The Department of Defense’s mission requires warfighters to make quick decisions. That’s why protecting warfighter brain health helps promote an effective fighting force.

The military’s warfighter brain health initiative works to understand and protect service member health. Checking brain health helps find injuries, and it’s important to prevent injuries before they happen. Quickly figuring out injuries and giving fast treatment helps DOD keep warfighters performing at their best.

Some areas of focus include, as follows:

• Optimize cognitive and physical performance
• Identify and monitor cognitive performance
• Prevent, recognize, and minimize the effects of traumatic brain injury
• Detect TBI immediately when it occurs to reduce its effects on warfighters
• Identify known and emerging brain threats, such as blast overpressure exposures and anomalous health incidents in military environments
• Take actions to reduce brain threat exposures
• Reduce or eliminate long-term or late effects of brain injury
• Advance warfighter brain health science