TBI Assessment of Readiness Using a Gait Evaluation Test (TARGET): Development of a Portable mTBI Screening Device
Abstract
Many head injuries occur during active military duty, with the majority of these injuries occurring from explosive device blast waves. Cognitive and physical limitations after a head injury are often difficult to diagnose because they may not be present right away or they could require sophisticated clinical equipment for proper assessment. Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is especially difficult to diagnose because the cognitive or physical deficits may be subtle enough to not be picked up by standard clinical testing. Furthermore, most clinical testing for mTBI relies on either subjective assessment using a relatively course grading scale or objective (quantitative) assessment using expensive clinical equipment. The military would benefit from cost-effective, portable, and objective way to screen from mTBI. To this end, our research team has developed a TBI screening test using an Android device app to assess motor functioning called the TBI Assessment of Readiness using a Gait Evaluation Test (TARGET). The applicability of this research is multifaceted. Our TARGET will provide a very low-cost (<$100) portable alternative to expensive clinical equipment. The TARGET was specifically designed to screen for mTBI in practically any setting. Although this proposal focuses on applying the TARGET to military settings, the TARGET could also be used in sport-based settings as a sideline test used in return-to-play decisions. It is estimated that up to 320,000 military Service members sustained some form of TBI over the past decade and up to 3.8 million sport-related mTBI occur annually in the United States, so there is a great need for portable and cost-effective screening assessments that provide quantitative information about a participant s health status. The TARGET will be equipped with a simple "red light" or "green light" feature, providing the health care professional or combat medic with easily interpretable information about the participant s status. The benefit of this project is the development of a valid and reliable test that can screen for mTBI in practically any setting. There are minimal risks of this project since the time needed for testing and the testing tasks are relatively nominal. The timeline for evaluating the reliability and validity of the TARGET is 2 years. Year 1 primarily focuses on testing a civilian population with and without mTBI to determine the efficacy and clinical validity of the test. Year 2 primarily focuses on testing a military population with and without mTBI to derive military-specific normative data and determine the clinical utility of the TARGET in a military population. Allowing military personnel to return to duty with an unresolved mTBI could affect their performance and endanger their fellow Soldiers due to their cognitive and/or physical limitations. Thus, the military would benefit from a cost-effective and portable way to screen for data that is easily interpretable by someone with minimal training. The TARGET can provide additional information to be used to assist with return-to-duty decisions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Apr 04, 2016
- Source ID
- W81XWH1510094
Entities
People
- Christopher Rhea
Organizations
- United States Army
- University of North Carolina at Greensboro