The Joint Trauma System at the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, marked a monumental milestone Feb. 18 when it hosted the 500th Combat Casualty Care Tele-Conference.

The first CCC tele-conference was conducted on Sept. 17, 2005, between medical providers at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and medical providers at Role 3 military medical treatment facilities in Iraq.

According to JTS Deputy Director Mary Ann Spott, Ph.D., the conference was established and designed to increase communication of theater patients to LRMC and deployed medical providers to discuss issues relevant patient care.

"The conferences have been extremely successful in that they have provided continuity of care, identified gaps with respect to education, devices and knowledge for near real time correction," said Spott. "This has allowed us to provide optimum care for our Service Members as they transition through the various medical treatment facilities. Our providers have become more integrated into the medical system, as have our logisticians, evacuation teams, prehospital and Veterans Administration teams."

To commemorate the special occasion JTS Director Navy Capt. (Dr.) Zsolt Stockinger invited several key speakers to share their insights in establishing not only the conferences, but the JTS. Dr. John Holcomb, a retired Army colonel and former USAISR commander, was joined by former director of the Defense Health Agency retired Air Force Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Douglas Robb, retired Cols. Warren Dorlac and Steven Flaherty and other military medical leaders who were instrumental in establishing the conference.

"There were a lot of people who made this program a success," Stockinger said. "We owe gratitude to all who were instrumental in helping us to save combat casualties lives by allowing us to provide the right care, at the right place and at the right time."

The tele-conferences are held every week with about 300 participants dialing in to discuss recently evacuated casualties. The participants include Role 1, 2 and 3 providers and medical care providers at military and VA hospitals.

"In addition, the clinical discussion was expanded to incorporate a tele-education model to give clinicians, nurses and medics the opportunity to earn continuing education credits while in a deployed environment," said JTS Branch Chief of Education Dallas Burelison. "A total of 9,081 Continuing Medical Education and 1,352 Continuing Nursing Education credits have been awarded to participants of the conferences."