Last week, we got a chance to visit the Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC, pronounced "bam see"), located in San Antonio, Texas. BAMC is one of the U.S. military’s primary hospitals and a major medical research facility: the 450-bed hospital features a level-one trauma center, graduate medical education, and military’s only American Burn Association-verified Burn Center. The ABA verification means that all burn victims from Iraq and Afghanistan arrive at BAMC, after a stopover in Landstuhl, Germany, about two days after the injury on the battlefield. The hospital-based U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR) Burn Flight Team has transported to the hospital hundreds of casualties using specially modified C-17 transport planes. Once on site, patients receive full-time physical and mental therapy, while clinical researchers have a lab-to-animal-to-clinical-trial facility to improve the care provided. Although it is a Department of Defense facility, the hospital accepts civilian patients from the surrounding region, and the research scientists publish in clinical journals and share their knowledge with the world. Burns to the face create a special treatment challenge because applying pressure with a bandage, like in the cases of burns to torso or limbs, is impossible. In order to make individualized plastic masks that perfectly fit the patient, the center has built its own system to digitize the face in 3D, mill a mold, and press the plastic into shape. Here’s our editor Gene Ostrovsky’s face being laser-scanned, just like a new patient: Once the scan is complete, a technician cleans up the 3D model, smoothes it out, and sends it to the mill where a special hard foam is used to make the mold: Once the mold is complete, it is sent to a vacuum forming machine that produces the final product – simply clip on some straps you’ve got a perfectly fitting mask in a matter of three hours. The burn center also has a SnowWorld virtual reality video game system, that we reported on a few years ago, for patients to play during bandage changes. The system was developed at the University of Washington, and a clinical study at BAMC have shown a significant reduction in perceived pain while playing in the snowy, cold world. Here’s a link to a short NPR report about the use of SnowWorld at BAMC. Other interesting research going on at the Institute of Surgical Research includes the use of ketamine for PTSD patients,…