Costs and Benefits of Physical Therapy Program Implementation for Air Force Fighter Pilots
Abstract
Air Force fighter pilots face risks associated with neck and spine injuries sustained while operating fighter aircraft. Studies from the flying and medical communities indicate that muscle-strengthening prehabilitative care may decrease the risk of flying related injuries in high performance aircraft pilots. For this reason, the U.S. Air Force provided $24.9M to implement the Optimizing theHuman Weapon System (OHWS) program. The program provides physical therapy and strength training to fighter pilots in participating units at twenty-one Air Force bases with the intent of reducing injury rates and time out of the cockpit. From ahealthcare perspective there is interest in the effectiveness of the program in injury reduction. From a funding perspective there is interest in the potential for a positive net present value (NPV) of the OHWS investment. This research utilizes injury data obtained from the Force Risk Reduction (FR2) tool to analyze injury rates, injury types, physiological injury locations, as well as medical andnon-medical injury costs to form an NPV estimate for the OHWS program.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1136738
Entities
People
- Christian G Erneston
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology