DoD Seeks Public Input on PTSD and TBI Care

Have you ever had an idea for a way to improve the healthcare of veterans or servicemembers? Well, if you have, the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) wants to hear from you!

DCoE launched the Mental Health and TBI Care Challenge on May 4, 2015. It is a crowdsourcing effort to find and fill gaps in care for service members and civilians struggling with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Crowdsourcing?

A crowdsourcing effort seeks ideas from a large group of people, or "crowd" to come up with original solutions to a given problem.

This crowdsourcing event is designed to identify gaps in care of patients with PTSD and TBI and the related solution to address this gap. While DCoE has vast experience and expertise in executing its mission it also recognizes that great ideas can come from the outside. DCoE hopes through this challenge to identify gaps and solicit new ideas and solutions by engaging many different and diverse communities to generate, refine, select and implement ideas related to PTSD and TBI.

You can register your ideas on the challenge site through June 5. Ideas may address prevention of TBI, a product or service that helps caregivers, a way to help fulfill productive work roles, or anything related to improving the care of people living with PTSD or TBI. You may also vote or comment on other ideas by visiting the website. While there is no monetary prize, your ideas may be used to provide care and treatment to those with PTSD or TBI or lead to improvements in diagnosis and prevention.

PTSD and TBI

For more information on PTSD and TBI see our PTSD Overview page or our TBI Overview page.

The Fine Print

• Who is sponsoring this challenge? The sponsor is the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE). DCoE is a part of the Department of Defense and has a mission to improve the lives of our nation's service members, veterans and their families by advancing excellence in psychological health and traumatic brain injury prevention and care.
• How do I participate in the Mental Health and TBI Care Challenge? The challenge began on May 4 and closes on 11:59 PM EDT June 5, 2015. You can visit the DCoE Competition page to submit your idea, comment on the ideas of others, and vote for your favorites. Note, you do not have to submit an idea in order to leave comments or vote for ideas.  Registration is free and your information will not be shared.   
• What are the criteria for the winning ideas? Top submissions will include recommendations for specific areas where DCoE can focus its resources along with actionable solutions that would help people coping with PTSD and/or TBI.
• Who is eligible to participate in the challenge? Everyone is eligible to participate, including members of the U.S. Armed Forces, DoD employees, and anyone else with a great idea or comment to share.
• Can one person submit more than one idea? Yes, individuals can submit more than one idea.
• What information is public and what is private? Any information you post as a solution or as a comment is viewable by the public. This excludes any information provided in your registration form. Personal information is viewable only by the site administrators.
• Who will own ideas submitted on the platform? Each individual or entity retains title and full ownership in and to their submission and each participant expressly reserves all intellectual property rights (e.g., copyright) in their submission. However, each participant grants to DCoE, and others acting on behalf of DCoE, a royalty-free non-exclusive worldwide license to use, copy for use, and display publicly all parts of the submission for the purposes of the challenge. This license may include posting or linking to the submission on the official DCoE website and making it available for use by the public.
• How will ideas be used by DCoE? DCoE will use the information provided by participants to inform and guide future research and the development of new products and services related to PTSD and TBI.
• What happens to my idea if it is selected as a winner? All entries will be evaluated using the criteria that will be available upon challenge launch. All winners will be notified once selected.
• When will we know which idea(s) are the winners? Once winners are notified, DCoE will announce the winning solutions to all registered solvers.