The University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences has been awarded approximately $100 million from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to continue a clinical research program that is advancing trauma care.
The 10-year contract renewal will fund new and ongoing research conducted through the Linking Investigations in Trauma and Emergency Services (LITES) Network, a consortium of nearly 50 trauma centers in the U.S. and Canada.
Pitt physician-scientists lead the network in identifying the best possible emergency treatment for traumatically injured people. Trauma remains a leading cause of death in people younger than 45 years old. It is also a leading cause of preventable death – which means that these people do not have to die.
The research and clinical innovation we're doing through the LITES Network is saving lives." Jason Sperry, M.D.
, M.P.H.
, LITES co-principal investigator, professor of surgery and critical care medicine at Pitt's School of Medicine and trauma and general surgery section chief at UPMC With the funding renewal, the LITES Network also will begin its tenth study, the Plasma Resuscitation Early for Evaluating Volume and Endotheliopathy of Thermal Injury (PREEVEnT) trial. The trial will launch at UPMC Mercy, which has one of the nation's leading burn centers, and include about a dozen more sites in North America. The goal of the PREEVEnT trial is to determine if giving plasma as early as possible to burn patients leads to better outcomes than stan.