The Burn Research in Texas consortium held its quarterly meeting hosted by the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, July 14.

The consortium is comprised of five Texas burn centers and all are American Burn Association verified. The consortium includes the USAISR Burn Center in San Antonio; University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Parkland Hospital Burn Center in Dallas; University of Texas Medical Branch Truman G. Blocker Burn Center in Galveston/Shriners Hospitals for Children - Galveston; John S. Dunn Burn Center at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston; University Medical Center Timothy J. Harnar Regional Burn Center in Lubbock; and recently, burn researchers from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center San Antonio have joined the consortium.

"Independently, each of these five burn centers have a proud and long history of leading the world in research and innovation in the field of burn care," said Lt. Col. (Dr.) Kevin Chung, USAISR director of research. "The BRIT was established in 2012 to continue this long tradition and to synergize our efforts to help accelerate future advances in burn care."

According to Celeste Finnerty, Ph.D., associate professor at UTMB and associate director for research at the Shiners Hospital for Children-Galveston, the meetings rotate through each of the centers so that all staff and trainees from each site participate in consortium efforts.

"The meetings include educational components, project updates and planning sessions for developing new initiatives," said Finnerty.

Finnerty added that the meeting at the USAISR was exciting and productive. The group of 43 clinical and scientific burn experts reviewed the progress of the clinical trials that are already underway within the consortium'many of which are funded by the Department of Defense.

"Additionally, we were able to identify several areas of investigation that the group will now focus on, leveraging the expertise and resources within BRIT in order to obtain additional funding," she said.

Some of the current projects that the BRIT consortium is collaborating on include a multi-center study to evaluate oil and gas related injuries in Texas; aggressive exercise regimen for burn rehabilitation; early inflammatory markers in burn related sepsis (life-threatening complications due to infection); and burn resuscitation studies involving automated decision support systems.