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2025 MHSRS Abstract-driven Breakout Sessions

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Combat Casualty Care

Breakout Session Name MHSRS Focus Area Topic Area Breakout Session Description
Lessons Learned from the Conflict in Ukraine to Improve Casualty Care Strategies Expeditionary Medicine Tactical and Forward Surgical Combat Casualty Care The ongoing conflict in Ukraine provides a unique opportunity to learn from experiences in managing casualties in peer-to-peer combat. A better understanding of the different types and rates of battlefield injuries in these scenarios and difficulties with provision of casualty care are among the lessons to be learned from providers. The DoD received Congressional direction to establish military medical partnerships with Ukraine in the NDAA 2023 and 2024, and funded research projects within Ukraine related to traumatic brain injury, hemorrhage control, traumatic stress, rehabilitation, wound management, severe sepsis, and trauma registry development. Abstracts should address the research strategy of the study being performed in Ukraine, the findings to date, and the next steps to advance the results from the study.
Blood and Blood Products: Novel Strategies for Treatment of Blood Failure WF Medical Readiness Resuscitative Strategies and Care Abstracts should address:
  1. Shock mitigation strategies using blood products,
  2. Hemostasis and Coagulopathy,
  3. Current and new directions of blood and blood products for treatment of shock-related trauma.
Hemorrhage Control and Vascular Dysfunction Expeditionary Medicine Resuscitative Strategies and Care Abstracts should focus on hemorrhage control through the use of hemostatic dressings, to include drugs that protect from the onset of vascular dysfunction. Specifically, they should:
  1. Define the need for hemostatic products in a military-relevant setting (i.e., epidemiological data, justification for use in prolonged field care settings),
  2. Show the safety & effectiveness for hemostatic products in controlling blood loss (i.e., preclinical, clinical data, and real world evidence important for the development of clinical practice guidelines),
  3. Define current and novel hemostatic products that take advantage of physiological factors to direct and optimize their use in combat casualty care,
  4. Define mechanism and novel drugs that target components of the vascular and lymphatics to mitigate the onset of vascular dysfunction and tissue edema.
Management of Non-compresible Hemorrhage in Tactical Combat Casualty Care Expeditionary Medicine Forward Surgical Care/Prolonged Field Care Abstracts should address:
  1. Methods to predict and evaluate severity of NCH,
  2. Therapeutics to mitigate NCH,
  3. Devices or Therapy to mitigate NCH.
Bioengineered Solutions for Blood & Transfusion Medicine Expeditionary Medicine Hemorrhage Control / Blood Products Emerging biotechnologies are revolutionizing medicine. This session focuses on novel rapid diagnostics, cellular or synthetic biologic therapeutics and/or devices bioengineered to optimize resuscitation and/or patient management of battlefield hemorrhagic shock and combat critical care.
Management of Organ Failure during Prolonged Field Care Expeditionary Medicine Tactical and Forward Surgical Combat Casualty Care Abstracts should address for the combat casualty:
  1. Biomarkers and methods to predict organ failure
  2. Therapeutics to mitigate organ injury
  3. Devices to mitigate organ injury.
Advances in Far-Forward (Roles 1/2) Clinical Care Provision Expeditionary Medicine Tactical and Forward Surgical Combat Casualty Care Medics and front-line clinicians operating forward of Role 3 face significant resource limitations, operational dynamism, and high stakes that can uniquely challenge their medical care provision and decision-making. This session targets clinical or translational research involving the advanced development of technologies, techniques, training, and systems designed to enhance point-of-injury (POI) through Role 2 care provision, to include:
  1. low SWAP decision/diagnostic-assist technologies and advances (TRL6 and higher),
  2. training, techniques, tactics, systems designed to enhance clinical skill performance in high-stakes, POI-to-Role II environments (KRL6 and higher), and
  3. translational/clinical research of medical materiel/equipment (i.e. hemorrhage control, blood products / substitutes etc.), designed to enhance battlefield care provision forward of Role 3.
Improving Pain Control or Anesthesia, Preserving Performance Warfighter Medical Readiness Pain Management In the combat setting -- and especially in servicemembers who experience multi-trauma – acute pain can become exquisite, reduce performance, and contribute to long term sequelae. Current analgesics, while sometimes effective at reducing pain, may cause additional performance-limiting effects and long-term problems such as addiction and dependence. Abstracts should address:
  1. Development and evaluation of novel analgesia and anesthesia therapies that can be effectively utilized in military settings.
  2. Assessment of major limitations in current pain control techniques such as opioid dependency, inconsistent efficacy, and the need of accessibility and training for specialized advanced techniques especially during combat settings.
  3. Innovative approaches including multimodal analgesia to explore the use of combination therapies, novel delivery systems that provides sustained pain relief and reduce the frequency of administration, as well as further develop biomarkers to predict pain responses and tailor pain management strategies to individual needs.
Revolutionizing Severe Burn Injury Care Before Role 3 During Large Scale Combat Operations Expeditionary Medicine Functional Recovery from Traumatic Wound and Burn Injuries This session will highlight translational research poised to deliver next generation acute treatments for burn trauma agnostic of injury mechanism to revolutionize point of need burn care in the deployed setting through Roles 1-2, particularly in austere, prolonged care, and/or mass casualty scenarios. Therapeutics, technologies, and techniques presented will have demonstrated proof of concept for ability to stabilize and/or actively promote healing of severe burn injury or mitigate pathophysiological response to severe burn, in order to accelerate functional recovery compared to existing prehospital approaches, avoid complications and sequelae, and reduce requirements for resource-intensive, burn expert provided care (e.g., graft, lengthy/repeated ICU/hospital stays). Abstracts highlighting compelling, novel models to evaluate candidate solutions for skin or lung burn injury may be selected.
Novel Strategies for Atypical Burn Care Expeditionary Med Severe Burn Injury In the future battlefield, we expect to see a vast number of casualties that will have severe burn injuries as a result of the use of thermobaric weaponry to chemical warfare. Atypical Burns (radiation, chemical, cold-weather injuries, etc) are expected to be a major part of those severe burn injuries. Howevever, this topic is under funded with limited strategies to treat these particular severe burn injuries especially in austere environments. This session will focus on uncovering novel burn care strategies for atypical burns. Abstracts must include:
  1. pre-clinical or clinical research focusing on assessment or treatment of atypical burn;
  2. how your research applies to care of atypical burn injuries in an austere environment;
  3. the current technology/knowledge readiness level.
Challenges & Opportunities of Joint Multimodal Patient Movement & High Volume CASEVAC During Large Scale Combat Operations Expeditionary Medicine En Route Care Abstracts should address issues (high volume casualties, prolonged evacuation, vibration, acceleration, and altitude changes) related to movement across multiple platforms (ground, air, and sea) during potentially non-consecutive transfers across roles of care during a joint military campaign. Abstracts should focus on
  1. Indications for CASEVAC critical intervention (e.g. critical use cases),
  2. Emerging solutions that enhance CASEVAC capabilities and/or optimize en route provider task performance,
  3. Platform/medical team limitations and environment characteristics (i.e. temperature, pressure, vibration, etc.) which would hinder agility and survivability,
  4. Technology and/or knowledge solutions that can facilitate overcoming platform and provider performance limitations, and
  5. Patient and medical documentation transfers during joint large scale combat operations.
Critical Concerns in Operational Dentistry Warfighter Medical Readiness / Operational Medicine Tactical and Forward Surgical Casualty Care Abstracts should address:
  1. The evolving nature and operational impact of in-theater dental emergencies;
  2. Advances which enhance treatment capabilities and effectiveness (therapies, procedures, field sterilization processes, 3D printing applications, AI interventions, etc.);
  3. Methods, materials, and technologies to enhance readiness, resilience, and human performance while minimizing adverse physical, physiologic, and cognitive effects;
  4. Development and deployment of smart, ruggedized technologies that improve dental imaging and care by leveraging artificial intelligence; and
  5. The importance of focused dental research efforts driven by insightful operational gap analyses.
Portable Medical & Dental Imaging in the Far Forward Environment Expeditionary Medicine Care of Complex Injuries and Organ Support The current availability of easily employable, accurate diagnostic imaging remains a significant gap for combat casualty care in austere operational environments forward of Role 3. Abstracts should address:
  1. emerging imaging technologies or components to rapidly image casualties via miniaturized systems in low-resource and/or communications-denied environments,
  2. studies of fieldable, portable (low cube size and light weight) imaging systems capable of diagnosing medical and/or dental conditions and identifying and distinguishing anatomical sites in austere settings compared with traditional field diagnostic methods, and/or
  3. developed artificial intelligence capabilities to enhance casualty care in austere settings.
From the Field to Table: Special Operations Lessons Learned of Tactical Requirements, Needs and Realities from the Combat Medic Expeditionary Medicine Resuscitative Strategies and Care Abstracts should focus on operational medicine vignettes that identify lessons and capability gaps that exist across the Tactical Combat Casualty Care to Prolonged Field Care settings. Although vignettes can start with a short description of the tactical conditions that led to casualty treatment, most of the abstract should focus on identifying specific missing technology, medical intervention or expertise that could have affected outcomes. Submissions can focus on existing solutions that currently exist but are inadequate in the prehospital setting. Other considerations include solutions that a pre-hospital medic might find to be more effective if engineered for no/low requirements (power, oxygen, cubic space), mitigate shock, manage hemorrhage control, and extend resuscitation within the first 24 prehospital hours before reaching damage control surgery.
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TBI/Blast

