WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sept. 11, 2014) -- The Army is
researching physiological sensors that may help Soldiers achieve
superior performance on battlefields of the future, said the commanding
general of Fort Detrick, Maryland.
Lt. Gen. Joseph Caravalho Jr., commander of the U.S. Army Medical
Research and Materiel Command and Fort Detrick, led a panel discussion
at the Association of the United States Army's Medical Hot Topics Forum,
Sept. 10. The panel was titled "The Future of Human Performance."
The Soldiers of 2025 might have sensors that help them detect and
prevent threats such as dehydration, elevated blood pressure and
cognitive delays from lack of sleep, he said. Sensors might also detect
external threats such as chemical exposure or extreme environment.
The Army is currently working on a number of technologies aimed at
optimizing human performance, Caravalho said, with an eye toward
providing both physical and cognitive overmatch of any potential enemy.
Soldiers of the future need to perform like elite athletes, Caravalho said.
Physical and cognitive overmatch become more important as the Army
focuses on the squad as a decisive force, said Col. Deydre S. Teyhen,
director of the System for Health and Performance Triad. She served as
the panel moderator and said the members would discuss how Soldiers
might achieve unprecedented levels of psycho-physical overmatch.
Panel member Dr. Elizabeth Stanley, founder and president of the Mind
Fitness Training Institute and an associate professor at Georgetown
University, has taught thousands of Soldiers in high-stress environments
to build resilience and optimize performance, Teyhen said.
In 2010, Stanley's research project with Soldiers of the 25th Infantry
Division explored which components of Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness
Training, or MMFT, were most effective in building resilience. The
study included 240 Soldiers deploying to Afghanistan. Five different
groups received variations of resilience training and the sixth control
group received no training. The study analyzed the effects of resilience
training on cognitive tasks before and after deployment.
The Soldier's "mind-body system" is the most important piece of
technology on the battlefield, Stanley said. She said in the same way
athletes practice to achieve muscle memory, certain practices can help
"rewire the brain."
In today's uncertain environment, building adaptive capacity in Soldiers is the best investment the Army can make, Stanley said.
Speaking next was Dr. Jefferey S. Palmer, a bio-mechanical engineer with
MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He said the human body is the "most complex
control system in the world."
Monitoring biomolecular data and psychological stressors can help
optimize performance, Palmer said. Special Forces Soldiers especially
find tactical value in this, he said.
Muskuloskeletal injuries have an extraordinary cost, said Dr. Phil
Plisky, assistant professor and sports residency program director at the
University of Evansville and ProRehab, PC. Despite the "astronomical"
costs of injuries, prevention programs are "tremendously
under-resourced," he said.
Some muskuloskeletal injuries can be prevented by monitoring stress and
risk factors, Plisky said. Sensors that monitor heart rate, blood
pressure and other biophysical functions can help predict when there's a
high likelihood for injury, he said. He has an algorithm that measures
risk factors for injuries.
When physical risk factors combine with negative psychological factors,
that could be catastrophic, Plisky said, and that's when injuries are
most likely to occur.
The Army is teaming with Baylor University to screen injury-risk
factors, Teyhen said. The MP3 study or Military Power, Performance and
Prevention trial plans to screen 1,750 Soldiers using new hand-held
technology. Once assessed, each Soldier's data is transmitted to a
computer that uses an algorithm to determine their risk factor for
musculoskeletal injury.
If a Soldier is found to be at high risk of injury, then corrective steps will be prescribed by an Army physical therapist.
With the Army getting smaller, it's more critical than ever that Soldiers be injury-free and fit for deployment, Caravalho said.
http://www.army.mil/article/133577/Body_sensors_to_help_Soldiers_in_future___/
By Gary Sheftick
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