Marines may carry portable brain scanners - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Marines may carry portable brain scanners

Portable brain scanners could become a part of the standard equipment for deploying Marines.

The Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery is looking for a sturdy and weatherproof device that would help identify and diagnose head injuries and psychological traumas in the field and on ships.

It’s asking private-sector companies to build a prototype of a “neurocognitive assessment tool” that is “durable, portable and feasible for use in multiple environments (desert, mountainous, shipboard) with multiple demands (cold, heat, dust and sandstorm),” according to BuMed’s recent request for proposal.

They’re looking to move quickly — Navy officials hope to help design, test and start fielding the brain scanners between April 2010 and March 2011.

Marines and sailors at risk for concussion could wear the brain scanner and then take a series of timed tests, including word recognition, basic math and some connect-the-dots and cube-drawing exercises to test nonverbal thinking ability.

In addition to physical head injuries, the Navy wants the scanner prototype to be able to screen brainwaves for signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety, according to the Navy’s request.

The ideal brain scanner would have voice-recognition software and could generate its own reports following the tests.