Abstract
A Wireless Vital Signs Monitor (WVSM) has been developed by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the United States Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR) in partnership with a Defense Contractor (Athena, http://www.athenagtx.com). This monitor incorporates several sensors from different manufacturers that can be implemented far out to the point of injury and adds complete trend analysis over four hours. Multicenter trials have been completed and the instrument is FDA approved. This WVSM is too bulky for field operations by US Special Forces (SOCOM), but functional prototypes of an alternative miniature wireless monitoring device with improved trend analysis even further out to the point of injury have now been delivered (SOCOM-Mini-medicTM). There have been no field tests to date. The primary objective of this project is to perform the first field tests of the SOCOM Mini-medic. The main focus is to validate the mini-Medic for combat casualty care (including, but not limited to, brain injury) in prehospital and hospitalized patients. Lessons learned from our previous and ongoing trials in trauma patients with and without brain injury will be applied.