Tag Archives: i-STAT

USC Aims to Continuously Track for a TBI

USC engineer Yasser Khan has won a 2026 DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Young Faculty Award to develop a wearable patch for traumatic brain injury. This new patch would detect biomarkers of inflammation and neural damage, along with stress signals, using miniaturized chemical-sensing transistors. Such technology would give doctors a continuous picture that static CT or MRI scans can miss. Financially, this award will result in approximately $700,000 government backing over two years, though the financial assistance could potentially be up to $1.2 million.

While wearable brain injury detectors do exist, it appears that they measure force, not injury: Prevent Biometrics’ smart mouthguards has been mandatory in World Rugby, the international governing body for the rugby union, since 2024. Soldiers’ Blast Gauge sensors log impacts and blast pressure. Abbott’s i-STAT TBI blood test, BrainScope’s EEG and EyeBOX eye-tracking are one-time clinical checks. The continuous tracking of USC’s still to be developed patch is what makes it unique.

USC frames TBI patients as the beneficiaries, through DARPA backing and planned Defense Department approvals suggest military interest.

Diagnose TBI, No Blood Draw Necessary

The military’s effort to create a system to easily and quickly test for a brain injury did not end with the i-STAT blood test, that I first reported in 2017. The DHA (Defense Health Agency), a federal Combat Support Agency, is now promoting a new product with the same goal. However, this new DHA product takes a different route.

Camp Lejeune entrance sign reading Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune

On June 30, Navy Hospital Corpsmen from II Marine Expeditionary Force, located at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, tested diagnoses prototypes under the Traumatic Brain Injury Field Assessment Program: A handheld hemorrhage detector, a non-invasive scanner like low-power radiofrequency waves, was tested, as it measured changes in optical density or electromagnetic fields. Additionally, medics tested a number of digital neurocognitive assessments. This testing software can be stored on a phone or tablet, thereby replacing paper-and-pencil assessments. Importantly, the prototypes tested do not require blood proteins and, therefore, no blood draw is needed for diagnosis.