The U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory at Fort Rucker, Ala. hosted the third annual Aerospace Medicine Research Alignment and Collaboration working group July 13-14. Attendees included the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, NASA, and Federal Aviation...
The U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory at Fort Rucker, Ala. hosted the third annual Aerospace Medicine Research Alignment and Collaboration working group July 13-14.
This 2016 meeting included personnel from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, NASA, and Federal Aviation Administration who met to discuss past and current aerospace medicine research, programmatic research objectives, future research, and potential collaborations across the U.S. government.
"In these times of constrained budgets, it's imperative for us to collaborate and view the research landscape across the other services, so we can identify opportunities to share information, reduce unnecessary duplication, and really get an assay of what's going on across the U.S. and across the globe," said Dr. David Stargel, Air Force Research Laboratory, 711th Human Performance Wing deputy chief scientist. "We find that as a group, we have a lot more resources available to us working together than we do individually. We do a lot of similar research, but each component has their own specific research that's unique to their service. Even though we have unique research, there is a lot of commonality that we could share and build upon as we try and improve our capabilities."
The 2014 and 2015 working group meetings included only the three military services and FAA. This year, NASA (Ames Research Center and Johnson Space Center) and the Navy Experimental Dive Unit were added to the invitee list in order to broaden the research scope, recognizing these active research programs.
Capt. Jay Sourbeer, Navy Experimental Dive Unit biomedical department head, said that this meeting was a good experience. The military diving community faces many of the same research challenges as the aviation community, such as sensory function, protection of the operator, safety, and navigation issues.
Dr. Richard Arnold, Naval Medical Research Unit Dayton aeromedical research directorate director, said he believes "this meeting will bring the five organizations doing aeromedical research much closer together and probably foster more collaborations, which [is] the purpose of the working group."
"AMRAC provides a vital function for the military and taxpayer," said Col. Rich Malish, USAARL commander. "The meeting ensures that the interagency and military aeromedical research enterprise has minimal overlap, remains focused on relevant issues, and is moving forward to synchronicity. USAARL is proud of our role in setting the agenda and establishing the forum for productive discussion. Even so, our work is just beginning and the forward-looking list of things to do is expansive."
The two-day AMRAC agenda consisted of detailed briefings from each service or organization and a tour of USAARL's biomechanical, visual, auditory, and aircrew health facilities and NUH-60FS Blackhawk flight simulator.
The 2017 AMRAC meeting will be hosted by NAMRU Dayton.
Social Sharing