About CRMRP

Mission

The Clinical and Rehabilitative Medicine Research Program (CRMRP) focuses on definitive and rehabilitative care innovations required to reset our wounded warriors, both in terms of duty performance and quality of life.

Background and Environment

The injuries of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) are shaped by the widespread use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). IEDs increase the likelihood that active-duty service members will be exposed to incidents such as blasts that can cause traumatic brain injuries and other debilitating injuries. Since 2001, there have been more than 30,000 battlefield injuries, with most receiving more than one injury. Current war casualties are driving changes in health care needs and, therefore, changes in research and development.

In recognition of the need to expand the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command's (USAMRMC's) traditional research focus to include definitive and rehabilitative care innovations required to "reset" the terms of duty performance and quality of life of wounded Soldiers, USAMRMC created the CRMRP in September 2008.

The CRMRP provides policy and process oversight for all clinical and rehabilitative medicine congressional programs managed by the USAMRMC's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) and Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP). It is the lead for program development and oversight of the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM), which is a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary network working to develop advanced treatment options for severely wounded service members. The CRMRP also more tightly links the USAMRMC research and development community with the clinical investigations community of the U.S Army Medical Command and the Military Health System.

Due to advances in trauma care, increasing numbers of service members are surviving with extreme trauma to the extremities and head. The CRMRP focuses on definitive and rehabilitative care innovations required to reset our wounded warriors, both in terms of duty performance and quality of life. The program has multiple initiatives to achieve its goals, including improving prosthetic function, enhancing self-regenerative capacity, improving limb/organ transplant success, creating full functioning limbs/organs, repairing damaged eyes, treating visual dysfunction following injury, improving pain management, and enhancing rehabilitative care.

It is anticipated that this new program will enable active planning and coordination of an area of military medical research that has grown in importance during the current conflict. Although the initial CRMRP portfolio will be funded primarily through the many special congressional appropriations typically managed by TATRC and CDMRP, future budget submissions will provide core resourcing within the President's budget starting in fiscal year 2010.

Between December 2008 and February 2009, several CRMRP programmatic development committees were formed, including the Integrating Integrated Process Team, the Joint Technology Coordinating Group, and Scientific Steering Committees in each of the key research focus areas of the CRMRP. These committees advise the CRMRP Director in program management, program priorities, and funding strategy. Currently, research sponsored by the CRMRP is focused on five key areas.

To learn more about each area, please click on the links below.

Key Themes and Messages

The goal of the CRMRP is to plan, coordinate, and monitor the science and technology program focused on definitive and rehabilitative care to bring the best medical solutions and latest medical technologies to our wounded warriors.

The CRMRP manages a core research program executed internally at Department of Defense laboratories and medical centers and externally by organizations such as universities and industry partners.

The CRMRP leverages the congressional special interest research programs administered by USAMRMC's CDMRP and TATRC. In addition, the CRMRP leverages research efforts in other federal laboratories, universities, and industry.

The CRMRP research program is coordinated with complementary programs at the National Institutes of Health and Department of Veterans Affairs.