COL Eli Lozano

COL Eli Lozano
Commander
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
Silver Spring, MD

ALIGNING RESEARCHPATHS TO INTERSECT WITH FUTURE TREATMENT NEEDS

COL Eli Lozano is a native of Los Angeles, California. COL Lozano enlisted into military service in August 1994 as a US Army Healthcare Specialist. He received a Bachelor of Science Degreefrom the United States Military Academy at West Point in May 2000 and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps. His professional military education includes the U.S. Air War College, Chief of Staff of the Army Strategic Fellows Program at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Command & General StaffCollefe, Acquisition Management Course, and Master Fitness Trainder Course. He holds a master’s degree in Strtegic Studeies from the U.S Air War College. COL Lozano’s combat service history includes a deployment to Afghanistan as the Medical Platoon Leader of the 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), and a deployment to Iraq as the Executive Officer of the 801st Forward Surgical Team, and Brigade Medical Planner for Task Force Rakkasans, 101st Airborne Division (AASLT). COL Lozano assumed duties as the Commander of Walter Reed Army Institute of Research on August 31,2023. COL Lozano also serves as the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps Assistant Corps Chief for Administrative Health Services, responsible for facilitating the professional development and policies impacting the largest cohort of MSC Officers, comprising 11 different administrative areas of concentration.

Combat & Casualty Care spoke with WRAIR Commander Eli Lozano regarding current and forward-looking challenges to focusing medical research in areas of prolonged field care and hurdles in areas such as hemorrhage and infection control on a future global battlefield where the tyranny of distance will likely tax the achievement of positive outcomes.

C&CC: As the Commander of WRAIR, what are your primary focus points and command priorities as you support the military services’ needs?

COL Lozano: Hola! Let me begin by stating what an amazing privilege it is to Lead an organization with such a dynamic legacy and honored history.

As the WRAIR Commander, my top priority is nested with that of my Commanding General (CG), Brigadier General (BG) Edward Bailey, who leads the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (MRDC) – To ensure that WRAIR research is directly aimed at protect-ing, preserving, and enhancing our Nation’s top weapon system – the American Warfighter! Our Walter Medic Team carries a noteworthy responsibility to assess, research, and deliver timely and relevant thera- peutic and materiel solutions that can protect warfighters world-wide.During overseas deployments, our military service members face patho-gens, diseases, and environmental conditions that have the potential to degrade our overall readiness, survivability, and ability to maximize combat power where it is most needed. To enable WRAIR’s ability to conquer the challenges of today and those of Army 2030/2040, I have prioritized four focus areas: Equipping and inspiring competent, highly trained, military leaders of character with the Soldier skills they need to effectively serve, lead, and deploy world-wide; leader developing our fantastic federal government civilian workforce to serve as the continunity of our research programs to ensure we codify enduring organizational research practices; reorienting WRAIR research efforts to better nest with emerging DoD requirements; and realigning our overseas research activities to support Combatant Command engagement strategies, which we accomplish through our strategic partnerships with U.S. State Department, Partner Nations, and Industry.

C&CC: The Army formally announced the 2030/2040 initiative last year. This initiative will modernize the force by ensuring our adversaries cannot outrange or outpace us on the battlefield. Can you explain how current WRAIR research contributes to this transformation?

COL Lozano: The future battlefield will involve dispersed formations operating in challenging environments that demand discipline and resilience. Our Soldiers will have to closely monitor invisible threats that can take them out of the fight. Our military history illustrates that nonbattle disease injuries constitute a significant portion of military theater casualties – the future fight in large scale combat operations (LSCO) will be no different. WRAIR is pursuing initiatives that tackle endemic infectious diseases, brain health, and Soldier performance to keep soldiers strong and mission focused. As an example, WRAIR is testing a sleep headband that augments restorative sleep and maximizes performance for the limited sleep battlefield in which our Soldiers may find themselves. Our brain health researchers are developing tools and training that promote peer-based interventions that will keep our Soldiers in the fight.

The future operating environment will involve delays in medical treatment and evacuation consistent with a contested space, and willdemand innovative solutions to maximize return-to-duty and Soldier survivability. We aim to minimize warfighter death and disability by contributing to MRDC efforts toward a “smart bandage” approach that incorporates the best available technology for wound management, including hemostatics, analgesics and anti-infectives. Other efforts include studying the science of traumatic injury and post-traumatic infection to better understand how to address the altered physiology and immunosuppression of wounded Soldiers, and inform clinical practice guidelines for managing these soldiers and their wounds.

