U.S. Army begins cognitive screenings for all trainees

FORT MOORE, Ga. ( WRBL ) — As the nature of war continues to evolve, so does the way U.S. armed forces are tracking servicemembers’ cognitive health.

Fort Moore became one of the first Army installations to open a cognitive testing facility Aug. 26, in what will be a U.S. military-wide roll out. Cognitive testing will now track servicemembers right from the get-go at all initial training sites. The goal is to prevent serious traumatic brain injury (TBI).

“This is really a shift in a change in how we do business within the Department of Defense,” said Col. Jama VanHorne-Sealy, director of occupational health at the U.S. Army Office of the Surgeon General. “We are now looking across the brain health of the soldiers throughout their entire career.”

Starting this week at Fort Moore, all entering trainees will be screened to set cognitive health baselines before moving on to Armor or Infantry One Station Unit Training. The assessments will now join other mandatory health screenings for servicemembers, like eye and dental exams.

Although the U.S. military has used screenings like this for more than a decade to track servicemembers’ cognitive abilities pre- and post-combat, this is the first time cognitive baselines have been set before training begins.

“We’ve really determined that we need to shift and change and look over the expanse of the entire servicemembers’ career,” VanHorne-Sealy said.

Fort Moore, which trains roughly 60,000 soldiers each year, is a priority testing location in part due to the number of blasts soldiers are exposed to during training. The installation is home of the Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence, Armor School and Infantry School.

“The blast overpressure information that’s been coming out, the injuries that had been sustained at war time, the IED [improvised explosive device] blasts, all of these exposures has [given] us data that we didn’t have previously,” said Steven Porter, chief of the neurocognitive assessment branch at the U.S. Office of the Surgeon General.

According to the Department of Defense , more than 318,000 servicemembers have sustained a TBI in training or combat.

Porter said, “Now we’re able to look at that and realize, ‘Let’s take a step back, let’s lean forward and be proactive.’”

The roughly 30-minute screening examines 10 domains of cognitive functioning most sensitive to TBI using modules to track reaction time, memory and more. There are measures in place to make sure soldiers are at peak cognitive performance before setting their baselines, including questionnaires regarding sleep, mood and other factors which could inhibit cognitive ability.

As Porter explained, there’s “no way to fake good.” The military wants servicemembers to be at their peak for setting baselines so that they can accurately track changes over time.

“We’re trying to get in there before there’s any sort of traumatic brain injury concussion. Over 95% of those who sustained a concussive injury, with the right care, with the right treatment will return to cognitive baseline,” Porter said. “The important thing is intervening and allowing that spontaneous recovery to occur, to allow that 100% of functionality.”

Cognitive testing will track individual changes, as well as allow the military to collect data on changes on a larger scale. United States Special Operations Command will use the information to track cognitive change, or its absence, at the group, company and platoon level.

“We’re able to break it down as small as the commands want, and then they could assess whether what they’re being exposed to is having changes that maybe some other groups aren’t,” Porter said.

Importantly, the screenings won’t disqualify any taker from continued service, however scores could indicate that further medical assessment is required.

Those in positions with high risk for brain injury could be tested annually, others about every three years. The Army’s plan is to roll out cognitive testing sites at every installation with initial training sites before the end of the calendar year. Other U.S. military branches will follow suit.

Roughly 1.3 million servicemembers will need to be tested as part of the screening roll out.

“Each and every citizen, as they come in is going to have that baseline,” said Col. Greg McLean, brigade commander of the 194th Armored Brigade, which will oversee testing of trainees at Fort Moore.

With 26 years of service under his belt, McLean called the move “phenomenal” for the Army as warfighting and medical care continue to develop.

“We have a handshake with America that we’re going to take care of their loved ones,” McLean said. “The most important asset that we have is, is our soldiers.”

The roll out of this program began June 27th with a screening center at Fort Sill, Okla. Centers are set to be opened at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. and Fort Jackson, S.C. next.

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