Transforming Health Care through Innovative and Impactful Research

Capt. Charles Gatlin (Text Version)

Title: We've Live It, We've Seen It

Capt. Charles Gatlin

I was a former infantry officer. I did ten years. I was what a lot of people call a mustang. I was a young E-5 when I switched over and commissioned, at the University of Montana. I had a bachelor's in history, which allowed me to commission back into the infantry.

In September of 2006, I was hit with a car bomb in an ambush, at which point I was wounded. Subsequently, evac’d and retired from, from the military. The Army flat out told me, you can't continue in the infantry. And so, I decided it was time for me to, to get out. And I left service in ‘08.

Quite fortuitously, about that time, along came an offer to be a peer reviewer with the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, CDMRP. Now, keep in mind, at this time, I had no clue to what I was getting into. And what CDMRP does is very unique than any other research institution or funding that I've seen. And not to say they're too not out there. They bring in a consumer, and that's changed a lot. It used to be a subject matter expert.

So, what we do is we come in and we sit on a panel of researchers, and we look at proposals. Now, these proposals can cover the gamut from TBI, psychological health, you know, anything and everything that could affect a Service Member, the family, and to include the community at large.

So once proposals go through peer review, which also has a consumer as well, and then it comes to programmatic. And what we do is we look at it and bring a dose of reality, if you will, to the equation. So, you have a lot of scientists, researchers, industry, you know, you name it, they're there. These, these folks want to help the military, by and large, but maybe they don't have the access or the familiarity with it. And that's what we bring. And not only for, for the DOD, the Warfighter or the Service Member, but their families as well.

We've lived it, we've seen it and/or we've been in charge of it. And it just brings a, a dose of realism, if you will, to the research, which is intended to be able to target that population, and let's get, you know, the idea, let's get it researched. Let's get it out there, and let's get it to the public, and let it, uh, let it take effect.

Unfortunately, we live in a world that, that has threats, you know, so we have to prepare, you know, the military, the Warfighter, but also, you know, the Veteran as well. You know, hopefully down the road we won't have any combat, we won't have any wounded Veterans. But you still have families to think about and concerns. As we

As we all know, and yourself included, military life is stressful. And there are a lot of different, sort of intangible aspects and, and things behind the scenes that maybe a lot of people, that want to help, can't see. On a personal level, when I got wounded years ago, and there was not a lot of knowledge with TBI, they didn't know how to tackle it. But as the DOD started recognizing that it was a signature injury, that it was going to have to be more multi-disciplinary to track because there's—comorbid PTSD is often involved. There could be serious body wounds, you know, and there are implications to that.

The military started putting a lot of focus on psychological health outside of PTSD. Looking at behavioral interventions for, for people that needed them, you know. How do you go about getting these folks to come forward with their problems? The military fights one battle. These guys fight another. Because as time progresses, different challenges arise and they take priority.

So, you know, back in the day it was TBI, and not that it's still not one, but now that those 20-year-olds are now, getting a little bit older. So other challenges come along with those injuries. And CDMRP has to sort of adapt to look at maybe the secondary, the tertiary, the quaternary, you know, injuries that go along with a TBI to include age, and the family component, and the community component, you know? Your children are not 5 or 6 years old anymore; they're in college. So, there's a lot of these, sort of intangible components that go with it that they have to adjust for.

But as long as they evolve, you know, keep the out-of-the-box thinking and always focus on outcome and output and how to get it there, I think they'll succeed. I've seen some interesting, interesting things. I've seen some, some great ideas that were generated on the ground floor. And I've been here, I've been part of it. and we decided, hey, this is going to work and we're funding it.

When you have a true interdisciplinary panel like we had back in the years, you could have chemists, veterinarians, psychologists, engineers, you know, a consumer like myself, you name it, that's on the panel. And to be able to, to get along, to figure this out, come to a quorum and be able to advance an ideal, goal or objective, to put it where it needs to be, is, well, there’s really no words to describe it. It’s awesome within itself.