"There's not an award that we give in Army Medicine that focuses on team effort like this award," said Lt. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho, the Army Surgeon General and Commander, U.S. Army Medical Command when she presented the prestigious Army Medicine Wolf Pack of the Year Award Dec. 11 to the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research. The Wolf Pack Award is presented quarterly to recognize teams comprised of military personnel and civilians who are focused on excellence in Army Medicine'the annual award is presented to one of the quarterly winners.

"Your teams have obviously over-excelled with that," said Gregg Stevens, Chief of the Army Medical Department Civilian Corps.

During fiscal 2014, two of the four quarterly recipients were from the USAISR and were selected as co-winners of the annual award. The co-winners were the first and fourth quarter winners'the Burn Resuscitation Decision Support System team and the Joint Trauma System, respectively.

Accepting the award for the USAISR presented by Horoho and Stevens were: Col. Philip DeNicolo, Acting Commander; Col. Kirby Gross, JTS director; and Maria Serio-Melvin, program director of clinical information and decision support systems.

"It really goes to show that the staff here at the USAISR does a tremendous job," said DeNicolo. "Our civilians, contractors and military form a synchronous unit to accomplish high-quality research that's world class."

The BRDSS team developed the BRDSS also known as the Burn Navigator, a Food and Drug Administration-cleared device that assists non-burn experienced medical providers in a deployed setting with burn resuscitation. The JTS was established in 2006 as a global organization committed to the health and welfare of combat wounded by overseeing the performance improvement and the follow-through of the performance improvement of casualties of war to optimize the survivability and decrease morbidity and mortality of wounded warriors. In 2013, the JTS was designated as a Department of Defense Center of Excellence.

Gross said it was fitting that both teams receive the award together. "The JTS serves as a way to sense the circumstances in theater and clinical circumstances. The information that we sense, we provide to our researchers, our researchers take that information and then develop tools and then on the back end we provide the clinical guideline," he said.

Serio-Melvin acknowledged the clinicians at the Burn Center for providing honest and candid feedback during the development of the Burn Navigator.

"The BRDSS would have never been developed to the quality of which it was developed without the clinicians' support," she said.

"This is a monumental accomplishment," said Col. Michael D. Wirt. "It is a true reflection of the overall excellence achieved by our diverse teams who are focused on combat casualty care each and every day."

"It doesn't surprise me that this command is getting the annual recognition," said Horoho. "Everyone on the team is dedicated and intelligent, and focuses on doing the right thing to make a difference in the lives of those who are willing to give so much to our Nation. Congratulations to each and every one of you and thank you for the difference that you make each and every day."

The USAISR co-winning teams were selected from among the two other quarterly winners: Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and the Center for the Intrepid at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Overall, there were more than 40 teams nominated for the Wolf Pack Award in 2014.