Veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are showing higher numbers of experiencing mild traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. Within the past 13 years, nearly 400,000 Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn Veterans were seen for PTSD at VA facilities following their deployments.

To find new and innovative ways to help Veterans dealing with these injuries, the VA Center for Innovation teamed up industry experts from Silicon Valley to host the #VABrainTrust “hackathon” in Austin and San Francisco this past February. The event brought together experts, developers, clinicians, Veterans, caregivers and the public and gave them the opportunity to collaborate with each other.

VA posed three challenges to the hackathon teams: How do we improve access to mental health services for Veterans? How can we improve diagnostics for mild TBI and PTSD? How do we improve the rehabilitation experience?

The path begun at the February hackathon will culminate at the Brain Trust: Pathways to InnoVAtion summit in Washington, D.C., on April 20-21 where the winners will highlight their projects. The summit will bring together leaders in brain research and promote collaboration between private industries, national/professional sports organizations, the federal government, innovators, scientists, athletes, clinicians, caregivers and Veterans.

Teamwork and partnering exercises at the event will aim to identify critical brain health solutions in the areas of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and the reintegration of who those who live with the effects of mTBI and/or PTSD. #VABrainTrust is designed not only to serve Veterans and Servicemembers, but to ultimately serve Americans.

Topics in this story

Leave a comment

The comments section is for opinions and feedback on this particular article; this is not a customer support channel. If you are looking for assistance, please visit Ask VA or call 1-800-698-2411. Please, never put personally identifiable information (SSAN, address, phone number, etc.) or protected health information into the form — it will be deleted for your protection.

2 Comments

  1. CT Brennan April 15, 2016 at 14:06

    I am a Veteran who worked as a PTSD clinician at a NY VA. I recently moved to the Central Coast area of California. The lack of care providers and specialty care is atrocious. My round trip mileage is over 125 miles. If I need specialty care or just ears cleaned I am referred to Los Angeles or Palo Alto 3 and 5 hour drives.

  2. Ken Porter April 15, 2016 at 12:19

    Now if only the person that writes the headlines can learn to spell………

Comments are closed.

More Stories