C&CC: In terms of infection mitigation as relates to surgical application,what are some of WRAIR’s focal efforts that are helping advance the transition of research to live implementation?
COL Lozano: In previous conflicts, such as Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, we could evacuate our Warfighters in less than 60 minutes. This meant that we could provide early and effective wound management, which reduced complications like wound infection and limb amputation. However, even in these ideal conditions, infection rates of large extremity injuries were approximately 30 percent.

In a LSCO conflict with near-peer adversaries, we don’t expect to have air superiority that enables rapid medical evacuation, won’t have a surplus in medical treatment and hospitalization capacity, and will be faced with contested medical logistics and challenges with wound management and infection prevention. Given this complex scenario characterized by stunted capabilities, any novel debridement techniques, irrigation solutions, anti-infectives and wound coverage must stabilize tissue and reduce infection to prevent the loss of limb or life. WRAIR researchers are testing experimental and commercially available materials and working with MRDC and extramural partners to evaluate treatments to ensure our warfighters get the best available care they require in battlefields of the future.

C&CC: In terms of infection mitigation as relates to surgical application, what are some of WRAIR’s focal efforts that are helping advance the transition of research to live implementation?

COL Lozano: Our current Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs recently stated at a DoD Military Research Symposium that WRAIR’s forward locations are the gems of the Department of Defense and our Country! He is absolutely right! These forward-stationed labs are our DoD’s strategic research and disease surveillance hubs that support military force readiness and facilitate cooperation with our allies and partners. Through the efforts of our overseas footprints, we have kept warfighters safe by fielding products that also protect the local populations in our partner nations. Our Japanese Encephalitis and Hepatitis A clinical trials conducted at AFRIMS contributed to product licensure and fielding in support of INDOPACOM. Our MRD-A infectious disease surveillance network enables USAFRICOM AOR by informing force health protection planning for our forces, Africa host nation partners, and international public health agencies. MRD-G’s work across the EUCOM AOR has greatly facilitated the identification of highly contagious antibiotic-resistant bacteria that pose potential, severe health threats for our Military Health System. MRD-West at JointBase Lewis McChord maximizes Warfighter health and performance by working in conjunction with JBLM operational force organizations to identify physiological, psychological, medical, and environmental hazards that stress Soldier physical, cognitive, and psychological capacities. Increasing Soldier readiness, resilience, and recovery are vital for winning decisively on the battlefield.

C&CC: Can you speak to any innovative research WRAIR is doing in the brain health fields to prepare Soldiers and servicemembers for the future battlefield?

COL Lozano: Warfighters in combat face challenging and stressful situations. Our research shows that during combat it is not unusual for Service Members to encounter teammates experiencing acute stress
reactions. In one survey, 45% of Soldiers reported witnessing a team member exhibit acute stress that rendered that individual temporarily inoperative. During LSCO conflicts, acute stress reactions are likely toincrease, and as such, potentially compromise overall unit effectiveness. To address acute stress reactions, our behavior health researchers have developed peer-to-peer tools, such as iCOVER, SMART and Warrior Mindset, that can help service members manage acute stress symptoms in their Brothers and Sisters in-arms. These techniques can be used in the heat of the moment to focus attention, regulate emotion, maintain composure, and stay motivated in daunting environments.

C&CC: As WRAIR’s first Latino American commander, who were your mentors and how has their advice shaped your understanding of WRAIR’s important medical research and application?

COL Lozano: I can tell you that I feel incredibly honored and privilege to represent all Latino Americans that proudly serve in the world’s most honorable Military. For millions of Latinos serving in our communities across the nation, we truly stand on the shoulders of giants – our Parents and Grandparents that migrated north so that our current generations could live the American Dream and give back to the greatest country in the world.

Wow, my mentors?! I’ve had a multitude of mentors throughout my career that invested countless hours of time, patience and wisdom so that I could become a Servant Leader worth following. The current Defense Health Agency and Army Medicine Senior Leaders have emphatsized to me the importance of ensuring that WRAIR continues to focus its research proposal efforts on our DoD’s most relevant and pressing operational gaps. Military Medicine has the critical role to conserve the fighting strength of our deployed operational forces. The MRDC CG, BG Bailey, has outlined a thoughtful, inspiring vision that empowers WRAIR to leverage the capabilities of the Joint Force and optimize our partnerships in the corporate and academic sectors to facilitate innovative an dynamic solutions in support of our amazing warfighters.