Development of Virtual Reality Tools for Assessment of Return-to-Duty Status following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI)

Existing Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) clinical assessment techniques typically fail to assess the ability to execute functional tasks incorporating whole-body movements. Therefore, there is a significant need for a low-cost Virtual Reality (VR) based assessment tool incorporating military relevant cognitive and whole body movement testing parameters to accurately assess a service member’s ability to return to duty in the presence of a mTBI. To that end, JHT, Inc. has initiated the development of a VR game-based patient assessment system. In the Phase I Program proposed here JHT’s will demonstrate the feasibility, defined as low-cost, portable and rapid implementation, of the proposed system and processes. The goal of this Phase I research is to development a functionally relevant whole body movement VR tool which will evaluate physical and cognitive tasks in a high fidelity environment. The proposed effort incorporates real-world, military relevant activities combining physical and cognitive demands in a game based environment. A number of performance metrics presented as cognitive and physically demanding tasks will be evaluated in a virtual environment to ascertain the optimal sequencing, formatting and presentation needed to effectively assess the level of mTBI in a patient.