FOUNDING MEMBERS

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Geir Strandenes, MD

Senior Medical Officer, Norwegian Naval Special Operation Commando
Researcher, Department of Immunology and Transfusion Medicine
Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway
email: geir@docfish.no
Dr. Strandenes' Bio

Born 1961, Dr. Strandenes finished his military service in the Norwegian Army Special Operation Commando in 1982. He finished medical school in 1988 and became an approved specialist in anesthesiology since 1996. His clinical career has been in Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology Haukeland University Hospital Bergen and Prehospital Emergency Medicine in the Norwegian Air Ambulance services (1992-2007). He was a member of the Army Special Operation Commando as consulting officer from 1996-2000 and is currently the Senior Medical Officer in the Norwegian Naval Special Operation Commando from 2010.

Dr. Strandenes’ research interests include Prehospital Whole Blood Transfusions, Principal Investigator of the Blood Far Forward (BFF) research program in cooperation with the department of Immunology and Transfusion Medicine, Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen/Norway and Us Army Institute of Surgical Research.

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Philip C. Spinella, MD, FCCM

Professor, Department of Surgery and Department of Critical Care Medicine
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA USA

email: spinella@pitt.edu

Dr. Spinella's Bio

Dr. Philip C. Spinella is the Director of the Pediatric Critical Care Translational Research Program at St Louis Children’s Hospital and a Professor of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine. He is internationally recognized as an expert in transfusion medicine and the resuscitation of hemorrhagic shock. Dr. Spinella served 15 years in the US Army and separated as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2007. He is a veteran of the Iraq War, where he received a Bronze Star and the Combat Medic Badge for providing care under fire. In collaboration with investigators at the US Army Institute of Surgical Research, his groundbreaking work in the area of the treatment of hemorrhagic shock received the US Army’s Best Invention Award in 2008 for his role in the development of the concept of “damage control resuscitation”.

Dr. Spinella is a well-established clinical trialist, who has been funded by the US Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health. He has published over 225 manuscripts and 21 chapters and is the editor for a textbook on the topic of trauma resuscitation. Dr. Spinella has also participated in, organized research symposia for, or provided external review of research programs for the FDA, NIH, DoD, Homeland Security, and the Department of Health and Human Services. He has also participated on a committee for the National Academy of Sciences to develop recommendations for a national trauma system in the US. Dr. Spinella co-founded the THOR Network and has been its Co-Director since 2010.

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Tor Hervig, MD, PhD

Chief Medical Officer, Blood Bank
Haukeland University Hospital
Professor, Gades Institute
University of Bergen, Norway
email: tor.hervig@helse-bergen.no

Dr. Hervig's Bio

Tor Hervig (b.1954) finished his medical school in 1979 and became specialist in Immunology and Transfusion Medicine 1990. He has been working as military physician, district medical officer and senior consultant at Stavanger University Hospital and Haukeland University Hospital –and also in collaboration with the National transfusion services in Tanzania.

Since 2004 he is a member of the BEST committee and since 2008 professor in Transfusion Medicine at the University of Bergen. The main research interest is improved transfusion practice, including optimal component use and pathogen reduction technologies –and to implement these improvements also in countries with less financial resources.

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Håkon Eliassen, MD

Norwegian Armed Forces
Bergen, Norway
email: hskogran@hotmail.com

Dr. Eliassen's Bio
Born in Bergen in 1983, Mr. Eliassen served in the Norwegian navy since 2002 as a navy combat medic. He has been deployed to several different war zones over the years. Mr. Eliassen’s gained clinical experience from both the military service and from working in the ambulance service in Bergen city. He has been involved in the Blood Far Forward project since the beginning and has a special interest in the donor performance and blood efficacy and safety issues.