Three major research strands that will see benefits for military and civilian trauma victims have been established in the first year of a unique collaboration based at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB).

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre (SRMRC) was launched on 19 January 2011 to share lessons learned in treating injured forces personnel to benefit NHS patients.

It is the only partnership of its kind in the UK and brings together expertise from the Ministry of Defence (MoD), University of Birmingham and QEHB, which has a record of excellence in treating trauma, as a regional centre for major trauma and the primary receiving hospital for all of Britain’s serious military casualties.

Professor Sir Keith Porter, the UK’s only Professor of Clinical Traumatology, and Director of the NIHR SRMRC, said: “In our first year we have made significant steps in developing an integrated research infrastructure which aims to translate the best in research into the best in patient care.

“This centre maximises the potential for delivery through a comprehensive research programme. Close collaboration across the range of centre partners facilitates dissemination of learning and maximises innovative outputs.”

Each of the three research themes includes a number of different projects. The Regenerative and Reconstructive Medicine theme includes  projects looking at:

• cranial-facial reconstruction
• improving patient outcomes after ocular trauma
• post-traumatic brain injury

Regenerative medicine is a vast topic, covering the complex, interconnecting treatments and processes involved with helping patients recover from trauma.

The first strand is to improve the way clinicians are able to access high-quality information about the latest developments in this area. The second strand is to develop specific areas of research where real clinical need is matched by cutting-edge scientific developments which are ready to be used to help patients.

Despite the best possible care, trauma patients often face major challenges after initial treatment and need extensive reconstructive and regenerative work. The centre has long-term plans to develop regenerative medicine capacity, working with the US Army Institute for Surgical Research and the US Department of Defence’s Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

The Microbiology research theme projects include:

• tracing the spread of micro-organisms    
• culture-independent diagnosis of active pathogens       
• fungal pathogen diagnostics         
• enhanced surveillance and clinical data collection          
• linking genomics to an improved understanding of virulence and resistance and novel interventions

Infections continue to pose significant challenges for military trauma patients and are of serious concern to patients, the public and policy makers. Work in this area aims to address those concerns through greater understanding, identification and ultimately control of infections.

The Acute Response to Injury theme is looking at how the human body responds to traumatic injury, such as car accidents, gunshot wounds and explosions. In particular, the projects are studying:

• managing blast injury
• modifying the catabolic state following major injury to improve mental and physical recovery following injury

On 28 September 2011 the NIHR SRMRC held its Inaugural Symposium at QEHB, an internal event to set the scene for the future plans for the centre. This was followed in November by the launch of the monthly seminar series, starting with Dr Iain Mackenzie, Consultant Anaesthetist and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Critical Care Medicine, who discussed "Blast Lung Injury in Military Casualties". In December, Col Jon Clasper, Defence Professor in Trauma and Orthopaedics, Royal Centre for Defence Medicine (RCDM), staged the second lecture: "Severe Leg Trauma Following Blast – Engineers are Better than Surgeons?".

In January this year (2012), the centre staged a satellite event at the Combat Trauma Innovation Conference 2012, Europe’s largest gathering of civilian and military emergency healthcare practitioners, held in Kensington, London.