Mind Over Matter: A Veteran-driven Roadmap to Research on Traumatic Brain Injury

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an invisible wound of war and a signature injury of military troops. About 30 percent of those who served in recent conflicts have suffered a TBI. This can often lead to intellectual disabilities (ID), sometimes called cognitive disabilities, that can profoundly affect veterans’ health and healthcare decisions, thus contributing to unmet healthcare needs. TBI research efforts are often hampered by a dearth of veterans functioning as partners in the research process. This creates an urgent need to bolster patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) and comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) in order to identify treatment options for TBI that are effective, acceptable, and meaningful to the veteran population.

 

Proposed Solution to the Problem: The impact of a TBI on a person and their family can be devastating. Sound treatment options and healthcare decision making requires veterans with TBI and their caregivers to have accurate, up-to-date, understandable information and the decision-making capacity to process that information. Mind Over Matter (MOM) creates a platform that gives veterans with a TBI and their caregivers an active voice in developing a clear pathway for increasing relevance of TBI PCOR/CER and outcomes that are important to them so they can live their healthiest lives.

 

 

 

Patient and Stakeholder Engagement Plan: MOM members include veterans, caregivers, researchers, clinicians, TBI community advocacy organizations, and other key stakeholders who have a connection to, expertise in, or lived experience related to TBI.

 

MOM members are engaged in all aspects of the project via virtual or in-person* meetings.

 

Project Collaborators: MOM team members are affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin; Augusta University; Ohio State University; and the University of South Florida. In addition to veteran TBI consultants (patient partners), clinicians, and researchers, TBI advocacy organizations include the Brain Injury Association of America and Concussion Alliance, in conjunction with the project lead’s health research initiative for veterans, Canines Providing Assistance to Wounded Warriors (C-P.A.W.W.): www.nursing.fau.edu/c-paww. The team’s collaborators create a strong infrastructure, ensuring the connection to PCOR and CER, and builds capacity to join forces with like-minded TBI stakeholders across the country.

 

*Contingent upon state/federal COVID-19 safety guidelines