Recent Happenings: MHSRS, NCS, & Burning Man
Military Health Systems Research Symposium (MHSRS)
Orlando, FL || August 14-17, 2023
The annual MHSRS meeting is always interesting to attend and brain injury is always a hot topic. I gave a talk titled Using Physiological Biomarkers to Optimize the Management of TBI in Austere Environments. It summarizes our work to build a device/app to help medics manage TBI in resource limited settings. We are collaborating with a wonderful group of academics and industry partners. Get in touch with us if you want to join the team. We are especially looking for those with a combat medic or EMT background. Thanks to Dr. Eddy Amorim (UCSF) for taking the picture.
Neurocritical Care Society
Phoenix, AZ || August 14-17, 2023
NCS overlapped with MHSRS, and both were held in rather warm locations. The attendance was down at the meeting due to the early dates (August instead of September/October) and likely due to the heat. In spite of that, it was a fun meeting packed with interesting content.
Emerson Nairon (UTSW) with Gabriella Grym (Moberg Analytics) stand next to a device that annotates ICP data from an EVD based on the position of the stopcock. Emerson and Dr. DaiWai Olson are evaluating the device at UTSW to validate segments of ICP for post-hoc analysis.
Ethan Moyer (Moberg Analytics) explaining our cloud repository for clinical trial data. Dick looking on trying to figure out what he is saying.
Overall, NCS was incredibly interesting this year. We found that the use of AI and machine learning in neurocritical care was a hot topic at the meeting, with many talks, including the keynote, centered around it.
Coma Camp at Burning Man
Black Rock City, NV || August 27-September 4, 2023
As mentioned in the last newsletter, my one-man Coma Camp joined up with a group of neuroscientists this year at Burning Man at Campus Callosum. The camp “gives back” to the community (as one does at Burning Man) in the form of a series of neuro-related talks. We did one on Coma and Consciousness, as inspired by the Curing Coma Campaign (curingcoma.org) to think outside the box. One of our speakers was a geologist who predicts earthquakes and we thought we could tie that into predicting arousal from coma. It was recorded and can be viewed here:
Coma and Consciousness speakers: Dick Moberg (Moberg Analytics), Dr. Janis Hesse (consciousness researcher, UC Berkeley), Dr. Mark Stirling (geologist, U Otago, New Zealand), Dr. Debra Hemmerle (neuroscience nurse, UCSF).
Campus Callosum (a neuroscientist camp at Burning Man…with roots in Philly) hosted the Coma and Consciousness discussion.
As many of you know, on Friday afternoon there was an unprecedented rainstorm at Burning Man that turned the playa’s alkaline sand to something resembling cement or glue. You couldn’t drive in it, ride your bike or walk in it. The 75,000 attendees were basically stuck where they were. The media ran with this to make it seem like we would all need the National Guard to get us out. I got texts (from many of you) asking if I were dead and, if not, would I survive. Thank you all for your concern. It was touching.
After walking a few feet, the thick playa mud would turn your shoes into very heavy platform shoes, getting heavier with each step until you can barely walk. The only remedy I heard that helps was to do some mushrooms.
