4TH ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING REVIEW
written by: Stacey Lindbergh, Executive Director
MTEC deeply understands the needs of America’s men and women in uniform, and we are dedicated to restoring injured service members to full functionality. Dedication was the centerpiece of MTEC’s fourth annual Membership Meeting, held in April in Charleston, South Carolina.
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott opened the meeting by thanking the 220 members and sponsors in attendance for their work to meet the military’s medical needs.
“Our military members sacrifice everything to keep us safe, and when they experience trauma, we are more than grateful to the folks who are there to help them. From our classrooms and research centers to our military, your work is appreciated, not only in the Palmetto State, but across America,” declared Sen. Scott.
Medal of Honor recipient Major General James Livingston, USMC (Ret.) and Silver and Bronze Star recipient First Lieutenant Patrick “Clebe” McClary, USMC (Ret.), followed Senator Scott’s message with moving accounts of their experience with military medical care. You can watch their recorded video message here.
Although Gen. Livingston received the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions at the battle of Dai Do, he fully understands the needs of today’s Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are injured in similar battles.
He emphasized the importance of medical services to military operations. “We have got to have high quality medical support. That’s the only way we are going to keep our Force ready to fight,” he explained. “Your job is nothing shorter than to raise the great medical capabilities where the Force can fight and win. … You’re more important to their readiness than anything I can think of, “he said, referring to MTEC and our dedicated members.
Like Gen. Livingston, Lt. McClary suffered a brutal injury in a long ago battle. His patrol was attacked on Hill 146 in Quan Duc Valley, Vietnam in March 1968.
He lost his left arm and left eye, and underwent more than 40 surgeries to address his injuries. Lt. McClary and his wife, Deanna expressed their gratitude to the military medical professionals who helped them during his recovery, stressing that full support of our injured military remains a key factor in recovery. He offered sage advice to the MTEC audience: “We need to get more positive with our message … we need to give them hope.”
“The reason you are gathered at this event is to make a difference in the lives of young men, who I pray will one day be able to roll into a prototype that will strap around them, legs that will lift them up, and arms that will function. That’s the difference science can make in the lives of veterans.”
Deanna “Dea” McClary
Gen. Livingston and Lt. McClary were followed by opening remarks from Chaplain, Major General Charles C. Baldwin, U.S. Air Force (Ret.). Together, these speakers highlighted the urgency for quality medical care to improve the lives of America’s warfighters and veterans. Setting the tone for the rest of the Membership Meeting, these messages focused us on the need to keep service members at the center of MTEC’s efforts.
With these goals in mind, MTEC’s leadership and the US Army Medical Research & Materiel Command (USAMRMC) provided an overview of last year’s activities and offered a look ahead at 2019 efforts during the two-day Membership Meeting. On day one, George Ludwig, Ph.D., Principal Assistant for Research and Technology, and Dawn Rosarius, Principal Assistant for Acquisition, discussed current research efforts and USAMRMC’s realignment into the Army Futures Command, including the potential budget implications.
Later in the day, USAMRMC held break-out sessions to discuss the future needs for R&D within each research topic area, which were designed to help match industry R&D efforts to DoD goals. In these meetings, Government and industry discussed specific technical needs. Day one ended with a member networking reception and poster session, where MTEC members had the chance to discuss their unique capabilities and to share research ideas.
This year’s meeting also included the first annual Prototype of the Year Awards. USAMRMC recognized two projects that have displayed superb progress toward advancing prototype development related to MTEC project awards. Humacyte, Inc. received the Prototype of the Year Award in the Large Project category for completing commercial-scale manufacturing, stability testing, and safety testing of the human acellular vessel (HAV). Additionally, a project team from the University of Texas at Arlington and ReHeal, LLC was awarded the Prototype of
the Year – Acceleration Award for their work to develop a process for manufacturing a novel wound therapy dressing for complex hand wounds.
Day two of the Membership Meeting started with a “Lessons Learned” panel discussion with MTEC and Army leadership, as well as a Public Private Partnership Panel comprised of industry, foundation, and venture capital representatives who explained the practices of engagement.
MTEC’s Chief Operating Officer, Bill Howell hosted a two-way discussion with MTEC members, where he announced the 2020 Annual Membership Meeting, which will be hosted by MTEC member Houston Methodist Hospital and will take place March 4-& 5, 2020.
Mark Your Calendar
March 4-5, 2020
Houston Methodist Hospital
The 2019 Membership Meeting wrapped up with a tour of the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), an MTEC member. Participants visited MUSC’s nationally-recognized telehealth center. They also met with Dr. Mike Yost, Professor of Surgery and Bioengineering and Vice Chairman of Research in the MUSC Department of Surgery and Dr. Chris Davies, Professor of Biochemistry who is studying the structural basis for antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria and development of new antimicrobials.
