November 2, 2021
The NCAA/DoD Concussion Assessment, Research, and Education (CARE) Consortium has been investigating concussion and head impact exposure (HIE) for 7 years. The objective of the CARE-SALTOS (Service Academy Longitudinal mTBI Outcomes Study) research is to improve health and safety of NCAA student-athletes and military service members. The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine is proud to support this critical research.
In October 2021, the NCAA-DoD CARE Consortium received a $42.65 million award to launch CARE-SALTOS Integrated (CSI), the third phase of the study. As part of this new award, HJF will manage research funds totaling more than $17 million.
HJF will use these funds to:
- Staff and operate 5 research sites across the Military Health System: National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE), Ft. Hood Intrepid Spirit Center (ISC), Ft. Bragg ISC, Joint Base Lewis-McChord ISC, and Eglin Air Force Base Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) School.
- Recruit approximately 3,000 participants in the study over five years for comprehensive in-person assessments, to include multi-modal imaging and fluid biomarkers.
- Establish a database to allow for the merging of CARE/SALTOS/CSI participant data with military electronic health record data.
The CARE Consortium projects have already enrolled more than 55,000 NCAA athletes and military service academy graduates. This next phase will be co-led by Dr. Paul Pasquina of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU). Dr. Pasquina is the chair of USU’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the director of the Center for Rehabilitative Sciences Research, a research center administered by HJF. USU recently published an article about Dr. Pasquina’s work on the study here.
About HJF
The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. (HJF) is a global nonprofit that administers more than $500 million in medical research funds annually. For more than 35 years, HJF has partnered with researchers and clinicians to provide bench to bedside to battlefield research support. More than 3,000 HJF teammates ensure HJF is a trusted and responsive partner by providing scientific, administrative, and program operations services to researchers in the military, academia, and private industry. For more information, visit hjf.org.