Louisiana Via Research Day Book 2026

Plenary Speaker

Speaker

P. Gunnar Brolinson, DO, FAOASM, FAAFP, FACOFP Vice Provost for Research VCOM

Fred Rawlins, II, DO Senior Associate Dean for Simulation and Technology and Associate Professor for Emergency Medicine VCOM

P. Gunnar Brolinson, DO, FAOASM, FAAFP, FACOFP, is vice provost for research, professor of family and sports medicine at the VCOM and team physician for Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He is an adjunct professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech. He is the fellowship director emeritus of the Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship at VCOM and Virginia Tech. He is also a volunteer physician for the United States Olympic Committee and a team physician for the United States ski team and was head team physician for the freestyle ski team at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy. He was also named to the medical staff for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, and was medical director of the USOC performance services center. He obtained his undergraduate training from the University of Missouri at Columbia earning a degree in biology. A 1983 graduate of the Kirksville

College of Osteopathic Medicine, Dr. Brolinson is board certified in family practice and holds a subspecialty certification in sports medicine. Prior to coming to Virginia, he was the co director of the Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship training program at The Toledo Hospital in Toledo, Ohio, and team physician for University of Toledo. He has extensive experience in undergraduate and post graduate medical education. Dr. Brolinson has served on the boards of the American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine, the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine and the Midwest Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine. He is a past president of the American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine. Dr. Brolinson is a fellow of the American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine, the American Academy of Family Practice and the American College of Osteopathic Family Practice. In 1997, he was named outstanding young physician in Ohio by the Ohio State Medical Association.

He is a former associate editor for the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine and a former member of the editorial board of the “Physician and Sports Medicine.” He is former section editor for Competitive Sports and Pain Management in the journal “Current Sports Medicine Reports.” Dr. Brolinson is a frequent speaker at national sports medicine meetings and often teaches didactic laboratory sessions on the use of osteopathic manipulative therapy for athletic injuries. Dr. Brolinson is a contributing author in the latest edition of “Foundations for Osteopathic Medicine” and he has published several scholarly articles and book chapters in the area of sport and exercise medicine. His research interests have included exercise and immune function, exercise and bone mineral density, mild traumatic brain injury in sports, impact biomechanics, human factors in auto safety, sports performance and manipulation and other health and disease prevention related topics.

Fred Rawlins II, DO, is the senior associate dean of simulation and educational technology, associate professor of emergency medicine at the Virginia Campus of the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, chief medical officer of Via Learning Management System (VLMS), and chief information officer of Via Voice Recognition Technology (VVrT). He is an attending physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at West Virginia University. He has been in practice for more than 28 years as an emergency physician. Evaluating cardinal complaints of the undifferentiated patient is synergistic with teaching the pre-clinical medical students. Generating computer algorithms for the evaluation of screening the undifferentiated patients is fundamental to syndromic surveillance. This led to the development of VLMS funded by the Department of Defense. Recently, Dr. Rawlins received a grant to develop voice recognition technology for medical decision making (MDM) called VVrT.

Dr. Rawlins has been actively involved in the world of simulation in his professional career. He earned his private pilot’s license for single and multi-engine land aircraft and has since logged over 5000+ hours of flight on turboprop planes with an instrument rating system. Modeling of aircraft simulation as a training tool contributed to the skillset to apply in medical simulation. In the medical field, he has worked closely with other departments at VCOM to enhance the 1st and 2nd year curriculum by presenting psychomotor cases to medical students that allow them to bring forth their medical knowledge in a hands-on, controlled, learning environment. Expanding this opportunity to other organizations, he has developed standardized patient and manikin-based simulation scenarios unique for aeromedical training certifications.

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2026 Research Recognition Day