Loretta Lynch-Reichert, Director, Research Communications and Strategic Initiatives at MUSC’s Office of the Vice President of Research said her team was glad to be a part of the event. “MUSC was happy to provide a tour of our award-winning facilities. We have enjoyed being a part of MTEC’s efforts, and we were pleased to share our capabilities with other medical R&D organizations.”
Growth and research success were central themes at this year’s meeting. Everyone understood the greater need to advance MTEC’s mission to provide all service members with the opportunity to fully recover from the life-threatening injuries they sustain while protecting our country.
General Lester Martinez, MD, MPH, Major General (Retired), U.S. Army, President and Chairman of the MTEC Board was pleased with the outcome. “Thank you to all of MTEC’s members, sponsors, and partners for putting your time and energy toward this noble goal,” he said. “And thank you for helping to make our fourth annual Membership Meeting a success. Your time and effort—both at the Membership Meeting and in all MTEC activities—are making a difference in the lives of numerous Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines.”
Postscript
This will be Stacey Lindbergh’s last MTEC Membership Meeting as Executive Director. She is moving to a new position within ATI. For more information about the Membership Meeting and/or MTEC upcoming activities, contact MTEC’s Interim Executive Director, Kathy Zolman, at [email protected].
We hope you will join us at next year’s meeting at Houston Methodist. The MTEC team looks forward to working with you over the coming months!
AN EMPHASIS ON TEAMING
During the recent MTEC Membership Meeting, I emphasized the potential for teaming to meet military requirements (as did several others, including the military leadership). This is not idle chatter, but a reality. In our short existence of three years, a majority of MTEC awards rely on teaming arrangements to accomplish the technical objectives of a solicitation. Some teams have been facilitated by MTEC during the proposal preparation period, while others were formed at the request of the Government sponsor after evaluation. Teaming has been a necessary and critical component of these awards because the military technical requirements specified in our solicitations are often multi-dimensional and require the integration of multiple technologies or capabilities.
MTEC has 170 small business and 50 academic institutions among our membership. Many of these organizations are focused on a single core discovery or technology that may have multiple uses. These organizations may not provide the breadth of capabilities demanded by MTEC solicitations. As a result, many decide not to submit proposals or submit proposals that partially address the technical requirements with the hope their offers complement another partial proposal. Neither approach is ideal. Both situations require the military to make a decision about potentially incomplete solutions.
My personal recommendation to MTEC members is to form your team during the proposal preparation period (the time between pre-solicitation announcement and the proposal due date). This approach allows you to choose the partners of your liking and form the most complete and collaborative team possible. In addition, the time to award is significantly faster than if the Government sponsor and MTEC must form a team after proposal evaluation (which requires the preparation and evaluation of a new proposal).
Recently, we have had several requests from the Government sponsor to form teams post-evaluation. Post evaluation teaming requires two or more companies to agree on roles and responsibilities and shortens the time frame a cohesive teaming arrangement can be formed. Differing company philosophies, IP rights, ownership decisions and leadership personalities sometimes lead to challenges or even destroy the teaming effort.
In order to overcome the challenges of a teaming arrangement, we request members evaluate their technologies and capabilities and identify their weak areas. In some cases, your limitations may be obvious. In other cases, the military need may present more unique challenges than the civilian market. Be honest in your appraisal of your company’s capabilities and identify shortfalls where they exist.
The second request is for you to find a partner who integrates well with your own objectives. To facilitate this, MTEC offers a teaming software through our members-only website (https://private.mtec-sc.org). This tool allows you to publish your company’s technology and capabilities, on the member’s only website, so that other members can look for potential capabilities needed to fulfill military requirements. I also encourage you to reach out to the points of contact listed in MTEC solicitations so that we can share your organization’s capabilities with others interested in a particular solicitation. Dr. Lauren Palestrini, Mr. Rick Satcher, and I stand ready to assist you.
MTEC wants our members to be successful. Experience is proving well-formed teams are far more successful in their proposal strategy than relying on a stand-alone attempt or a sponsor-directed post-evaluation teaming arrangement.
MTEC’S NEW MEMBERS-ONLY COLLABORATION TOOL
Due to requests from our MTEC membership, MTEC has developed a new collaboration tool and added it to the Member Profile tab on our MTEC Members Only Website. The purpose of the tool is to provide membership and government sponsors a quick and easy way to search the membership for specific technology capabilities, collaboration interest, core business areas/focus, R&D highlights/Projects, and Technical Expertise.
This tool will help the membership identify potential teaming partners and aid government sponsors in identifying members that have the capabilities needed for government projects. Please make sure to add your information to maximize your ROI from your membership!
LIVES RESTORED
written by: Kim Cunningham, Director of Development
Every year, military gear gets better and better. It is often the only thing separating the warrior from life and death. Although Kevlar helmets and vests have improved the survival rate for our service men and women fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, death and injury numbers remain high.
