Musculoskeletal Injuries (MSI) affect approximately 800,000 service members annually and result in 25 million days of limited duty. With the impact of MSI on combat readiness, the Defense Health Agency (DHA) https://www.health.mil/health established the “Collaboratory for Musculoskeletal Injury Rehabilitation Research” (CMIRR) https://www.cmirr.org headquartered at the Uniformed Services University (USU) https://www/usuhs.edu.
The goal is to provide operational and research support to care for service member with non-combat related MSIs. To achieve this goal, DHA awarded a $15 million grant to the USU.
CMIRR will be overseen by USU’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitations. CMIRR scientists will look at general musculoskeletal injury care processes and targeted treatments for back, knee, and shoulder pain. The program will also include research projects related to epidemiology, as well as pilot trials, and prospective multi-site clinical trials.
The program will foster interdisciplinary collaborations and partnerships between the services, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, along with several major civilian academic medical centers.
In addition, USU has entered into a cooperative agreement with the Geneva Foundation https://genevausa.org based in Tacoma Washington to provide operational support and execution of the CMIRR. The Geneva Foundation https://genevausa.org is a non-profit serving service members and veterans to advance medicine through scientific research.