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Keesler medic wins research award

  • Published
  • By Steve Pivnick
  • 81st Medical Group Public Affairs
KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  Lt. Col. John Childs, director of musculoskeletal research with the 81st Surgical Operations Squadron, has been selected as the 2012 recipient of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States Research & Development Award. The award will be presented at the annual dinner and awards banquet during the AMSUS 118th annual continuing education meeting Nov. 14 in Phoenix.

Childs' nomination noted he currently manages a research portfolio that includes $21 million in grant funding, 19 projects and nine research staff members. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts in leading scientific journals throughout his career and 19 manuscripts over the previous year, "clearly placing him as a foremost research leader in the Military Health System."

Among his achievements, the nomination stated over the previous year he had completed the prevention of low back pain in the military trial, a $1.1 million grant funded by the congressionally-directed Medical Research Program.

"Their team randomized 4,325 service members and found that receiving a brief psychosocial education program designed to reduce the fear and threat of low back pain resulted in a 3.3 percent decrease in LBP-related healthcare utilization over two years. Utilization of health care for LBP is extremely common, so even small decreases substantially lessen burden on the MHS, especially since the delivery of education programs are highly cost effective and easy to implement.

"For example, in another publication analyzing the cost effectiveness of the education program, service members who received the program incurred 12 percent lower health-care costs during the two-year follow-up period, resulting in a net savings in direct costs of more than $2 million for the study cohort alone. This extrapolates into billions of dollars in savings when you consider the thousands of service members who engage in basic training each year. The results from this study also have extremely relevant implications for military readiness because LBP was the primary complaint of 53 percent of service members deployed to Afghanistan, representing a leading cause of medical evacuation from theater."

His recognition is also based on mission support. In this area, the nomination observed the colonel recently returned from a six-month deployment to Afghanistan, where he served as the human protections administrator on the Joint Combat Casualty Research Team.

"He provided invaluable continuity between three JC2RT rotations through his in-depth knowledge of 70 research protocols and 40 performance improvement determination requests during his six-month tour, significantly expanding combat casualty research and revolutionizing warfighter care. He expertly directed and mentored investigators in protocol development and assumed personal responsibility for research regulatory compliance, conducting 10 audits at five forward operating bases in Afghanistan."

In addition, "He led the regulatory and human protections oversight of several high visibility and multi-million dollar studies directed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and expected to make revolutionary leaps in knowledge and advances in combat casualty care. For example, these studies include the 'Army study to assess risk and resilience in service members,' which is the largest study of mental health risk and resilience ever conducted among military personnel. Other studies include 'life-saving interventions,' 'effects of damage control resuscitation,' and the use of MRI to improve the diagnosis and management of service members with suspected traumatic brain injury."
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