INJURY PREVENTION AND REHABILITATION

BACKGROUND

Preventing injuries and reducing the impact of chronic stress are key concerns for today’s warfighters and military leaders. They physical and psychological consequences of injuries can not only decrease the health, well-being, performance, and readiness of individual service members, they can also have a negative impact on unit and mission readiness.

Our Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation researchers are biomedical engineers, physiologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, nutritionists, and hardware and software engineers.

VALUE

Our researchers leverage their expertise and the unique capabilities of NHRC’s Warfighter Performance Laboratory, including an immersive (IVRE), to investigate factors that contribute to and mitigate physical and cognitive injuries. We also evaluate advanced rehabilitation programs for wounded warriors with amputation, musculoskeletal injuries, traumatic brain injury (TBI), or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

GOALS

Mitigate and prevent musculoskeletal injuries
Conduct operationally relevant research in warfighter physiology and provide feedback and information to leadership in support of decision-making and improved mission readiness
Conduct research that tangibly improves warfighter physical and cognitive readiness through advanced, interactive technology in collaboration with clinicians and military stakeholders
Develop strategies to build resilience by identifying factors that influence physiological responses to mental and physical stress
Evaluate predictors of dissociative states, such as coping skills, physical fitness, and gender
Evaluate new technologies for measuring performance and reducing injuries
Define the physical and cognitive limits of injured warfighters
Improve wounded warrior care and rehabilitation

CAPABILITIES

Physiological and cognitive rehabilitation research using the Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN) to provide an IVRE that mirrors real-world situations and scenarios
Clinical investigation and experimental therapeutics research
Mobile virtual and augmented reality systems for researching virtual training techniques or environments applicable to rehabilitation

RESEARCH

Evaluation of changes in lumbar spine kinematics with carriage load in infantry Marines
Specialized ankle rehabilitation protocols such as foot intensive rehabilitation and uneven terrain treadmill training
Evaluation of targeted, novel vestibular rehabilitation programs for TBI
Exposure-based therapy for PTSD
Evaluation of functional movement measures of performance and injury prevention
Evaluation of musculoskeletal injury risk of Marines based on cognitive, physical, and neuromotor assessments

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General Navy Medical Inquiries (to Bureau of Medicine and Surgery): usn.ncr.bumedfchva.mbx.bumed-general-inquiries@health.mil