Billions of Dollars Later, Military Docs Still Can’t Spot Brain Injuries

[n2doc]

By Katie Drummond June 8, 2010 | 9:45 am | Categories: Military Life



Despite billions in research dollars and a vow to improve their handling of this war’s “signature wound,” the military’s ability to diagnose troops with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) is “about as reliable as a coin flip.”

That’s only one of the disturbing findings of a new investigation by ProPublica and NPR. According to the Pentagon, 11,500 troops are suffering from TBIs. But the investigation, which pored over unpublished military documents, studies, and correspondence between military officials and troops, concluded that the figure is likely higher — by tens of thousands.

The investigation is the latest in a series of reported failings in care for ailing vets, as well as TBI diagnosis and treatment. But it comes three years after the Pentagon vowed to improve the management of brain injuries, and poured $1.7 billion into doing just that.

Since then, at least some of that money has gone into a handful of out-there research efforts, including brain implants and helmet sensors. But outside the science lab, progress has been agonizingly slow: one of the military’s TBI diagnostic tests missed the injuries in 40 percent of troops, according to an unpublished study cited by the report. And much-touted handheld devices, meant to spot TBIs in the war-zone, often fail to transfer the information to a troop’s permanent medical file. Not that paper records fare much better. They’ve often “been lost, burned or abandoned in warehouses.”



Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/06/billions-of-dollars-later-military-docs-still-cant-spot-brain-injuries/

[Barack_America]

1. It's a tough task, but one we've got to get better at.

[burnsei sensei]

2. Let these pretenders toward perfection

be reminded:
Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it is not there.
I'm sure that this would make a dandy excuse for refusing to extend benefits and medical care to a vast number of people.
Flawed perception can be quite the excuse for accusing a person of malingering and showing indifference and cruelty.
I know.
I have experienced such a dynamic first hand.