Breakout Session Name MHSRS Focus Area Topic Area Breakout Session Description
Repeated Blast Overpressure Exposure and Blast Induced TBI: Mechanism, Prevention & Treatment Warfighter Medical Readiness Blast Abstract should address:
  1. Repeated BOP exposure and blast induced Traumatic brain injury (TBI),
  2. Injury mechanisms at molecular and cellular level including biomarker, and
  3. Prevention and treatment strategies.
Bridging The Gap: Clinical Needs & New Technologies For Optimizing Cognition & Executive Function After a TBI Warfighter Medical Readiness TBI Diagnosis and Treatment Abstracts should address
  1. Specific cognition and executive function deficits that impact warfighter medical readiness after a TBI;
  2. Challenges or barriers to assessment and clinical decision making in TBI care;
  3. New technology developments that will enhance TBI diagnostic and treatment capabilities.
State of the Technology: Demonstrations of Acute Diagnostic & Monitoring TBI Devices Expeditionary Medicine Traumatic Brain Injury This session will showcase the latest advancements in technology for the triage and acute diagnosis of traumatic brain injuries (TBI). Attendees will have the opportunity to observe live demonstrations of cutting-edge diagnostic and monitoring devices, understand their applications in military and point-of-injury settings, and discuss the potential impact on patient outcomes. The session aims to bridge the gap between technological innovation and practical implementation in the field, highlighting the importance of rapid and accurate TBI diagnosis in improving the care and recovery of military personnel. Abstracts for this session should outline the technology and discuss the product development status, context of use, anticipated end-user, regulatory status, and other key information necessary to convey the utility of their technology to the audience. Oral presentations will be accompanied by physical demonstration and use of the candidate technologies or available prototypes.
TBI Management: Epidemiology and Down Range Management Expeditionary Medicine TBI Diagnosis and Treatment The purpose of this session is to present the epidemiology and management of Traumatic Brain Injuries in forward environments from mild to severe in nature. Abstracts should address the epidemiology and management of TBI's ranging from mild to severe down range, early treatment, prolonged care in combat (or delayed evacuation situations), return to duty, and readiness.
Innovative Approaches to TBI Care: Optimizing Warfighter Brain Health Following TBI Return to Duty TBI Diagnosis and Treatment The intent of this session is to present research on current and near-future (within 3 years) systems, devices, and methods for the diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Data-driven presentations that fall into one or more of these categories are welcome. Data must be presented (i.e., no theoretical papers) and must be relevant to warfighter brain health and return to duty. Abstracts should address: Current and near-future
  1. TBI assessment and
  2. TBI treatment.
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Infectious Disease Prevention and Management

