When trauma surgeons want to know what actually works when a patient is bleeding and the clock is running, they compare notes in person. In 2026, many of them did exactly that in Las Vegas at the 59th Trauma, Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery conference, better known as TCCACS. Dr. Martin Schreiber was there on the faculty, and his sessions focused on the practical questions that decide whether badly injured patients survive.
A Conference With Deep Roots
The TCCACS course carries real history. Held at Caesars Palace, it counts among the longest running medical meetings in Las Vegas, and the 2026 edition marked its 59th year. It is also one of the best attended trauma courses in the country. Each year, surgeons, intensivists, emergency physicians, medics, and nurses travel to the meeting to review real cases, share their outcomes, and update the protocols they take back to their own trauma bays.
For the 2026 meeting, Dr. Schreiber joined the faculty. He led sessions on several topics where the science is moving quickly, drawing on his work in trauma and critical care.
A Battlefield and Bedside Point of View
Dr. Schreiber brings an unusual mix of experience to these debates. He has served as a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve since 1984, and he spent years leading trauma care and research at Oregon Health and Science University. That background gives him a clear test for any new idea. It has to work in real life and in real time, when a patient is bleeding and the team has only minutes to act.
At the 59th TCCACS conference, he applied that test to three subjects that trauma teams are actively working through.
1. Using Drones to Get Blood to Patients Faster
The first topic looked at how drones can support trauma care and emergency response. In many settings, distance is the enemy. Roads wash out, weather grounds helicopters, and traffic slows ground transport. Every one of those delays costs time that an injured patient may not have.
Dr. Schreiber walked through how small unmanned aircraft can carry whole blood, medications, and other critical supplies to places that are hard to reach. He pointed to rural and remote communities, disaster zones, and combat environments, where a drone can often cover ground faster and more safely than a truck or a helicopter. The core idea is simple. Shorten the time between injury and access to blood, and you give the patient a better chance to live.
2. Reading the Clot in Real Time With Viscoelastic Testing
His second session focused on thromboelastometry and its role in guiding blood replacement for patients in hemorrhagic shock. Standard lab tests take time to come back, and they show only a narrow slice of the clotting system. Trauma teams cannot always wait, because they have to make fast choices about plasma, platelets, fibrinogen, and sometimes whole blood.
Viscoelastic testing gives a different kind of answer. It provides near real time feedback on how a patient forms and holds a clot, and it shows where the process is breaking down. Dr. Schreiber explained how that information lets teams tailor the resuscitation to the patient in front of them. Instead of treating every bleeding patient the same way, clinicians can target the specific problem and avoid transfusions the patient does not need. That matters for outcomes, and it also matters for supply, because blood products stay scarce and costly.
3. A Structured Debate on REBOA
The third topic came in the form of a structured debate on retrograde endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta, known as REBOA. The technique places a balloon inside the aorta and inflates it to help control bleeding that surgeons cannot reach by pressing on it from the outside. When it works, it can slow blood loss below the balloon and protect flow to the heart and brain during a critical window.
REBOA also carries real risk, and it demands careful training and clear protocols. During the debate, Dr. Schreiber and his colleagues worked through the hard questions. When should a team consider REBOA? Which teams are ready to use it? How does it fit into an established trauma pathway without delaying the definitive care a patient needs? The conversation treated REBOA as a focused tool for selected patients, not a fix for every kind of bleeding.
Why These Sessions Matter
Each of these topics fits the character of the TCCACS course, which values clear, direct information that a team can use on its next call. Together, they also reflect a theme that runs through Dr. Schreiber's whole career. He works at the point where military and civilian medicine meet, and he keeps asking how planning, training, and new tools can change outcomes before a specific patient ever arrives.
For trauma professionals who follow resuscitation, hemorrhage control, and disaster response, sessions like these connect the ideas discussed in a Las Vegas ballroom to daily care in trauma centers across the country and around the world.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the TCCACS conference?
TCCACS stands for Trauma, Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery. It is one of the longest running and best attended trauma conferences in the country, held annually at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, where trauma surgeons and other clinicians review cases, share outcomes, and update their protocols. The 2026 edition marked its 59th year.
What was Dr. Martin Schreiber's role at the 59th TCCACS conference?
Dr. Schreiber joined the conference faculty and led sessions on drones for blood delivery, viscoelastic testing to guide transfusion, and REBOA. His talks drew on his experience in both military and civilian trauma care.
What is viscoelastic testing in trauma care?
Viscoelastic testing, such as thromboelastometry, gives near real time information on how a patient forms and holds a blood clot. Trauma teams use it to target transfusions to the patient's specific clotting problem instead of treating every bleeding patient the same way.
What is REBOA?
REBOA is retrograde endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta. It uses a balloon placed inside the aorta to help control bleeding that cannot be reached by external pressure, buying time while supporting blood flow to the heart and brain. It requires careful training and clear protocols.
Where does Dr. Schreiber work now?
Dr. Schreiber serves as Director of Surgical Research at Madigan Army Medical Center on Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State, and he remains an Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University.
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