University of Pittsburgh Secures $100M DOD Grant to Advance Trauma Care Research

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,” said LITES co-principal investigator Jason Sperry, M.D., M.P.H., professor of surgery and critical care medicine at Pitt’s School of Medicine and trauma and general surgery section chief at UPMC. “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.”

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 standard of care.  

Since its initial launch in 2016, the LITES Network has completed five studies with the potential to change the way trauma care is practiced. These include several observational studies to learn how trauma injuries are treated in the U.S. and see the outcomes of different interventions in certain patients, as well as trials to compare giving platelets to help with blood clotting early in injuries with usual care and a trial to improve pain management. 

LITES also has four ongoing clinical trials tackling airway management, prehospital pain management, whole blood transfusion and early treatments for patients with severe blood loss. 

“The strength of the LITES Network lies in our partnerships with dozens of trauma centers dedicated to providing the best possible life-saving care to the communities they serve,” said co-principal investigator Stephen Wisniewski, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and associate vice chancellor for clinical trials data coordination at Pitt Health Sciences. “Their support and meticulous attention to detail is the backbone of the transformation in trauma care that the LITES Network is leading.”

Co-principal investigator Francis Guyette, M.D., M.P.H., professor of emergency medicine at Pitt, medical director of STAT MedEvac and emergency physician at UPMC, explained that, until about the past decade, research and advances in care in the pre-hospital trauma environment have lagged the rest of medicine. 

“Trauma patients are a difficult population in which to do research. Usually, there isn’t time to enroll the patient in a clinical trial and the transition from first responders and paramedics to doctors at the trauma center is fast and urgent,” Guyette said. “You need a lot of infrastructure to ensure the trial is conducted in a way that both benefits the current patient and future patients. The LITES Network brings those resources.”

In addition to Guyette, Wisniewski and Sperry, core leadership for the LITES Network includes administrators Laura Vincent, Abby Cotton and Laurie Silfies, all of Pitt.