In 2013, more than 27,000 cases of traumatic brain injury were diagnosed across all the main service branches stationed around the globe, according to the Department of Defense. That number is almost triple the number of cases diagnosed in 2000 when DOD first began recording TBI statistics.
The Defense Automated NeuroBehavioral Assessment (DANA) www.anthrotronix.com tool cleared by FDA is a clinical assessment tool that an AnthroTronix-led team developed for the Department of Defense. Once fully validated, DANA will be able to assist first-line and second-line providers in the field to determine a service member’s type of neurocognitive impairment and level of functioning.
This tool is needed when a service member may be experiencing difficulty due to a brain injury, combat-related physical exhaustion, or emotional distress so that providers can assess fitness for duty and triage needs.
The app will operate much like a video game. Service members that may have had a serious head injury will perform a baseline series of on-screen exercises. Both their speed and accuracy will be recorded and they will also participate in a series of cognitive efficiency tests and self-administered questionnaires.
Afterward, a clinician will review the results and compare them to the results of the baseline exercises. The combination of the app’s cognitive and psychological components allows for insight into the prevalence of symptoms related to both TBI and PTSD.
“In essence, measuring reaction time is like taking the temperature of the brain,” said Corinna Lathan, Founder and CEO of AnthroTronix, a Maryland-based research and development company.
The DANA software is programmed to run in the Android operating system allowing it to run on a variety of lightweight mobile devices. AnthroTronix and partners are also exploring using DANA on tablet computers in clinical environments.
DANA received development funding in part through a grant from the Rapid Innovation Fund www.defenseinnovationmarketplace.mil/RIF.html, a federally supported mechanism for small businesses. Developing tools such as DANA is a priority for the military especially as the understanding of TBI expands.