It is estimated that more than 7,000 warfighters have died—like Sgt. 1st Class Will Lindsay, 33, of Colorado, who died in March 2019 in Afghanistan—as a result of wounds sustained while engaged in combat operations. There have been over 900,000 injured, like Brendan Marrocco, who lost his arms and legs to a bomb in Iraq, and Sam Ross, Jr., who was blinded by shrapnel for a land mine explosion, and Sgt. 1st Class Wrilshxer Mendoza, who suffered traumatic brain injury and depression.
Some say the psychological injuries are the worst, demonstrated by the high number of veterans committing suicide. There are a large number of blast wounds being treated, along with many serious combat-related eye injuries. Some are burned so badly that medics can’t even tell their gender.
We want to be prepared for whatever happens to our men and women who serve.
Lives Restored was created by MTEC to shine a spotlight on the major injuries suffered by these brave men and women and to allow donors to target their donations to specific needs—loss of sight, burns, head and brain trauma, muscle repair. Funds go directly toward ongoing, scientifically validated and clinically relevant projects in each of these areas:
- Restoring Vision: providing solutions to warfighters suffering from trauma related to the eye.
- Restoring Burn Victims: improving the health and recovery outcomes for warfighters suffering from burn trauma.
- Restoring Mental Health: providing solutions to warfighters suffering from brain injuries and mental health disorders.
- Restoring Muscle: providing solutions to warfighters suffering from muscle loss resulting from traumatic injury.
Together, we can honor those who sacrifice through their service.
To make a donation or learn more about Lives Restored, please visit https://mtec-sc.org/livesrestored/.
FROM THE MTEC PROGRAM MANAGER
2019 continues to be a year of growth for MTEC. Since MTEC’s founding, we have awarded a total of 39 projects with a funded ceiling of $122M.
MTEC has released 6 solicitations so far this calendar year:
- Burn Patient Transfer System (BPTS)
- Anti-Scar Treatment for Deep Partial-Thickness (DPT) Burns
- Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) Small Molecule Antibiotic Drug Development for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (CARB)
- Development of Personalized Bacteriophage Therapeutic for the treatment of Bacterial Infections
- Multi domain Life Saving Trauma Innovations (MuLTI)
- Biomanufacturing for Regenerative Medicine (Biomfg)
New Award Highlights:
MTEC has made the following awards during the past quarter:
- 18-09-APPEAR-001: Design Interactive – Assessment of Psychological and Physiological Effects of Augmented Reality: Development of the Dual‐ Adaptation Protocol for Augmented Reality (DAPAR)
- 18-09-APPEAR-004: Design Interactive – System for Honing Augmented Reality Psychological Suitability (SHARPS)
- 18-09-APPEAR-006: Chenega – Assessment of the Psychological and Physiological Effects of Augmented Reality (APPEAR) ‐ Psychological
- 17-08-Multi Topic-0104: Institute for Behavior Resources – Validation of Wearable Sleep and Fitness Monitor with the Sleep Tank Model
- 17-08-Multi Topic-0100: Chenega – A realistic, portable and deployable medical patient simulator using augmented reality technology for mass casualty medical response training
- 19-03-VML-002: Cedars Sinai – Cardiosphere‐Derived Cells for the Regeneration of Skeletal Muscle Following Traumatic Volumetric Muscle Loss
- 18-07-HRAPS-003: LifeLens – LifeLens Physiologic Monitoring Platform ‐ Ascent
- 17-02-PA-18: Indiana University Electroceutical technology against bacterial drug resistance
Upcoming Solicitations:
MTEC recently posted the below Pre-Announcement. Please refer to the MTEC upcoming solicitations webpage for more information:
- Mobile Application Development Proof of Concept – Theater Blood
Thank you for your continued support of MTEC – together we are working to protect and heal those who serve!
Kathy Zolman
MTEC BOARD NOMINATION PERIOD OPEN NOW
The MTEC Nomination Committee is accepting nominations from the membership for the vacant Large Business Representative seat on the MTEC Board.
Please complete a Nomination Form (includes Nomination Policy & Election Procedure) and submit to: Kathy Zolman, MTEC Interim Executive Director at [email protected]. The Nomination Committee will compile the nominations received and develop a slate of no more than 5 nominees. The MTEC Board of Directors will vote on the nominees to replace this vacated seat at their next meeting. The Director elected to fill the vacancy will be seated for the unexpired three-year term of the predecessor in office, which will end in January 2021. In accordance with the MTEC Bylaws, the elected member’s term will commence immediately upon election. Board members are permitted to serve two terms.
The Large Business Representative is an important Board position, so we look forward to receiving your nominations.
DOES YOUR COMPANY MATCH DONATIONS?
$5 billion is raised through workplace giving annually.
