In furthering the study of the condition with hope for better prevention and treatment, the military will ask for persmission from families of deceased service members to retain specimens. They hope to collect several hundred samples for study by researchers.
“We have been at war for more than a decade and our men and women have sacrificed,” Dr. Jonathan Woodson, assistant secretary of defense, told reporters. “The military health care system is bringing all the resources it can to better understand how to prevent, diagnose and treat traumatic brain injuries and to ensure that service members have productive and long, quality lives.”
Funded by a federal grant to advance the science of TBI medicine for military patients, the Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine Brain Tissue for Traumatic Brain Injury has been established at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., near the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
“Our research efforts and treatment protocols are all geared toward improving care for these victims,” Woodson said. “And that will have benefits to the American public at large.”
