injuries and over 3500 deaths in the Global War on 
Terror. 
(3) In the United States, civilian trauma is the 
leading cause of death from ages 1 to 44 and is re-
sponsible for over 160,000 deaths annually. 
(4) Each year trauma accounts for 37 million 
emergency department visits and 2.6 million hospital 
admissions. 
(5) Trauma is a disease affecting all ages of 
people, and the impact of life years lost is 4 times 
greater than heart disease or cancer. 
(6) Injuries in a single year will ultimately cost 
the United States $406 billion, with $326 billion in 
lost productivity and $80.2 billion in medical costs 
(representing approximately 6 percent of total an-
nual health expenditures). 
(7) By the year 2020, injury will equal or sur-
pass communicable diseases as the number one 
world-wide cause of disability-adjusted life years lost. 
(8) While the mechanisms of injury are dif-
ferent, military and civilian trauma casualties are 
treated similarly, thus improvements gained by fo-
cused, relevant trauma research in each group will 
benefit both. 
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(9) Despite these alarming facts, within the 
context of years of potential life lost, the National 
Institutes of Health support ratio for HIV is $3.51, 
for cancer is $1.65, and for trauma is $0.10 cents. 
(10) Despite a mandate to promote research di-
rected toward specific health issues relevant to the 
military forces, the Peer Reviewed Medical Research 
Program within the Congressionally Directed Med-
ical Research Programs has spent less than a third 
of funding on trauma research. 
(11) Among more than two dozen research in-
stitutes at the National Institutes of Health, none is 
devoted to trauma. The National Trauma Institute 
(NTI) in San Antonio, Texas, can fill the gap by 
setting a comprehensive research agenda to award 
grants to the best researchers in the country. 
(12) By 2011, two NTI partners, Brooke Army 
Medical Center and Wilford Hall Medical Center will 
combine through the base realignment and closure 
process to become the largest military trauma re-
search center in the world. 
(13) NTI, as a consortium of civilian and De-
partment of Defense centers, is the natural starting 
point to translate battlefield innovations to civilians 
at home. 
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(14) NTI, as a centralized institute to coordi-
nate a national trauma research agenda, will sub-
stantially reduce the number of injuries and deaths 
to the Nation’s soldiers on the battlefield and civil-
ians at home. 
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of Defense 
shall establish a National Trauma Institute in San Anto-
nio, Texas. 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of the Institute shall 
be— 
(1) to develop and implement revolutionary 
medical technologies to improve injury prevention 
and diagnosis, survival, and quality of life for vic-
tims of trauma and burn injury; and 
(2) to implement a multidisciplinary, multi-cen-
ter collaborative research effort, including coordina-
tion of trauma research carried out at— 
(A) Wilford Hall Medical Center, San An-
tonio, Texas; 
(B) University Hospital, the University of 
Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, 
Texas; and 
(C) Brooke Army Medical Center, San An-
tonio, Texas. 
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(c) TRAUMA RESEARCH.—The activities of the Insti-
tute shall include research on the following: 
(1) Injury prevention and education. 
(2) More effective triage. 
(3) Resuscitation. 
(4) Early, effective treatment of compressible 
and non-compressible bleeding. 
(5) Improved burn care. 
(6) Head injury. 
(7) Tissue engineering and regenerative medi-
cine. 
(8) Orthopedics. 
(9) Improved intensive care unit treatment and 
management. 
(10) Enhanced rehabilitation and recovery. 
(11) Outcomes. 
SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 
There is authorized to be appropriated to the Sec-
retary of Defense $100,000,000 for fiscal year 2009 for 
purposes of carrying out the activities of the National 
Trauma Institute as described in this Act. Such funds 
shall not be available for general administrative expenses 
of the Secretary of Defense. 
Æ 
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