Understanding and Optimizing Warfighter Brain Health Across Services Careers Using a Digital Health Platform
Abstract
OVERALL PROGRAM: Understanding and Optimizing Warfighter Brain Health Across Services Careers Using a Digital Health Platform Program The proposed research program will provide the first comprehensive assessment of brain health status in active-duty Service Members. Using connected technologies, like smart phones, body worn sensors, mobile applications, and cutting-edge immersive experiences, the research will allow Service Members to track their brain and body health over time. They will be able to access personalized education that will give them the tools to understand their baseline brain and overall health and human performance status. This will enable them to better maintain their brain health. This is because they will have accurate information, specific to them and the educational tools to make the best health choices. The research tools will allow Service Members to more readily connect the dots between their health and performance in psychological, cognitive, and physical domains. We will study Service Members across Forces (Army, Navy, Marines), with varying levels of military experience (senior Service Members nearing retirement, active-duty Navy SEALS, senior Green Beret instructors, and entry-level Infantry Marines). The data we collect will expand the body of knowledge regarding Service Member brain health that has been obtained during episodic assessments. This is because the research will collect data unobtrusively and continuously. This enables the research to fill in the gaps in knowledge that exist in brain health. This includes understanding and identifying the earliest signs of risk for brain injury. It also includes measurements of time to brain recovery after brain insults such as psychological trauma or blast overpressure exposure. These types of observations can lead to a much needed and deeper understanding of individual risk and recovery. It also provides the foundational understanding to develop effective therapies tailored to the needs of the individual. Having the right information at the right time can be critical to maintaining one’s health and gaining insights into one’s risk of a health event and then getting the knowledge and tools to lessen that risk is really the next horizon in healthcare and health maintenance. The research proposed here will also fill in gaps in knowledge because historically it was not possible to have continuous data available on things like mood, cognition, sleep, heart rate, activity, family connections. With this data, in conjunction with novel ways to analyze that data, we can provide very targeted insights, on an individual and group level that can help increase understanding of the factors that put someone at risk for brain health decline at a very early stage, and then track that health over time. In each of the four projects, that span across Forces, military occupational specialty, and time in the military, we will be able to deliver novel data as to the baseline brain health of the Service Members enrolled in each study. We will understand the status, in considerable detail and in relation to prior military and family experiences, of each individual. This will also enable the ability to engage the Service Member actively in their own health by providing them with data and education as to how to optimize their health going forward. We will do this by also providing either educational or restorative experiences using software and directed toward that individual’s specific needs. PROJECT 1: Impact of Pre-Military Life Experiences Military Service Members may experience brain health conditions like posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), without ever having experienced a deployment in a conflict zone. Data suggests that these Service Members may bring risk of PTSD from past experience with them to the military. There is an incomplete understanding of how pre-military life experiences, including a history of psychological or physical trauma, relate to
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Dec 28, 2022
- Source ID
- W81XWH2210956
Entities
People
- Leslie Saxon
Organizations
- United States Army
- University of Southern California