2009 12 People You Need to Know: Dr. Roger Huckfeldt

While some researchers focus on a single issue their entire lives, Dr. Roger Huckfeldt, medical director for St. John's Medical Research Institute, finds satisfaction in discovering solutions to everyday medical problems. Being part of a solution, he says, is what makes it exciting to go to work each day.

Some projects may have a resolution in place within a year, while others may take up to 10 years. It's the progress, however, and involvement in issues that directly affect patient care that make the difference to Huckfeldt.

St. John's Medical Research Institute focuses on translational research based on recurrent patient issues brought to them by local physicians unable to find a solution.

"There really isn't anything out there on the market that we can use to solve the problem," Huckfeldt says, noting that the institute usually completes the entire process, start to finish. "We then take their idea, go to the lab, and try and come up with a solution.

The group also is involved in U.S. Federal Drug Administration approval and certification and, finally, commercialization of the project.

About half of Huckfeldt's time is focused on projects he's gathered from his 20 years as a trauma and burn surgeon. The balance of his time is devoted to managing the research and ideas that other clinicians bring in. The institute typically runs six to 10 projects at a time, with 20 to 30 others waiting in the wings.

One such project uses microcurrent to heal chronic wounds more quickly. Animal studies in the 1980s were successful; however, the electrical generator for the microcurrent was too large for human application. Years later, and with more research, Huckfeldt estimates the final generator will be about the size of a penny. Huckfeldt and company published the first human study in mid-2007. "We showed that we can speed healing of burn wounds by about 40 percent," Huckfeldt notes.

Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio is repeating the study. If successful, the project will move on to the FDA process, which will be completed by a Boston company partnered with the institute to commercially market the specialty dressings for wounds.

"That's what's really fun," Huckfeldt says. "These are not just, 'Wouldn't it be nice if we could create something?' They're all real problems that are brought to us that our own physicians see here in Springfield. And if they're seeing them here, they're seeing them elsewhere."[[In-content Ad]]