Breakout Session Name MHSRS Focus Area Topic Area Breakout Session Description
Infectious Diseases & DNBI: Lessons Learned from Conflicts in Ukraine & Israel

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Medical Readiness Infectious Disease Prevention and Management Disease Nonbattle Injury (DNBI) has historically and will continue to impact the combat effectiveness of military forces. The ongoing conflicts in Europe and the Middle East provide unique opportunities to learn from experiences in managing DNBI, preventing the spread of infectious diseases in military and displaced persons populations, tracking changing patterns of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, and improving service member return to duty. Abstracts should describe current research efforts related to these ongoing conflicts.
Broad-Spectrum Anti-Viral Countermeasures

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Medical Readiness Infectious Disease Prevention and Management Abstracts submitted to this session should address one or more of the following topics:
  1. new platforms or technologies to develop broad-spectrum antivirals for infectious disease prevention and/or treatment;
  2. broad-spectrum antivirals in development for militarily-relevant pathogens.
Advances in Warfighter Gut Health: Epidemiology, Prevention & Treatment for Infectious Diarrheal Diseases

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Medical Readiness Infectious Disease Prevention and Management Abstracts should address: epidemiology, DOTMLPF-P advancements or developing medical solutions that prevent or treat infectious disease threats to the total force caused by bacterial or viral gut/intestinal pathogens (with emphasis on: Campylobacter jejuni, Enterotoxigenic or Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli, Shigella and norovirus).
Leveraging Modeling to Inform Disease Threat & Development of Medical Countermeasures

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Medical Readiness Infectious Disease Prevention and Management Abstracts submitted to this session should address one or more of the following topics:
  1. Modeling militarily-relevant disease threats;
  2. Modeling to inform disease Target Product Profiles;
  3. Modeling to inform DoD/COCOM readiness decision making.
Abstracts should not focus on biosurveillance modeling.
Old Antibiotics, New Strategies: Repurposing & Combining FDA-Approved Therapies for Combat Wound Infections Warfighter Medical Readiness Infectious Disease Prevention and Management This session will focus on innovative strategies for repurposing FDA-approved antibiotics and using combination therapies to address combat-related wound infections and improve Clinical Practice Guidelines. We are seeking abstracts that highlight how existing antibiotics, already part of standard-of-care treatments, can be optimized through novel combination regimens or repurposed for improved efficacy against multidrug-resistant pathogens. Abstracts should address:
  1. Innovative approaches to combining existing antibiotics for enhanced outcomes in soldier wound care.
  2. Strategies for overcoming antibiotic resistance in battlefield wound infections.
  3. Data from clinical or preclinical studies demonstrating improved efficacy, safety, or reduced resistance using these approaches.
Are We Ready? R&D to Optimize Warfighter Medical Readiness, MHS Resilience, & Biodefense during Future Pandemics

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Medical Readiness Infectious Disease Prevention and Management Biodefense research capabilities focused on future pandemics are vital for force health. Abstracts should address:
  1. Nimble diagnostic and/or surveillance platforms which can detect and characterize emerging epidemic and pandemic pathogens which threaten force health, OR;
  2. Risk prediction and modeling tools to evaluate the threat of emerging new pathogens to warfighter health and readiness OR;
  3. Pathogen-agnostic or pathogen-flexible medical countermeasures which can be rapidly implemented to prevent or treat future pandemic pathogens, OR;
  4. Non-pharmaceutical interventions and other technologies which can mitigate the impact of pandemics on operations and training, OR;
  5. Advances in regulatory frameworks, policies, or other contingencies which can accelerate MHS research response and/or countermeasure product development in a pandemic scenario.
Abstracts which show proof-of-concept for existing biothreats are encouraged.
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Psychological Health

