Active Signal Technologies proposes to further develop and field-test its innovative hand-held Brain Trauma Assessment System (BTAS) with the objective of equipping EMS providers to directly measure brain pathology with sufficient sensitivity to confidently triage patients. With current field protocol, accurate diagnosis of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is difficult. BTAS through decreasing misdiagnosis will reduce unnecessary transports to trauma centers and will allow more timely, critical treatment of legitimate TBI's, hopefully diminishing death and serious injury from this significant came. Phase I demonstrated that, unlike the current Glasgow Coma Scale, a PDA-hosted, non-invasive, passive acoustic monitoring system can accurately distinguish early-stage TBI in patients with impaired consciousness from other non-threatening head insults and from alcohol and drug impairment. Active Signal aims to: 1) improve and simplify BTAS hardware for enabling access to a broader patient cross section, and 2) expand BTAS field evaluation from 15 to 150 patients with impaired consciousness, establishing the effectiveness of this assessment technique over a broad cross section of injury conditions in the very early stages of brain injury. The approach will include wireless sensors, push-button interface, increased monitoring stations, and a widely expanded field monitoring staff.
