Annual Networking Event: 15 November 2016

The Centre for Blast Injury Studies' 2016 Networking and Research Update Event was held on 15 November.

Location | South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK

The 2016 annual networking took place at Imperial College London's South Kensington campus. Delegates joined us for an inspiring multidisciplinary programme of presentations delving into regenerative and rehabilitative medicine, including the challenges in military rehabilitation as well as contemporary and future rehabilitation.

Overview

Personal protection equipment, rapid extraction and transportation infrastructure and improved medical care have resulted in more injured service members surviving very severe wounding in contemporary wars than ever before. Long after those wars end, however, the fight to meet the challenge of the consequences of complex casualty continues.

Blast injury is the most complex of all, leaving its survivors dealing with a range of problems that affect every moment of their lives, from multiple limb loss with attendant disability to a disordered physiology that can endanger overall recovery. Securing that recovery requires a multi-disciplinary effort, not only in developing advanced and effective prosthetic technologies, but in understanding the bioengineering of the residual limb itself, both structurally and at the interface between human and their prosthetic.

At Imperial College London, research into advanced rehabilitation practice based on precision monitoring is combining with advances in regenerative medical science to treat and prevent physiological defects in order to restore the greatest possible ability of the casualty themselves to move beyond their injury.

Programme

Venue | Great Hall, Level 2 Sherfield (Building No. 20 on Campus Map)

Meet the speakers

10.00

Registration & Coffee

10.30

Welcome

• Centre overview and Housekeeping - Professor Anthony Bull, Director, Centre for Blast Injury Studies

10.45

Session 1: Challenges in Military Rehabilitation

Chair: Colonel Jon Clasper CBE, Clinical Lead, Centre for Blast Injury Studies

• Introduction- Colonel Jon Clasper
• Trauma Rehabilitation Outcomes - Colonel John Etherington OBE
• Current Concepts in Traumatic Amputation - Major Taff Edwards
• The US Military Rehabilitation Process - Major Dan Stinner
• Use of Advanced Technology in Rehabilitation - Professor Alison McGregor
• Panel Discussion

12.45

Lunch & Poster Session

14.00

Session 2: Regenerative and rehabilitative medicine 

Chair: Surgeon Captain Sarah Stapley, Defence Professor of Trauma and Orthopaedics, Royal Centre for Defence Medicine

• Introduction – Surgeon Captain Sarah Stapley
• Bioinspired Regenerative Medicine Strategies After Amputation – Dr Claire Higgins
• Physicochemical Characteristics of Heterotopic Ossification – Major Neil Eisenstein
• Osseointegration and the Management of Severely Traumatised Limbs – Wing Commander Jon Kendrew
• Panel Discussion

15.25

Session 3: Contemporary and Future Rehabilitation

• The future of Defence Rehabilitation – General Sir Tim Granville-Chapman GBE KCB
• Closing remarks - Professor Anthony Bull

16.05

Drinks Reception & EXHIBITION

• Images of Rehabilitation - Staff Sergeant Rupert Frere, British Army Photographer