The U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command Joint Trauma Analysis and Prevention of Injury in Combat program held its annual meeting in Point Loma, California, Dec. 8-10. The meeting provided the JTAPIC program and its partners an opportunity to review the past year and plan for the future.

"The JTAPIC program is a virtual partnership of 11 different organizations that gather subject matter experts from the disciplines of intelligence, medical, materiel and operational aspects of service, and we use that combined synergistic expertise to review injury causing events in the combat theater to prevent injury in the future," said JTAPIC Program Manager Col. Colin M. Greene.

The meeting included a working partner meeting, along with tours of both the Naval Health Research Center's Warfighter Performance Laboratory and of Strategic Operations, Inc., a contractor that creates "hyper-realistic" training scenarios that combines the creative and artistic skills of the motion picture industry with theater and tactical experience.

On the last day of the meeting, USAMRMC and Fort Detrick Commanding General Maj. Gen. Brian C. Lein provided the keynote address.

"We were very fortunate that Maj. Gen. Lein was able share with us his perspective in Army Medicine as both a surgeon and a leader," said Greene.

Also on the final day of the meeting, NHRC Commanding Officer Capt. Rita Simmons provided a presentation and the team reviewed the JTAPIC program's accomplishments for 2015 and goals for 2016 and beyond.

The JTAPIC program's mission is to inform solutions by providing analytic data to help decision makers determine the best course of action that will save lives, prevent or mitigate injuries, save money or direct the spending of resources in a wiser and more useful outcome.

"One of our long-term accomplishments includes substantial improvements in some of the armored vehicles that have fought in the U.S. Central Command theater, resulting in the avoidance of death or injury," said Greene. "We've also contributed to improvements in personal protective equipment and tactics, techniques and procedures, all based on our analysis."

The Army has used the actionable information provided by the JTAPIC program to change the way the military protects Warfighters from combat injuries. Modifications and upgrades have been made to vehicle equipment and protection systems, such as seat design, blast mitigating armor and fire suppression systems. Combatant commanders have altered their tactics, techniques and procedures in the field as a result to the incident analyses and near real-time feedback on threats provided by the JTAPIC program.

The 11 JTAPIC partners are the NHRC the Armed Forces Medical Examiner; the Department of Defense Joint Trauma System; the Program Executive Office Soldier; the Marine Corps Systems Command Infantry Combat Equipment Program Manager; the U.S. Army Research Laboratory; the National Ground Intelligence Center; the Dismounted Incident Analysis Team; the U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory; the Marine Corps Systems Command Current Operations Analysis Support Team; and the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity.