BETHESDA, Md. — A new federal partnership is aimed at bringing lifesaving blood transfusions to more crash scenes nationwide, strengthening EMS, 911 and post-crash care while improving both crash survival and medical readiness.
The Uniformed Services University, through its National Institute for Defense Health Cooperation, is partnering with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to help establish at least 25 new prehospital blood transfusion programs across the U.S. over the next three years.
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Research shows early blood transfusions can reduce mortality among trauma patients with severe bleeding by up to 37%, according to NHTSA’s Chief Counsel Peter Simshauser. He described the initiative as the largest federally backed prehospital blood transfusion effort to date.
Over the next several years, NIDHC and NHTSA’s Office of Emergency Medical Services will help develop prehospital blood transfusion programs nationwide to expand faster access to lifesaving care at crash scenes.
“This is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that the Departments of War and Transportation work together to translate lifesaving innovations from the military to the civilian medical community,” NIDHC Executive Director Dr. Jeff Freeman said. “NHTSA has a history of leaning forward in this way and countless lives have been saved because of it.”
