Army Biomedical Research

Concerns About Performance of Brain-Wound Research Gao ID: HRD-91-30 December 12, 1990

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed an Army Medical Research and Development Command contract with a university for brain-wound research.

GAO found that: (1) its panel of medical experts and veterinary anesthesiologists concluded that the research goals were valid, and that such research was important in improving the outcome of combat-incurred brain injury; (2) veterinary anesthesiologists questioned the management of the general anesthesia, the management of post-operative care, and the research report's exclusion of data on large numbers of research animals; (3) several anesthesiologists questioned the reliability of blood-gas measurements and the number of animals used that did not result in usable data; (4) the research did not violate a public law limiting the use of cats and dogs in Department of Defense (DOD) research projects; and (5) the Army inadequately managed the research contracts, did not follow its operating procedures for monitoring the performance of the research, and did not provide appropriate technical assistance.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone:


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.