Airlift Research Foundation

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Facts: Airlift Research Foundation

Founded

August 2008 as a Public Charity (501©3)

Mission

To fund research and champion awareness that improves the care of military and civilian survivors of traumatic extremity injuries.

Funding Received

• Department of Defense Congressional Appropriation, $800,000, 2009
• DSF Charitable Foundation, $100,000, December 2009
• The Fine Foundation, $5,000, December 2009

Annual Grants

As a new public charity, the Board of Directors intends to fund a minimum of two awards annually in the amount of $200,000 each.

2009 Grants Awarded

Christopher Born, MD, Rhode Island Trauma Hospital, $200,000
In Vitro Optimization and Large Animal Study of Anti-infective, Bioactive Intramedullary (IM) Nails
Research to create fixation devices that resist infection while optimizing bone formation

Dr. Yunzhi (Peter) Yang, PhD, University of Texas Health Science Center, $200,000
Accelerating Early Weight Bearing Segmental Bone Regeneration by Biomimetic Synthetic Long Bone Grafts
Research to develop an easily transportable sterilized product that can be used in theater or later, during reconstruction for inducing bone formation following segmental long bone loss.

Facts: Extremity War Trauma

• More than 30,000 service men and women have been wounded in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom (Defense Casualty report 5, June 2008. (www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf)
• Over 90% of soldiers wounded in Iraq survive due to improvements in technology of body armor and battlefield medicine as compared to 76% of the soldiers wounded in Vietnam. Soldiers who survive suffer major limb injuries as the body armor protects vital body parts, but not limbs, from blasts. (Alice D. Gean, MD, 6 Dec 2007. http://www.medicexchange.com/news.aspx/12902/Battlefield-brain-injury-the-lessons-from-Iraq)
• Approximately 82% of all war injuries from Iraq and Afghanistan involve extremities. (http://www.aaos.org/research/committee/ewi/ewi.asp)
• According to US Senate research, the amputation rate has doubled: 6% of those injured in Iraq have amputations as compared to 3% in all previous wars.
• The cost of direct care for those who have survived limb extremity trauma has been estimated at $65 million and $169 million in disability costs.
• Secondary degenerative arthritis resulting from extremity trauma was the primary reason for medical discharge in FY08, with an incidence of approximately 30% of soldiers identified with medically unfit conditions.

History: Airlift Research Foundation

The Airlift Research Foundation was created in August 2008 by The Aircast Foundation, an internationally recognized leader in translating donor dollars to real scientific progress, to expand the much-needed research for extremity war trauma and to continue to foster the careers of young investigators, clinicians and clinician scientists by helping them to shed light on some of the most complicated problems and difficult challenges in the field of orthopaedics.

Over the last 10 years, The Aircast Foundation awarded 40 grants totaling $3.9 million to 30 academic institutions in 17 states. Five Grantees received the prestigious Kappa Delta award, and many others have received major research awards and professional recognition and advancement. These Grantees have subsequently received $36.8 million in additional funding from entities such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defense (DOD), leveraging by nearly 10 times the original funds invested by The Aircast Foundation.

The Airlift Research Foundation will carry forward this standard by continuing to identify scientific excellence and new areas of unexplored research. We will solicit and review scientific research applications for projects that address the protection of limbs, treatment of traumatic orthopaedic injuries in the field, rehabilitation and quality of life-research that has immediate benefits for the military community and future benefits for civilian populations affected by war, violence, and/or traumatic accidents. We will increase public awareness not only through the dissemination of information related to on-going research, but also through continued efforts to improve upon the understanding of this critical need.

Milestones: Airlift Research Foundation

• August 2008 Created by the Aircast Foundation and approved as a public charity
• September 2008 Approval for a 2009 Department of Defense Congressional Appropriation
• October 2008 Hold inaugural meeting of the Board of Directors in Pittsburgh, PA
• July 2009 Receive 33 Preliminary Applications for the inaugural 2009 research grant cycle
• December 2009 Receive $100,000 grant from the DSF Charitable Foundation
• December 2009 Receive $5,000 grant from The Fine Foundation
• January 2010 Award two inaugural $200,000 research grants

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