Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been the most prevalent injury among Warfighters during Operations Enduring Freedom (OEF), Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and New Dawn (OND). The Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health & Traumatic Brain Injury reported the prevalence of TBI in the U.S. military to be 313,816 between 2000 and the third quarter of 2014. TBI is also prevalent in civilian life and can be a result of car accidents, falls, or sports injuries. The CDC estimates that approximately 1.5 million people in the U.S. suffer from a TBI each year. TBI and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can cause problems with cognition, difficulty communicating, and behavioral changes. Somatosensory disruptions following TBI can include impairments of vision, equilibrium, smell, hearing, taste, and somatosensory perception. Tier Seven is seeking dual-use biomedical technologies that have the potential to improve head-injury prevention, offer unique diagnostic capabilities, or propose innovative therapeutic interventions for TBI and PTSD and its sequelae.
