is to join the rest of these panel members here. The specter of imposter syndrome certainly looms large for me to be up here. But again, what an honor it is and how appreciative I am to be involved in an organization like the AOSSM, who has been so supportive of my efforts and the efforts of my near peers over the last several years. And I just can't say enough about this entire session. So kudos to Dr. Ma and Lynette Kraft, who have really put together such an enriching exposure to all of these different things and answering a lot of the questions that I'm sure are floating around in everybody's head. And this is kind of where I started from the standpoint of trying to acknowledge and understand all of these acronyms. And I wish I could tell you that I'm certainly beyond this, but I still find myself going back and googling these things and everything like that. But we're going to try to demystify some of these acronyms further if it hasn't already been done. I just wanted to highlight what a rich tradition of support that DOD funding has had for a number of efforts and research opportunities immediately relevant to what it is that we do as a subspecialty society. It's already been mentioned that the STAR trial was funded through CDMRP. The OASIS trial, which is a randomized controlled trial, looking at optimal treatments for subcritical bone loss and shoulder instability. Dr. Roach mentioned my project. It's a randomized controlled trial assessing the efficacy of blood flow restriction therapy after ACL reconstruction. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that this was supported initially by a Sandy Kirkley award. So Dr. Spindler, to your point, I think that, again, there's a number of really poignant examples of the society providing the kickstart and the catalyst for those of us that have been able to go on and enjoy some broader access. And then more recently, Dr. Spindler and I had a successful proposal picked up by the M-TEC, which we'll go through a little bit. Just to give you a little bit of a background as kind of what I've been up to over the last six years that I've been in practice, we've been able to secure a number of rather large awards that I think span the gamut of both basic science and clinical research. You see a lot of the acronyms, again, back to that alphabet soup. But I think that what I really just wanted to emphasize here is there are so many different awards. If that hasn't already become available to you all today, and I think one of the points that a number of the panelists have belabored is it's really just about asking the questions over and over again and being aggressive. Because the money's out there. You just have to know to where to look. I mentioned earlier, I just wanted to put a plug in for the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium, which is a whole separate avenue of funding that's available. Again, interested in accelerating and catalyzing innovation in the space that would hopefully optimize medical care for the military medical members and the warfighter. But I'd certainly be happy to talk to you all about my experience with EmTech in the past. I think it's an avenue that's ripe for opportunity and that would appeal to a number of the investigators here in this room, I presume. So just to round out and talk about some definitions and key terminology that I think really can be successful and help you be successful in taking your proposals to the next level and some things that I'm always thinking about when I'm writing grants that have a military focus is return to duty is a term that you'll see oftentimes. And essentially, it's a surrogate for return to sport. But obviously, relevant to the military member. And so there's plenty of published literature out there on the return to duty rates after fill-in-the-blank musculoskeletal condition. Brian Waterman and Brett Owens over the last 10 to 15 years have really done a lion's share of the heavy lifting there to help define what the return to duty rates are for so many of these musculoskeletal conditions that become fodder for the introductions and the impact statements of so many of these proposals. So those data are in the literature. And I would recommend that you incorporate those into your proposals. Persistent duty limitations. This also is out there in the literature from the standpoint of defining the extent to which conditions can lead to limited duty, I think, is really, really important. And that really then helps you write a compelling argument as to why your research is impactful. And then that's to the next point there is really trying to emphasize the financial impact and the cost of this ability. Those figures are out there from the standpoint of the dollar amount that's associated with a service member being out or not on full duty per day. You can extrapolate that out and multiply that, say, by nine months, which is what we all know is probably the standard in 2023 in terms of how far someone's out after ACL reconstruction. So those numbers get big in a hurry, which then helps you create a compelling justification as to why your research should be funded. So just tips for some successful applications. I already mentioned that it's already been emphasized, but the importance of leveraging smaller awards, particularly for those of us that are earlier in their career. The AOSSM and the research committee does such great work to create a cogent process to vet awards that are just absolutely perfect for the early investigators, ORS and OREF as well, too. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention all those opportunities. I would encourage those of you that are interested in seeking out collaborations with military investigators who are out there, and I think that those really create rich partnerships and rich collaborations that you can draw upon one another's collective experience in order to put forth a really, really compelling proposal. Depending upon the mechanism, think big. I think this was something that I wasn't particularly acclimated to or aware of early on. It was from the standpoint of the program manager's risk and how they define risk. And there are some mechanisms that you're encouraged to be risky and think in Star Trek type levels. Other mechanisms, not so much. But really trying to vary at an early stage understanding what it is that you're proposing and whether or not that risk profile aligns with the funding mechanisms are a really, really important thing to do. And I'll just round it out here. I wanted to put a plug in for the Extremity War Injury Symposium. This is a program that the Society of Military Orthopedic Surgeons has been sponsoring throughout the last 15 or 16 years, going back to the mid-2000s. The world was much different then, but this organization was put forth by the visionary leadership of Colonel Jim Ficke and others, basically to bring the thought leaders into the same room with the program managers of the funding agencies and come up with a list of priorities that could be hopefully put forward to affecting the focus areas for a number of these funding mechanisms that we've talked about today. So we're now in our 17th year. Over the last several years, thankfully, things have wound down from the standpoint of the operational tempo overseas. And so what that's done is that's allowed us, as sports medicine surgeons and those surgeons that are interested in rehabilitation, to have a larger seat at the table from the standpoint of trying to underscore and highlight the extent to which what it is that we do every day, ACL reconstruction, plays an incredibly important role in service members recovering from injuries. And so that's going to be here at the Salamander Hotel, which was the Mandarin Oriental. It's the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday after MLK. As you can see, it's got incredible support from a number of subspecialty societies. The AOSSM, again, has just been so supportive of these efforts over the last several years. And again, it's really led to a rich program that has a really nice track record, too, I should say, about successful funding proposals that have been born out of what it is that we talk about at the Extremity War Injury Symposium. So I'd encourage you to go online to the website, register, take a look at the program. We've just finalized it. It's a veritable who's who within the sports medicine field. And I think that there's a lot to learn. And we'd love to have you guys out there and contribute to that conversation. Thank you.

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