The U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command named Nicolle Perez "Rookie of the Year" in advanced development Feb. 15.

Perez is a product manager assigned to the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency, a subordinate organization of USAMRMC. She received the recognition for her leadership of the Advanced Medical Monitoring portfolio, including products to detect hemorrhage, or bleeding, of wounded Warfighters. Hemorrhage is a leading cause of potentially survivable deaths on the battlefield.

Perez worked with a team to evaluate potential hemorrhage detection products. Collaboratively, the team decided to move forward with further evaluation of products that can noninvasively detect bleeding, which is especially useful in cases where the signs of bleeding are not apparent, such as internal bleeding or low-light conditions.

"This is an exciting new capability that could greatly improve survivability on the battlefield," said Perez.

The "Rookie of the Year" award is designed to recognize a military or civilian team member that is new to the Decision Gate process and demonstrates outstanding performance of their duties in support of product development efforts.

Decision Gate is a process developed in 2004 to help meet the stringent standards of the DOD's acquisition process. The goal is to move products through acquisition and into fielding, delivering critical medical capabilities to our Warfighters.