MTEC and our new Lives Restored campaign are actively raising funds in a variety of ways in order to increase the number and size of our project awards.
Did you know that 65% of Fortune 500 companies and many smaller companies offer matching programs? Find out if yours is one of them!
Visit www.mtec-sc.org/donate-to-mtec/ and look up your company to see if they offer a matching program. If they do, make a donation in any amount so we can start the doubling process! Your $50 donation could really be $100!
Contact Kim Cunningham at [email protected] if you need additional information on how to make this work.
MTEC RESEARCH UPDATE
written by: Lauren Palestrini, Director of Research Programs
Extracorporeal Life Support
Human Biomed, Inc. demonstrates proof-of-concept in a porcine model for their device that simultaneously replaces impaired lung and kidney functions
Human Biomed, Inc. has made great progress toward the advancement of prototype development. The team has recently demonstrated in vivo proof-of-concept of an extracorporeal life support (ECLS) device to simultaneously replace impaired lung and kidney functions. The principal feature of their system is the use of a multi-functional detoxifying filter (MDF). The MDF is a patented filter apparatus which performs multiple blood purification functions including high volume hemofiltration, blood oxygenation, and carbon dioxide removal. Thus, it effectively supports lung and kidney functions. These purification methods are all integrated into a single filter unit in the MDF. Their animal work showed that their device was able to consistently oxygenate incoming blood and remove carbon dioxide from incoming blood, and prohibit the advancement of renal dysfunction, inhibiting the increase in uremic toxin concentrations, while providing continuous renal replacement therapy. MTEC looks forward to hearing about their continued progress.
Human Body Computational Model for Injury Prediction
Southwest Research Institute and its partners have received funding for Phase 2 to add a head and cervical spine to their torso model
This Phase 1 MTEC award focused on developing a finite element computational model of the thorax to predict injury and functional incapacitation from behind-armor blunt trauma (BABT) as an initial step toward whole-body modeling of responses to a variety of military hazards. Southwest Research Institute and its partners used a tightly coupled experimental and computational approach to develop a finite element model of the torso that includes corrections to the mesh, integration of a rigid spine and deformable rib cage, and general parameter updates aimed at increasing the stability of the model. Material properties were also updated using a combination of data from literature and data generated specifically for BABT-relevant loading conditions. Data was collected for a variety of tissues including: heart, lung, liver, spleen, kidney, adipose, cartilage, stomach, and intercostal muscle utilizing multiple methodologies. Additionally, high rate and stress relaxation data were collected. The updated model was compared to full body cadaver tests that simulated BABT impacts to validate the overall response of the model. The new methodology developed through this project facilitates a deeper dive into the model results and helps translate them into a “so what” answer that can be communicated to non-technical personnel. In Phase 2 of the work, the team will: 1) Add a high-fidelity head and cervical spine to the torso model; 2) Characterize the dynamic response of select organ components and quantify the extent of tissue damage/injury; and 3) Develop organ level injury prediction methodologies.
Wound Care
SpherIngenics completes their MTEC Prototype Acceleration Award to develop a platform for the treatment of infected wounds
SpherIngenics, Inc. recently completed their MTEC Prototype Acceleration Award aimed at developing an alginate microbead technology for the treatment of challenging wounds, such as infected wounds. With MTEC funding, this project developed a system to encapsulate growth factor-loaded microparticles into a sustained release, alginate microbead system. This system was then tested in vitro (bench-top experiments) for the ability to promote angiogenesis (new blood vessel formation). Next, in vivo tests (animal experiments) were performed evaluating this system for wound closure using type I and type II diabetic rats as a model of chronic wounds. Finally, incorporation of silver nanoparticles into the microbead system was tested and shown to be an effective antimicrobial therapeutic to fight against wound infection both in vitro and in vivo. This project is now ready to advance into large animal proof-of-concept studies as the next step toward regulatory application. MTEC is excited to follow this project through its next set of milestones.
MAKE DINNER YOUR DONATION!
We are ringing the dinner bell at Chipotle for anyone who lives in the Ft. Detrick area, or has a friend or family member there.
On May 28 from 4 – 8 pm, MTEC will receive 33% of the proceeds that we bring in that evening.
It’s easy!
- Visit Chipotle at 7820 Wormans Mill Road in Frederick, MD from, 4-8pm on May 28
- Mention MTEC when paying for your meal or hand them this flyer
- Pay in store and not online
Please share this flyer with friends and family in the Frederick, Maryland area.
Thank you for your support!
MTEC SMILE AMAZON
You can be anywhere in the world to donate to MTEC anytime of the day or night at smile.amazon.com. Before you start your shopping, designate us as the charity of your choice and then start making those purchases.
You can increase donations for Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium by encouraging your family and friends to do their Amazon shopping at smile.amazon.com too. The next major shopping holiday is Father’s Day, on June 16.
Thank you for your support and
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