(2) Trauma is the number one killer of the Na-
tion’s fighting soldiers, having caused over 30,000 
injuries and over 4,000 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) Injury accounts for 4 of the top ten causes 
of death and disability-adjusted life years lost world-
wide. 
(8) While the mechanisms of injury are dif-
ferent, military and civilian trauma casualties are 
treated similarly, thus improvements gained by fo-
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cused, relevant trauma research in each group will 
benefit both. 
(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) The National Trauma Institute (NTI) in 
San Antonio, Texas, is a not-for-profit research in-
stitute formed by military-civilian collaboration be-
tween Wilford Hall Medical Center, San Antonio, 
Texas; University Hospital; the University of Texas 
Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas; and 
Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas. 
NTI can build on the military-civilian collaboration 
to fill the gap in trauma research by setting a com-
prehensive research agenda to award grants to the 
best researchers in the country. 
(12) NTI, as a consortium of civilian and De-
partment of Defense centers, is the natural starting 
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point to translate battlefield innovations to civilians 
at home. 
(13) 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 Research Pro-
gram at the National Trauma Institute as a military-civil-
ian public-private partnership to nationally fund trauma 
research. 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of the National Trau-
ma Institute Research Program 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; 
(2) to implement a national multidisciplinary, 
multi-center collaborative research effort; and 
(3) to create and administer a competitive, 
peer-reviewed trauma research grant program that 
supports research that includes, at a minimum, the 
following: 
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(A) Injury prevention and education. 
(B) Improved prehospital and inter-hos-
pital triage. 
(C) Resuscitation. 
(D) Early, effective treatment of compress-
ible and non-compressible bleeding. 
(E) Improved burn care. 
(F) Head and spinal cord injury. 
(G) Tissue engineering and regenerative 
medicine. 
(H) Orthopedics. 
(I) Improved intensive care unit treatment 
and management. 
(J) Enhanced rehabilitation and recovery. 
(K) Trauma care systems. 
(L) Outcomes. 
SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 
There is authorized to be appropriated to the Sec-
retary of Defense $25,000,000 for the first fiscal year be-
ginning after the date of the enactment of this Act for 
purposes of carrying out the activities of the National 
Trauma Institute Research Program as described in this 
Act. Such funds shall not be available for general adminis-
trative expenses of the Secretary of Defense. 
Æ 
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