I just submitted what is likely the most difficult grant application of my career; it nearly killed me. It was not the biggest grant, but it was a pain in the keester. Now, please – please – please understand that when I say “I” submitted a grant application that means I am part of a team of individuals who put together a research proposal and submitted it to the funding agency as a grant application. This grant had 5 major research projects within it, four faculty members as the core team, 7 other faculty team members and a host of students and support staff. Several of the support staff went above and beyond the call of duty to help get this in. The total amount requested for funding was about 7.5 million dollars and is scheduled to last 3 to 4 years.

Let me bore you with some more random details. The Departments of Neurology, Emergency Medicine, Neurosurgery, Biomedical Engineering and Engineering are all involved. We engaged artists and designers in our proposal and the grant has been submitted to the US Army for research funding. What we are proposing is to get the funding to make and test a star trek type of tricorder. This will detect if a soldier who has been exposed to an IED (improvised explosive device) might have had a brain injury. The device would work without the need for x-rays.

As I hope you know, I worked for over 7 years in emergency services. I remember very distinctly kneeling in the mud and rain next to a severely injured patient saying to myself, “My equipment is no good in these conditions. This sucks.” I can assure every EMS person out there in the field, if I develop a technology and say it will work in the field, I mean all conditions. I refuse to be the genesis of anyone else’s, “this sucks” sentiment.

So the summary is that I, with help of others, worked my butt off, metaphorically killing myself, to submit a research grant to save lives. While I think “it sucks” that I need to kill myself to save others, this is one case where the end justifies the means. I just hope the Army gives us the means to get to that end.