Potential paradigm for assessments of biomedical technologies in the operational environment

The U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command Cognitive Performance, Judgment, Decision-making Research Program (CPJDRP) was initiated in part to prevent/mitigate performance shortfalls associated with cognitive-psychological combat stressors such as workload, fatigue, sleep, and nutritional aspects. An Operational Processes and Cognitive Mapping Focus Team (OPCMFT) was established for the purposes of integrating laboratory-based research into operational environments, embedding metrics into appropriate operational platforms, and providing an operational perspective to research that may veer off pragmatic and utilitarian courses. The OPCMFT's goal as originally formulated in 2004 was to determine operational requirements and test environments for evaluating cognitive performance metrics and models, pharmacological countermeasures, and neurocognitive monitors for the purpose of sustaining warfighter cognitive performance in operational environments (2). This preface first reviews the OPCMFT's major deliverables as developed from the CPJDRP workshop in 2005 (6). Next, a gap/needs analysis of cognitive research products and test and evaluation platforms is presented. Lastly, a summary of each of the three articles-one on the role and mitigation of stress, a second on the development of intellectual ability norms and statistical methods to interpolate an individual's post-morbid capabilities, and a third on a specific measure to assess physiological reactions to cognitive stressors--illustrates how each contributes to the effort to help improve warfighter cognitive performance. The preface authors emphasize the need for an integrated research program focused on the Battle Laboratory (1) with a solid infrastructure and an integration of the operational end-user, human factors, medical practitioners, and research and development expertise.