Senate directs Defense to track soldiers injured by explosions

The Senate directed the Defense Department on Thursday to track soldiers' injuries caused by bombs such as improvised explosive devices so it can identify those who may develop complications years after the attack, including psychological disorders.

The Army's top doctor, Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, has repeatedly called injuries caused by explosions as the "signature wound" of the war in Iraq since they not only inflict physical damage to limbs but also traumatic brain injury, and can contribute to post-traumatic stress disorder.

In the 2009 war supplemental appropriations bill passed on Thursday, the Senate directed Defense to track the injuries caused by IEDs and other bombs in all combat theaters.

The Army National Guard tracks explosions in its Personnel Blast Contaminant Tracking System, which also includes information on exposure to chemical or radiological weapons and provides historical data for treatment of traumatic brain injury.

Until the Guard developed the system, there was no way to link data on soldiers to explosions, said Army Lt. Col. Maureen Weigi, project officer for the system. The network matches a soldier's name to the blast they were exposed to, so "if five years down the road they develop symptoms such as headaches, ringing in the ears or vertigo," doctors can check the system to see if their patient was injured by a blast and make the correlation, she said.

The blast tracker was developed to provide data to a medical database system that all the services and the Veterans Affairs Department can access, Weigi said. "We made it for Army, Navy, Air Force, the Marines -- for all service members who are exposed to incidents and events," she said.

The tracker could help VA develop a system that shares information with the Military Health System to treat traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki told a hearing of the House Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on May 13 that the department needed a seamless interchange of medical data with Defense to treat PTSD.

The Senate also directed the Military Health System to develop a Web-based version of the Army's Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics, a computerized test that assesses cognitive performance in troops who may have mild cases of traumatic brain injury and are scheduled for redeployment to combat zones.

Defense currently conducts the test on laptop computers or handheld devices, "which are not easily accessible and cost prohibitive," the Senate said. The chamber directed the assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairs to deliver by the end of August its plans to develop and deploy a Web-based cognitive assessment tool.