09/05/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/05/2024 12:44
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Senior Airman Adrianna Williams, left, and Airman Madalyn Duke, 66th Security Forces
Squadron entry controllers, wear female body armor during a shoot, communicate, and move
training at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., June 29. The newest issue of body armor was
designed specifically to fit females during combat and contingency operations. (U.S. Air
Force photo by Lauren Russell)
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Dr. Michael Roy, professor of Medicine and deputy director of the Military Traumatic Brain Injury
Initiative at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine (HJF) to conduct research on the effects of blast exposure among military service members. This funding, made possible through a charitable gift to HJF from retired Navy Admiral William McRaven, former commander of the United States Special Operations Command, will support Roy's pilot study, focusing specifically on how blast exposure affects female warfighters in certain military occupational specialties.
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Retired U.S. Army Col. (Dr.)
Michael J. Roy, the director
of the Division of Military
Internal Medicine and a USU
professor, oversees a research
portfolio focused on better
understanding the human brain
and improving therapies to assist
in healing the mind in the wake
of trauma. (Photo by Ricardo
Reyes-Guevara, WRNMMC)
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Roy says that the current understanding of blast exposure is still limited, and that studies such as INVICTA are beginning to offer some insight into the actual physiological impact of blast and its long-term effects on service members and veterans. "However," he says, "INVICTA is also limited, as it focuses solely on male study participants. This grant will allow us to conduct additional research to discover if neuroendocrine and physiological differences between male and female service members lead to different risk levels or impacts in women than what has been observed in men."
"Medical research, especially in areas such as heart disease, cancer, and mental illness, has made progress in expanding knowledge of impacts on women's health, and this is an important step in continuing that progress,." says retired Army Col. (Dr.) Paige Waterman, chair of the USU Department of Medicine.
"Women contribute to every aspect of military life and service, and military medical research must consider the effects of illness and injury on all service members, veterans, and family members," USU School of Medicine Dean Dr. Eric Elster agrees.
"I'm honored to be selected for this generous grant," says Roy, "and very pleased to have the opportunity to expand our knowledge of TBI resulting from blast exposure."