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Military’s Top Doctor Outlines Department’s Efforts to Address Traumatic Brain Injury

  • Published
  • By Dr. Jonathan Woodson
  • Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs
WASHINGTON --  Recent reports have again shined an important spotlight on the challenges confronting thousands of service members with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and the work being done in the military and civilian community to meet the needs of all who sustain this invisible wound.

The Department of Defense is committed to ensuring that every service member who is involved in a concussive event is provided with the health and services they need to aid in their recovery. Whether that is a minor follow up that meets the needs of most cases or extensive specialized care at one of our research facilities for the rare instances.

DoD is grateful to so many leaders both inside and outside of the military who understand the impact of TBI, help identify the appropriate treatment protocols and help ensure we have the resources to build and sustain additional world-class medical treatment and research facilities.

We appreciate the relationships we have cultivated with members of academia, philanthropic efforts and within our Military Health System, which have ensured that DoD's National Intrepid Center of Excellence is an additional highlight to our long line of exceptional medical research facilities.

The NICoE represents an important new model in public-private partnership. Built with private funding and staffed and administered by the Defense Department, it invites leading academic and military researchers to collaborate on the nexus of TBI and psychological health conditions that affect both military readiness and public health.

Exciting endeavors underway in TBI research include:

· Expanding the NICoE through nine additional satellite clinics at military installations, including Camp Lejeune (where construction has begun); Camp Pendleton; Fort Campbell; Fort Belvoir; Joint Base Lewis-McChord; Fort Bragg; Fort Hood; Fort Bliss; and Fort Carson.

· Working aggressively with our colleagues in the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Institutes of Health and the civilian medical community to better understand how to prevent, mitigate, detect and treat our people who suffer from TBI.

· Rapidly translating research findings into clinical policy, and ensure that service members receive the most current, evidence-based medical care following a concussion.

· Reducing stigma through partnerships such as the one formalized last August between the Army and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to improve awareness of brain injuries, reduce the stigma associated with TBI, and ultimately change the culture surrounding brain injuries on the battlefield and in the locker room.

· Establishing the first brain tissue repository specifically designed to address the underlying mechanisms that cause brain injury, and disability stemming from traumatic brain injury suffered by service members. The repository is administered by Dr. Daniel Perl and his colleagues at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

Although our work has been underway for years, we are still in the early stages of beginning to unlock the mysteries of how the brain responds to traumatic events.


News Stories | military health system TBI Traumatic Brain Injury