August 19, 2019–Donald Jenkins, MD, professor of surgery at UTHealth San Antonio and an NTI Board member, and the entire San Antonio Whole Blood Consortium, were selected as the winners of the 2019 MHSRS Outstanding Team Research Accomplishment award. Dr. Jenkins accepted the award on behalf of the team today at the annual Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS) in Kissimmee, Florida.
This MHSRS award is given annually “to recognize the outstanding research contributions by a team of research scientists with focus on significant accomplishment of high impact achieved during the past year.” With the mission to reduce prehospital death due to hemorrhage, San Antonio Whole Blood Consortium is presenting seven papers and posters at MHSRS this week on research related to the administration of whole blood during rescue of individuals with traumatic injury.
To date, more than 300 patients (including trauma, medical, non-traumatic injury, and perinatal patients) have received prehospital low titer O+ whole blood in Southwest Texas. As a result, overall mortality has decreased by an estimated 20 percent. Through innovative techniques and processes, the San Antonio Whole Blood Consortium has been able to extend enhanced damage control resuscitation capabilities to all levels of care within the region while keeping costs down, establishing a robust blood donor pool, and keeping blood wastage rates due to expiration well below the national average.
The San Antonio Whole Blood Consortium includes more than a dozen emergency care organizations in South Texas—among them, the South Texas Regional Advisory Council (STRAC), UT Health San Antonio,South Texas Blood and Tissue Center, Frio Regional Hospital, Canyon Lake Fire/EMS, Bandera County EMS, Bulverde Spring Branch Fire/EMS, La Salle County Fire Rescue, Karnes County EMS, Wilson County ESD 3 EMS, New Braunfels EMS, Bexar County ESD 7 EMS, Bexar County ESD 2 EMS, Brooke Army Medical Center, Methodist AirCare, University Health System, Air Evac Lifeteam, San Antonio Fire Department EMS, and Air Methods.
Aside from team leader Dr. Jenkins, members of the Whole Blood Consortium include surgeons, physicians, ground and air emergency personnel, and blood centers: US Navy CDR Douglas Pokorny, Maxwell Braverman, Caroline Zhu, Brian Eastridge, Susanna Nicholson, Ronald Stewart, Rachelle Jonas, Michael Shiels, Philip Edmundson, Ashley McGinity, Eric Epley, Randall Schaefer, Tasia Long, Rena Summers, Jason Forcum, US Army COL Jennifer Gurney, US Army COL Andrew Cap, David Miramontes, Christopher Winckler, Michael Stringfellow, William Bullock, Jose Flores, Elizabeth Waltman, John Barry, Rosalva De La Cruz, and Daniel DeLeon.
