SPARTA SOFTWARE CORP — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: AF221-DCSO1

Description

Sparta Science proposes development of an objective and easy to use Rapid TBI Assessment Tool (RTAT) using dynamic machine learning algorithms trained and maintained with data from commercially available force plate equipment. This direct to Phase II project expands the capabilities provided by the current FDA-cleared Force Plate Machine Learning™ (FPML) and the Sparta Movement Health Platform (SMHP)—the industry’s only machine learning (ML)-based force plate software and mobile app that rapidly perform practical human movement assessments (4 assessments, 90 seconds each). SMHP and FPML are currently used to assess musculoskeletal performance and injury risk. The objectives of this project are to 1) Develop a Special Operations Forces-specific TBI assessment capability capitalizing on an existing, scientifically validated neuromuscular measuring system; 2) Develop an improved understanding of TBI injuries using this novel data source; and 3) Transition a tool that brings TBI assessment to echelons of care where it did not previously exist. Baseline and periodic balance signatures will be collected for each Airman participating in the project, generating force plate movement signatures that, through ML-based metrics, will provide valuable information about various movement phenotypes within this population. These ML-based metrics will be continually re-trained and refined to produce enhanced decision support metrics specific to TBI events. Upon occurrence of suspected TBI, individual post-injury balance scans, as post-injury scans compared to pre-deployment scans, will help establish thresholds to support return-to-duty (RTD) and aeromedical evacuation decisions for injured personnel. Through the RDT&E completed under this proposed Phase II effort, Sparta Science will advance its COTS SMHP by creating a novel AI/ML-based Rapid TBI Assessment Tool (RTAT) software specific to the AFSOC requirements. This will allow healthcare providers to incorporate objective, evidence-based practices into the RTD and aeromedical decision processes to ensure that personnel are neither being released too soon and risking re-injury, nor too late and losing operational capacity. Peer-reviewed research shows Sparta Science’s solution reduces the number of musculoskeletal injury-related surgeries by 29% and reduces medical office visits by 23% while reducing the number of lost duty days by over 50%. By advancing this Direct to Phase II project, similar quantitative outcome measures for TBI events will be captured and analyzed based on the proposed development of the RTAT algorithms.