Despite the high prevalence of traumatic brain injuries (TBI), there are few rapid and straightforward tests to improve its assessment. To this end, we developed a tablet-based software battery ("BrainCheck") for concussion detection that is well suited to sports, emergency department, and clinical settings. This article is a study of the diagnostic accuracy of BrainCheck. We administered BrainCheck to 30 TBI patients and 30 pain-matched controls at a hospital Emergency Department (ED), and 538 healthy individuals at 10 control test sites. We compared the results of the tablet-based assessment against physician diagnoses derived from brain scans, clinical examination, and the SCAT3 test, a traditional measure of TBI. We found consistent distributions of normative data and high test-retest reliability. Based on these assessments, we defined a composite score that distinguishes TBI from non-TBI individuals with high sensitivity (83%) and specificity (87%). We conclude that our testing application provides a rapid, portable testing method for TBI.

Objectives: This study evaluated the effectiveness of an outreach program which included safety training and the distribution of personal protection kits in the Houston area in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Methods: Outreach : 71 volunteers conducted training sessions at 19 different sites and distributed a total of 1187 kits. Follow-up study : We conducted telephonic interviews to collect data on respiratory symptoms and obtain perceptions of the quality of the safety training provided among 83 participants. Results: Participants reported an increase in airway symptoms four weeks after Hurricane Harvey. Outreach efforts were felt to be effective by a majority of participants. Conclusion: Future studies may adopt some of the best practices from our training efforts in terms of utilizing a combination of verbal demonstrations and written training guidelines on proper respirator usage.