Breakout Session Name MHSRS Focus Area Topic Area Breakout Session Description
Beyond the Battlefield: The Role of Family in Military Resiliency & Readiness Warfighter Medical Readiness Military Families Military families face unique stressors related to military service, while also having supportive care systems to ameliorate some of these challenges. This session will explore the intricate relationship between military families and service members, examining how family issues can impact a warfighter's readiness, and how military stressors can impact families. Abstracts should address prevention or potential policy/practice implications in:
  1. Interdependence of Warfighter and Family: How family problems, such as financial strain, mental health issues, or child welfare concerns, can lead to non-deployability or early returns;
  2. Impact of Family Support Programs: Direct and indirect benefits of family and child support programs on a service member's health and well-being;
  3. Long-Term Impact of Service-Connected Injuries: Effects of service-connected physical or mental health conditions on families and potential impact on service retention.
Biomarkers of Behavioral Health Conditions Warfighter Medical Readiness Psychological Health & Resilience Many complex factors, including traumatic experience, genes, and physiological indicators, coalesce to shape the likelihood of developing brain and behavioral health conditions. Examining genetic, epigenetic, molecular, and physiological biomarkers may elucidate how these factors contribute to adverse psychiatric outcomes and inform the development of novel interventions among service members. Abstracts should address how specific biomarker(s) could be used to inform methods of risk assessment, screening, or treatment for psychological health conditions that impact medical readiness.
Innovation & Current Directions in Military Suicide Prevention, Research, & Programs

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Medical Readiness Psychological Health & Resilience Building on the results of the Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee (SPRIRC) and the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, the Department of Defense initiated a comprehensive campaign to reduce military suicide. This session will feature presentations advancing this comprehensive effort. Abstracts should address current research, policy initiatives, or program evaluations in one of the following areas:
  1. Novel research identifying modifiable risk factors for suicide that are unique to military populations;
  2. Primary prevention and crisis response activities that address risk factors for suicide in military settings;
  3. Interventions to reduce suicide behavior in at-risk military groups;
  4. Military postvention activities that mitigate the impact of suicide behavior on individuals and communities; or
  5. Decreasing access to lethal means during a suicide crisis.
Implementation of Evidenced Based Solutions for Prevention of Harmful Behaviors: IPPW & Beyond

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Medical Readiness Psychological Health & Resilience While there have been many promising findings from prevention research sponsored by the DoD, only a handful have been translated into actionable practice or policy. Effective, transparent processes related to the development, maturity, and implementation of validated psychological health research findings into practice to close the research-to-practice gap is a critical need. Given the recent establishment of the Integrated Primary Prevention Workforce (IPPW), there is an opportunity to bring researchers, policy makers, military members, senior DoD leaders, prevention experts, and stakeholders together to better understand military specific prevention requirements, evaluate the state of the science in the prevention of harmful behaviors (including but not limited to, suicide, sexual assault and harassment, ostracism, substance misuse, violence prevention, and other harmful behaviors) space, and outline tangible steps going forward to facilitate continued research, transition of research products, longer term implementation, and sustainment of prevention solutions within the DoD, and particularly for the IPPW. Abstracts that address factors or approaches to facilitate bridging of research findings to policy and practice, including implementation of prevention interventions, military community-based prevention approaches, education, and training across MHS and for use by the IPPW are requested. Implementation science as well as strategies to bridge evidence-based research to policy, practice, and to the IPPW are encouraged.
Solutions for Behavioral Health Symptom Mitigation in Operational Environments Return to Duty Psychological Health & Resilience Operation-related Behavioral Health (BH) challenges (e.g., acute stress reactions, adjustment issues, grief) threaten the mission and will require rapid Return to Duty (RTD) solutions for use in future battles where mass casualties are likely. Viable RTD solutions will not rely on specialty providers or evacuation and will provide leaders and non-specialty medical providers with data-driven insights to assist in readiness decisions and mission planning. Session will focus on solutions that sustain psychological health and/or enable rapid RTD in operational settings. Approaches may include, for example:
  1. Clinical efficacy of pharmacological interventions;
  2. Behavioral interventions to prevent trajectory toward chronic conditions upon return home;
  3. early interventions delivered by non-specialty medical providers, peers, or self; and
  4. devices that can be used in operational settings.
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Neuromusculoskeltal Injury

Breakout Session Name MHSRS Focus Area Topic Area Breakout Session Description
Warfighter Neck and Back Pain: Mechanisms to Modeling to Information Guidance Warfighter Medical Readiness Neuromusculoskeletal Injury Abstracts should address:
  1. specific neck and back issues that impact deployment readiness.
  2. modeling/analytics approaches to describe acute or chronic neck/back injury/disorder to inform clinical decision guidance.
  3. decision guidance systems to inform treatment.
Holistic and Technological Approaches to Musculoskeletal Injury Prevention

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Medical Readiness Neuromusculoskeletal Injury Abstracts should address:
  1. Holistic approaches to mitigate musculoskeletal injury;
  2. Technological tools and strategies to mitigate musculoskeletal injury; and
  3. Situations where a prioritize holistic and/or technological approach is beneficial to mitigate musculoskeletal injury.
Military Injury Biomechanics & Applications to Warfighter Injury Prevention

