Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), recently held their 41st annual Surgery for Trauma Day, bringing together military, government and civilian healthcare experts to discuss evolving approaches to trauma care and surgical readiness. Nine speakers from various entities — including the Department of Homeland Security, Inova Fairfax Hospital and Walter Reed — addressed topics ranging from trauma resuscitation and drone technology to combat casualty care and mass casualty response.

Retired U.S. Air Force Col. (Dr.) Mark Bowyer, the Ben Eiseman Professor of Surgery and chief of USU’s Division of Trauma Surgery, opened the event with a tribute to retired U.S. Army Col. (Dr.) Norman Rich, a USU professor who passed away in June. Three featured speakers then delivered endowed lectures named after notable leaders in military healthcare.

Dr. Paula Ferrada, chair of the Department of Surgery at Inova Fairfax Medical Campus and system trauma chief for Inova Health System, served as the keynote speaker, delivering the 29th annual William R. Drucker Distinguished Trauma Lecture. Her presentation, “Global Perspectives in Trauma Resuscitation: Changing Paradigms for Enhanced Patient Outcomes,” challenged clinicians to question long-standing practices and consider whether changing the order of care could improve outcomes.

“Sometimes the future changes because an ordinary person, standing in a room full of experts, is brave enough to ask an extraordinary question: What if the order is wrong?” Ferrada said. “Perhaps the reason that question matters so much in trauma is very simple. When we are willing to question, learn and change, the outcome may be one more birthday, one more graduation, one more dinner with family — one more person who gets to go home.”

Retired U.S. Air Force Col. (Dr.) Warren Dorlac, an associate professor of surgery at USU and former director of the Central Command Joint Theater Trauma System, delivered the 24th annual Martin Silverstein Distinguished Surgical Lecture. Dorlac’s presentation, “Medical Lessons Learned from Current Peer-to-Peer Conflicts,” focused on how drones are changing both warfare — evolving it from artillery-dominated and trench-based front-line fighting to much broader, wide-ranging fronts often extending 12 to 15 miles in width — and medical care in the field. He described their use for weapons delivery, targeting and intelligence, as well as medical resupply, blood and medication delivery, ground evacuations and communication with wounded service members.

Modern technologies are changing the battlefield to such a degree that things that worked a few months ago are no longer working the same today, Dorlac said.

The final endowed speaker was retired U.S. Army Col. (Dr.) John Armstrong, who delivered the 11th annual Col. David G. Burris MD ’82 Memorial Trauma Lecture, “Own Your Performance.” Armstrong, a trauma surgeon and professor of surgery at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, stressed that military medical providers must take ownership of their surgical readiness by maintaining knowledge, technical skills and ability to perform under pressure. He cautioned that confidence without proven competence remains a critical threat to patient survival, urging surgeons to maintain their own personal registries to track core procedures and clinical outcomes over time. He also highlighted advanced simulation courses such as ASSET+ and bio-skills labs as ways to ensure military clinicians maintain current and critical skills when civilian trauma center rotations often lack the same volume or types of injuries they may encounter on the battlefield.

“Winston Churchill was quoted as saying ‘To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often,’” Armstrong said. “And so, I aim to be perfect, which means I change often. Trauma care readiness at the individual level is about the ability of the clinician to meet casualty needs in the Joint Trauma System.”

Additional presentations covered severe pelvic disruptions, preparation for large-scale combat operations, innovations in operative training, development of critical partner nation trauma systems, minimally invasive surgery for combat casualty care and a step-by-step account of what happens during a mass casualty event.

U.S. Navy Capt. (Dr.) Matthew Bradley, the Norman M. Rich Professor and chair of the Department of Surgery at USU and Walter Reed, closed the event with a look at Rich’s career and contributions to military and civilian healthcare.

Rich graduated from Stanford Medical School in 1960 and later completed his residency at Letterman General Hospital. In 1965, he served as chief of surgery for the 2nd Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) during the Vietnam War. During that time, Rich began the Vietnam Vascular Registry, documenting more than 10,000 combat vascular injuries. He maintained the registry by hand for 50 years using index cards and manila folders. His work helped inform medical registries used today.

“Dr. Rich was many things,” Bradley said. “He was an innovator, an educator, a scholar. Most importantly, though, he was a genuinely great human being. He lived his life by the core principles of integrity, honesty, loyalty and service over self.”