NFL BRAIN Health Initiative
The University of Pittsburgh Brain Health Initiative (BHI) has a primary goal of calculating the spectrum of brain health in former professional football players. This research initiative brings together globally-recognized teams at Harvard University and the University of Pittsburgh to understand the long-term effects of head trauma following a professional football career. Out study team includes leaders in the fields of brain trauma, concussion, sports medicine, sleep and neuro-psychology. By working together, as a collective, the team brings a unique level of comprehensive expertise to the study and to each participant. This study will lead to the creation of valuable tools that will allow retired, current and future players to gain new insights into their brain health.
Participants receive a confidential, comprehensive brain health evaluation over a four day period. During the comprehensive brain health evaluation, participants meet with specialists in sleep, cognition, concussion management, vision and balance. The participants also undergo advanced non-invasive brain imaging using state of the art facilities and cutting-edge technologies at the University of Pittsburgh. The testing takes place over three days, with the fourth day dedicated to a debrief session with a study clinician. During this time, participants obtain a summary of what the team learned about their brain health overall.
Military BRAIN Health
Many service members have repetitive mild traumatic brain injuries over the course of their military careers. Many more are exposed to repetitive head impacts when using weapons systems such as shoulder-fire rockets, large caliber guns, and controlled blast explosions. Researchers have reported that these injuries and exposures may be linked to long term behavioral, cognitive, and neuromotor, and psychological health consequences for service members. However, to date, there is no evidence-based and practical approach to identify service members at risk from these exposures. We also don't know how many repetitive mild TBIs or exposures to repetitive head impacts is too many for service members and their families.
Our Military BRAIN Health study involves four projects focused on the role of repetitive mild TBIs and occupation-related repetitive head impacts from chronic and acute exposure to weapons systems on clinical and blood-based biomarker BRAIN health outcomes, including mild cognitive impairment. The findings from the four projects will be translated to help identify at-risk service members for earlier treatments to reduce the effects of negative brain health outcomes associated with repetitive mild TBIs and head impacts, which will include long-term cognitive and behavioral problems. This research could help reduce the adverse impacts of repetitive mild TBIs and head impacts on military service members and their families and improve short-term and long-term warfighter brain health.
The study plans to enroll a total of 550 service members from three military sites: 1) Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, WA, 2) Ft. Hood in Killeen, TX, and 3) Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA. Additionally, 150 civilian participants will be enrolled from the University of Pittsburgh.
Project 1: Effects of Repetitive Mild TBI (rmTBI) on BRAIN Health (Ft. Hood & University of Pittsburgh sites)
Project 2: The Effects of Occupation-related Chronic Repetitive Head Impacts (RHI) from Exposure to Tier 1 Weapons Systems on BRAIN Health (JBLM site)
Project 3: The Interaction of Chronic and Acute Exposure to Repetitive Head Impacts (RHI) from Tier 1 Weapons Systems on BRAIN Health (Ft. Benning site)
Project 4: Prognostic Screening for Poor BRAIN Health Outcomes following Repetitive Mild TBI (rmTBI) and Repetitive Head Impacts (Ft. Hood and JBLM sites)