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Medical Readiness Injury Prevention Abstracts submitted to this session should address any of the following topics:
  1. Injury biomechanics and tolerance research for the design of military personnel protective equipment (e.g., helmet and body armor);
  2. Injury biomechanics of the head, neck, and spine during military operational tasks;
  3. Military vehicle crashworthiness, injury trends, and injury biomechanics of mounted occupants; or
  4. Mechanisms and biomechanics of injury for Service Members.
Solutions to Optimize & Accelerate Recovery from Neuromusculoskeletal Injury Return to Duty Neuromusculoskeletal Injury Musculoskeletal injuries are the largest threat to the medical readiness of the force. Abstracts should be focused on treatment for the treatment and rehabilitation of neuromusculoskeletal injury with a focus on optimization of outcomes and return to duty. Abstracts may address any of the following topics:
  1. understanding rates of or healthcare utilization for musculoskeletal injury,
  2. rehabilitation interventions
  3. solutions to optimize recovery.
This session does not focus on devices and tools or prevention, as they will be covered in other sections. Surgical interventions are also outside the scope. This work is centered around treatment strategies for Health Affairs and the Department of Defense.
Prosthetic & Exoskeletal Solutions to Enhance Mobility & Return to Duty Return to Duty Neuromusculoskeletal Injury Abstracts should address innovative solutions and treatments involving prosthetic and exoskeletal technologies aimed at facilitating return-to-duty activities, to include:
  1. Emerging exoskeletal and fracture management solutions that enable field mobility during prolonged care;
  2. optimization of the interface between the user and the device; and
  3. medical devices that facilitate rapid return to duty without evacuation to Role 4.
Traumatic Wound Healing: Regeneration of Musculoskeletal & Neural Tissues Return to Duty Neuromusculoskeletal Injury Abstracts should address traumatic wound healing and recovery to promote musculoskeletal and neural tissue regeneration. Topics can include:
  1. muscle and/or nerve regeneration;
  2. proper wound closure;
  3. minimization of scar formation.
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Occupational and Environmental Exposures

Breakout Session Name MHSRS Focus Area Topic Area Breakout Session Description
Population Research Studies: Evaluation of the Health Impact from Environmental Exposures among Military Personnel

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Medical Readiness Occupational and Environmental Exposures Abstracts should present data from population health/epidemiologic research studies that address:
  1. Impact of Environmental exposures to PFAS on Service Members Health;
  2. Health Related Outcomes associated with exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) among service members; and
  3. Other Occupational and Environmental Exposures associated with adverse health outcomes among service members.
Rapid Response: Managing Radiation Injuries in a Near-Peer Conflict Warfighter Medical Readiness Directed Energy and Radiation Health This session explores cutting-edge research and practical strategies for managing acute radiological emergencies in military conflicts. Focusing on medical countermeasures for radiation injuries from both ionizing and non-ionizing sources, including nuclear weapons and directed energy (DE) systems, the session will delve into the complex pathophysiology of these injuries, particularly in the context of radiation polytrauma. Abstracts are encouraged to emphasize the translation of research findings into actionable military medical practice, enhancing both immediate response and long-term resilience of military personnel. Topics of interest include:
  1. Development of safe and effective pre-exposure prophylaxis and novel post-exposure therapeutics for ionizing radiation (IR) exposure.
  2. Advanced dosimetry, biodosimetry, and diagnostic approaches for rapid and accurate assessment of radiation injury.
  3. Innovative strategies to facilitate development and approval of medical countermeasures under The Animal Rule, including advanced model systems such as organ-on-a-chip and multi-omic analyses.
  4. Characterization of unique injury transduction mechanisms associated with DE weapons (wavelength-dependent, non-kinetic, non-pharmacologic) and the development of targeted medical countermeasures.
  5. Strategies to prevent, mitigate, triage, and treat radiation combined injuries, encompassing injury mechanism characterization, therapeutic assessments, and development of models and clinical decision support tools, particularly for mass casualty events.
  6. Psychological readiness strategies tailored to military operational settings.
  7. Identification of non-lethal effects that can impact military resilience and operational planning.
  8. Long-term care considerations in austere environments.
  9. Novel approaches to increase military readiness for radiological events.
Warfighter Exertional Illness & Operations in Environmental Extremes

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Performance Occupational and Environmental Exposures As the military prepares for future combat operations, warfighter health and performance will impact lethality and combat effectiveness. Environmental threats during training and combat operations such as heat, cold, altitude, and subterranean will exacerbate exertional injuries and impact warfighter and unit operational readiness. Abstracts submitted for this session should address:
  1. Specific exertional illness disorders impacted by environmental conditions that affect warfighter readiness (e.g., exertional heat illness, exertional rhabdomyolysis, sudden cardiac collapse, exercise collapse associated with sickle cell trait, subterranean operations, altitude, and submarine environments),
  2. Specific strategies to maintain or improve health and performance in adverse environmental conditions and reduce exertional injuries, and
  3. Specific strategies utilized to impact expedited and improved return to duty decisions.
Novel Methods for Identifying, Mitigating & Determining Health Impacts of OEH Exposures

