Using a Robot to Support Trauma CarE
A collaboration among the Miller School’s William Lehman Injury Research Center, the Ryder Trauma Center, and the U.S. Army Trauma Training Center to use a mobile robotic system to deliver tele-trauma advice is gaining new momentum.

During a media event in December, the telemedicine technology was demonstrated through a trauma simulation designed to see if the RP-7 robot (C.H.I.C.O.) can be deployed in places such as a battlefield.

The tele-trauma research program recently received new research funding from Qualcomm, Inc., one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. The firm hopes to help enhance the wireless reach and clinical effectiveness of physicians using the RP-7 robot for trauma care.

Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Conference
Nearly 150 participants attended the Sixth Annual Miller School Pediatric Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Conference, which took place in November in Miami. The meeting was sponsored by the departments of neurological surgery, pediatrics, and surgery, along with The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.

During the conference, Miller School Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., presented the inaugural Tyler Scott Goldberg Watercraft Injury Award to Debra Fiser, M.D. In 2007, Tyler Goldberg died at University of Miami/Jackson two weeks after being critically injured in a personal watercraft accident in Broward County.

Fiser is dean and vice chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ College of Medicine and a leader of research in pediatric critical care medicine.

Mourning Appears at Book Event
Former Miami Heat basketball star Alonzo Mourning, the spokesman for the Miami Transplant Institute at the University of Miami/Jackson, has a special connection with transplant patients: After all, he was one himself. Mourning appeared at the Medical Wellness Center in December to sign copies of his new book, Resilience: Faith, Focus and Triumph. Resilience tells the inspiring story of Mourning’s battle with a rare kidney disease that forced him to temporarily retire from basketball, only to return after a successful kidney transplant and capture the 2006 NBA Championship in Miami.