecture on topics such as polytrauma, traumatic brain injury, and regenerative medicine.

The latest workshop, on April 16, not only united experts to speak on rehabilitating combat soldiers with amputations but also marked the publication of a monumental textbook. At the end of 2009, the Borden Institute of the Army's Office of The Surgeon General published Care of the Combat Amputee as part of the Textbooks on Military Medicine series. This book was the published work of a three-day symposium conducted in September 2007 (see "Rehab Road Map," February 2008).

Held at the Center for the Intrepid (CFI) at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) in San Antonio, the 2007 symposium united VA, civilian, and military experts in amputee care and rehabilitation to establish a consensus on standard-of- care issues and identify areas most needed for further clinical, technical, translational, and developmental research. Care of the Combat Amputee was a joint VA/DOD effort and was Borden's first textbook written in this manner. It is also one of the first pieces of medical literature to focus on the optimal treatment and rehabilitation of young combat-related amputees.

 Because of the numerous military-service members who have sustained severe limb trauma as a result of the Global War on Terrorism, Care of the Combat Amputee will provide a much needed "road map" for those treating wounded servicemembers. Col. Paul Pasquina, MD, medical director of the Amputee Program at WRAMC, and HERL Director Rory Cooper, PhD, were textbook co-editors.

Read more in the August 2010 issue of PN.