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Performance Occupational and Environmental Exposures Abstract should address:
  1. Modernized/automated OEH sensors/sampling,
  2. Automated Health and/or Mission Risk Assessment capability,
  3. Novel sampling/analysis methods,
  4. Adverse cellular/molecular responses associated with operational exposures,
  5. Computational modeling of biologic systems and response to complex exposures to further risk prediction,
  6. Bioindicators/biomarkers of exposure(s) that indicate negative health outcomes.
Undersea Operational Research Panel Warfighter Performance Occupational and Environmental Exposures Undersea medicine is a National Naval Responsibility (per ONR and the Chief of Naval Research). Executing National Defense Strategy requires the joint cognitive and physiological readiness, safety, and health of submariners, as well as Navy/USMC/Army Divers and SEALs. Abstracts should address RDT&E knowledge or materiel efforts towards monitoring, modeling, or mitigating operational challenges/risks associated with diving/submarine operations, e.g.:
  1. Undersea effects/considerations of Arctic/cold-water exposure;
  2. Toxicity effects (excess O2/CO2; air/water contaminants);
  3. Pressure effects (compression/decompression);
  4. Psychological/cognitive challenges;
  5. Long-term health risks/outcomes.
Most issues above are of joint interest to USN/USMC, USA, USAF, Space Force, SOCOM, NASA, and Congress.
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Sensory Systems

Breakout Session Name MHSRS Focus Area Topic Area Breakout Session Description
Auditory & Vestibular System Health & Performance: Warfighter Impact, Injury Mitigation, & Clinical Management

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Medical Readiness Sensory Systems Reducing the risk of auditory and vestibular injury (including visual perception and balance disturbance) and enhancing performance are essential for warfighter safety and mission success. This session will explore health and performance of the auditory and vestibular systems, injury mitigation, performance enhancement, assessment, treatment, and clinical implementation. Abstracts should address novel research in one or more areas of auditory and balance health:
  1. warfighter performance impact;
  2. advancements in measurement and diagnosis;
  3. innovations in mitigation strategies (e.g., advanced hearing protection, communication systems, noise dosimetry, custom earplugs, fit verification, 3D scanning/printing);
  4. progress in treatment methodologies; or
  5. clinical implementation for quality improvement.
Saving Servicemembers' Sight

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Medical Readiness Sensory Systems Eyesight essential for warfighter function. Combat injuries can be complex and lead to long term visual impairment. Abstracts in this session should address:
  1. Combat-relevant models of traumatic ocular injury;
  2. Novel devices or treatments to diagnose or stabilize ocular injuries and minimize vision loss in a deployed environment;
  3. New surgical techniques, procedures, or devices that can enhance visual recovery, quality of life, and return to duty after ocular trauma.
  4. Elucidating the epidemiology of combat eye injuries and illness so that leaders can make better informed decisions.
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Clinical Decision Support/Data Analytics

Breakout Session Name MHSRS Focus Area Topic Area Breakout Session Description
Evolving Methods for Analysis of Large Complex Data Sources to Inform Military Health Policy, Readiness, Performance & Medical Practices

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Medical Readiness Data Analytics Abstracts should use DoD health data (ex. Electronic health records, research data sets) to:
  1. investigate and inform military medical policy, treatment, care delivery, and decision making;
  2. describe tangible outcomes from research that impact policy, treatment, or medical readiness; and/or
  3. identify best practices/applications to impact readiness leveraging computational resources and new methodologies (AI/ML).
Big Data, AI & Machine Learning in Military Research: Precision Medicine & Operational Readiness Warfighter Medical Readiness Big Data, AI and Machine Learning in Precision Medicine Abstracts should present:
  1. Practical applications of Big Data, AI or Machine learning in Military Precision Medicine and Readiness;
  2. Description of the precision medicine application in the clinic or battlefield for warfighter treatment or assessment of injury and outcomes;
  3. Scalability and deployment capability potential in the field for warfighter treatment and readiness.
Realizing the Survival Chain – The Interoperable Data System to Accelerate Clinical & Operational Decision-Making Expeditionary Medicine Clinical Decision Support Systems Health outcomes in Large Scale Combat Operations (LSCO) require that both frontline caregivers operational commanders have access to actionable information to drive better, faster decisions related to C2, logistics, personnel replacements, and clinical decisions. This session will focus on activities, opportunities, and barriers to sourcing and using data from combat casualty care and across the care continuum to accelerate "the survival chain" and expand the capability and capacity of the military health system.
Ethical, Legal & Regulatory Considerations in Fielding Intelligent Trauma Care Technologies Expeditionary Medicine Artificial Intelligence Systems Abstracts should address the ethical, legal and regulatory considerations of using AI-driven technologies, especially closed-loop medical devices, in trauma care and management. These innovative technologies are revolutionizing treatments for injuries and emergency care, however, they present ethical challenges such as protecting patient data, ensuring unbiased and fair algorithmic outcomes, maintaining ethical decision-making standards, and establishing robust governance frameworks. Submissions should address these issues and offer strategies to ethically integrate AI technologies in trauma care management.
Robotics & Human-Machine Teaming for Augmenting Combat Casualty Care Delivery Expeditionary Medicine Autonomous Systems Abstracts should focus on the use of robotics or semi-autonomous systems that can team with medics and other care providers to augment the delivery of care in the pre-hospital environment. Applications include the extension of common robotic or standoff sensor/compute platforms for medical use-cases, as well as novel teleoperated or semi-autonomous medical systems to reduce the cognitive and physical burdens of pre-hospital care providers in providing timely and accurate triage, diagnostics, intervention, and continuous monitoring. Technology focus areas include machine perception and intelligence, scene understanding (e.g. using visual language models), teleoperative robotic assistance for surgical or diagnostic tasks, autonomous robotic medical behaviors, and natural language human-machine tasking and shared situational awareness.
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Women's Health

