Phase II Amount
$1,099,986
The capability to quickly and accurately identify TBI and characterize its severity on the field is important for quick immediate Return-To-Duty (RTD) and treatment determination. In the operation theater, medical or non-medical personnel will need to be able to perform medical assessment under stressful circumstances and to provide treatment quickly. The diagnosis of TBI (including mild and moderate TBI that does not involve the loss of consciousness) on the field requires fast and objective assessment tools that does not rely on self-reported symptoms nor cognitive-related questionnaires from the injured Warfighters. In addition, the tool needs to be non-invasive, easily administer, understandable, portable, rugged and with high sensitivity, reliability and specificity. Studies have shown that ocular dysfunctions often resulted from mTBI. These symptoms can be used as objective biomarkers for all phases of TBI identification in Warfighters. Incorporating a broad spectrum of the aforementioned tests and measurements result in data diversity that would increase the likelihood of TBI detection and locating the associated central nervous system injuries. In Phase II, we will build the final ruggedized version of the POMAS device based on the work completed in Phase I, and to validate POMAS as a compact, modular, ruggedized OMA system for TBI (mild, moderate, severe) detection and assessment that can be used in an operational (field) setting. The vision is to deploy the POMAS as simple-to-use on-the-field screening tool for TBI detection for our Warfighters.