Breakout Session Name MHSRS Focus Area Topic Area Breakout Session Description
Women's Health & Readiness through the Lifespan: Improving Healthcare for Active Duty & Veteran Women

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Medical Readiness Women's Health Abstracts should address:
  1. Convenient and timely reproductive health care for military Service Women & Veterans across the lifespan;
  2. Understanding Active-Duty Service Women's (ADSW) healthcare, mental health, and military experiences that may impact return to duty and health following military service; and
  3. Equipping ADSW and Women Veterans with knowledge and resources to understand common women's health issues.
Female Warfighter Readiness: Operational Health & Performance

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Performance Women's Health As women integrate into all military roles, specifically combat, unique physiological challenges are experienced in response to environmental conditions and hazards. This session will highlight women's health research with unique epidemiological and observational designs that investigate evidence for the safety of relevant military exposures and/or aim to improve medical and operational readiness and return to duty among female Warfighters. Abstracts should address:
  1. Military relevant physical performance and risk of injury;
  2. Influence of anthropometrics/body composition in military tasks/physical performance;
  3. Influence of female reproductive hormones and the effect of contraceptive drugs on bone health;
  4. Menstrual health over the lifespan (e.g., anovulation/oligomenorrhea during initial training, support of field menstruation, postpartum considerations, perimenopausal concerns, etc.) as it relates to mission readiness.
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Additional Sessions

Breakout Session Name MHSRS Focus Area Topic Area Breakout Session Description
Harnessing Health: Ensuring the Health & Readiness of Military Working Animals

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Medical Readiness Occupational and Environmental Exposures Abstracts should address:
  1. Prevention and management of infectious disease threats to military working animals,
  2. Treatment of occupational injuries occurring in working animals as a result of training or battlefield wounds,
  3. Prevention and treatment of the effects of environmental exposures on working animals, including decontamination procedures and instances where they may serve as sentinels of human disease,
  4. Hemorrhage and/or shock control treatments/products for working animals.
Optimizing the Human Weapon System: Utilizing Wearable Sensor Data to Inform Readiness Warfighter Medical Readiness Physiological Status Wearable sensors, to include physiological status monitors, are used to inform Warfighter readiness and optimize performance. This session will:
  1. Inform best practices/lessons learned for utilizing wearable sensors either as a research tool or in a training/operational environment.
  2. Describe existing or novel wearable sensors that can be utilized to prevent or treat illnesses/injuries in military relevant environment.
  3. Describe data management and dashboard generation capabilities used by leadership/medical personnel to inform decisions (ex: fatigue management, RTD).
Sleep: The Key to Medical Readiness

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Medical Readiness Sleep Sleep underlies all aspects of service member medical readiness. However, sleep loss in the military is universal, thus increasing risk to health and performance. Furthermore, sleep is impacted by physical and mental illness and injury and can be an interventional target for treatment or mitigation strategy. Abstracts submitted to this session should focus on sleep in developing strategies and interventions for prevention or treatment in areas such as psychological health, MSKI, TBI, blast injuries, sleep disorders, or other issues impacting medical readiness. Additional focus will be placed on devices and apps that measure or enhance sleep within healthy and/or patient populations.
Nutritional Strategies to Promote Service Member Health, Readiness & Performance

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Medical Readiness Physiological Status High quality diets are essential to support optimal health, readiness and performance in military service members; however, current diet quality of service members is suboptimal in the non-deployed setting. This session will focus on dietary and nutrition strategies to promote health and reduce injury rates to improve the mission readiness of service members. Abstracts should address one or more of the following topics for application in Warfighter Medical Readiness:
  1. The current state of the military nutrition environment and/or strategies to improve the nutrition environment,
  2. Nutrition related strategies to promote positive health outcomes and/or reduce obesity,
  3. Nutrition interventions for injury prevention and/or recovery,
  4. Novel nutrition and pharmaceutical interventions to optimize Warfighter physical and/or cognitive Performance.
VR/AR/MR Applications for Training & Patient Care in the Military Health System Warfighter Medical Readiness Leveraging Scalable Technologies Abstracts should address:
  1. Research on the application of VR/AR/MR technologies in military training programs, emphasizing their effectiveness in enhancing skill development and operational readiness.
  2. Analyses of patient outcomes linked to VR/AR/MR applications during training exercises and simulated medical situations.
  3. Studies that evaluate the integration of immersive technologies into real-time medical care scenarios, focusing on how they support clinical decision-making and patient outcomes.
  4. Investigations into the appropriate fidelity of these technologies, ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently without compromising quality.
  5. Exploration of best practices for leveraging XR in both training and operational contexts to improve healthcare delivery, optimize resource use, and enhance the overall effectiveness of military medical personnel.
Biosurveillance for Force Health Protection – Fieldable Approaches and Technologies

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Medical Readiness Biosurveillance Biosurveillance is crucial in limiting disease outbreaks that cause damage quickly and greatly reduce a unit's combat power. New technologies have created a path for innovation, shifting focus from traditional analyses of the threat landscape – environmental monitoring, case collection, and laboratory testing – to actionable near real-time information. For example, surveillance of wastewater has become a powerful tool in tracking infection trends across communities, oftentimes realizing threats prior to clinical presentation of infected individuals. Several challenges exist to optimally perform surveillance, including site selection, sampling, handling, sample preparation, and appropriate technologies applications. This session will cover the current state as well as delving into progressive protocols, advances in software applications that combine the need for increased communication, and integrative analyses based on experience and logic for best practices.
Enhancing Military Medical Readiness through Global Health Engagement & Research

*FHP-related session		 Expeditionary Medicine Global Health Engagement The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) faces significant challenges in military medical readiness, particularly for potential large scale contingency operations. DoD global health engagement, which includes a broad range of health-related operations, activities and investments (OAI) with allies and partners, is critical for increasing military medical readiness. This breakout session aims to highlight ongoing collaborative research with allies and partners to enhance medical readiness, identify force health protection threats, develop innovative medical technologies for the warfighter, and increase interoperability. The session also highlights research on the effectiveness of global health engagement OAIs in meeting combatant command security cooperation and readiness requirements. Greater coordination and synergy of research and partnership will enhance military medical readiness for the U.S. DoD and its unmatched network of allies and partners.
Additive Manufacturing in Support of Theater Medical Care Expeditionary Medicine Medical Contested Logistics Session will include initial talk from regulatory personnel to describe most recent FDA guidance related to Additive Manufacturing by non-traditional manufacturers, and potentially Legal representatives to discuss Intellectual Property and DoD restrictions due to regulations. Solicited abstracts should:
  1. address (identify problems/propose solutions for) manufacturing of medical materiel in a field environment where challenges include raw material storage and utilization to produce end-products in non-clean spaces under extreme environmental conditions;
  2. identify methods to establish systems to support quality management; and
  3. identify potential solutions to support care in a forward setting.
Positioning Innovative Products for Integration into the Future Force through Key Military Exercises Expeditionary Medicine Military Experimentation A great product that meets a military medical need does not ensure fielding to the Warfighter. Multiple aspects–e.g., doctrine, formations, training–must be aligned. This is enabled through experimentation (during tabletop, simulated, and live military exercises), a growing area of opportunity to integrate innovative technologies, assess effects of manipulating warfighting concepts or conditions, and inform requirements. Early and frequent experimentation is essential to creating a ready force able to clear the battlefield, enable return to duty, and overcome contested logistics. This session will educate participants on the value of experimentation. Event planners, capability developers and experimentation participants are invited to submit abstracts addressing:
  1. Preparing products/ideas for experimentation,
  2. Opportunities for experimentation, and/or
  3. How experimentation impacts outcomes, combat operations and survival (lessons learned).
Fatigue Mitigation for Medical & Operational Readiness

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Performance Physiological Status Fatigue caused by inadequate sleep can negatively affect a service member's health and performance, and has contributed to accidents resulting in service members injury and death. To help inform how best to manage and mitigate operational fatigue abstracts should address:
  1. Novel Capabilities to identify changes/degradation in human performance due to fatigue
  2. Novel Approaches to monitoring fatigue both pre-mission and near real time to inform operational decisions,
  3. Advances to improve and optimize recovery from fatigue, to include novel devices and capabilities that function in an operational setting.
Preserving the U.S. Advantage in the Aerospace Environment: Optimizing Health & Medical Operations

*FHP-related session		 Warfighter Performance Human Performance As our nation and allies pivot towards Great Power competition with rival platforms in the air and space, we are asking more of our aircrew than ever before, including long duration missions, contested logistics, and increase of unmanned platforms. This session explores the latest challenges and advancements in military aerospace medicine, aircrew health, physiological and cognitive performance, as well as emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and automation to support in improving the delivery of medical care in aerospace environments. Experts will discuss the current state of research, including physiological adaptation, biomedical monitoring, and human-machine teaming, to foster collaboration and advance the fields of military aerospace medicine and human performance, enhancing aircrew performance to preserve the U.S. advantage in air and space environments.
Polar Performance at Altitude & Arctic Activities Warfighter Performance Human Performance Optimization Geopolitical, strategic, and environmental trends have increased the focus on capabilities during military operations in cold and high-altitude domains. Current knowledge gaps for human performance in cold and high-altitude environments highlight a unique threat to Warfighter performance, resilience, and readiness. Extreme cold compromises the health and effectiveness of Service Members, and compounds existing problems in the operational setting. This session focuses on Warfighter performance and injury prevention/treatment during the conduct of operations in high-altitude and/or extreme cold environments. Abstracts submitted to this session should address the following topics with a special focus on extreme cold and/or high-altitude environments:
  1. Tactical Combat Casualty Care during cold-weather and high-altitude operations;
  2. Cold-injury and altitude-related illness prevention, including physiological countermeasures, cold weather gear, and human factor limitations;
  3. Challenges of Medical management and treatment of cold-weather injuries, to include open wounds and high-altitude illnesses;
  4. Innovative solutions for management of burn and open wounds in polar environments;
  5. Physiological monitoring technology;
  6. Sustainment of physical and cognitive performance;
  7. Cold-water immersion survivability;
  8. Metabolic balance in arctic and high-altitude conditions to safeguard Warfighter wellness. Submissions are encouraged to address future developments and acquisition alignments cold weather gear, and human factor limitations.
  9. Medical treatment of cold-weather injuries and high-altitude illnesses.
  10. Cold-water immersion survivability.
  11. Metabolic balance in arctic and high-altitude conditions to safeguard Warfighter wellness.
Submissions are encouraged to address future developments and acquisition alignments.
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* Force Health Protection (FHP) related session