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Demographics and Clinical Characteristics of Service Members Treated Across the Defense Intrepid Network for
Chandler Sours Rhodes1,2,3, Frew Berhe4, Timothy Wu1
1National Intrepid Center of Excellence, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD 20889, United States.
Introduction:
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has emerged as a signature injury of recent military conflicts. Large systems of care within the Department of Defense and Veterans Health Administration have been developed to address the complex assessment and treatment needs for service members and veterans who require interdisciplinary rehabilitation following TBI. To continue to address these healthcare needs, the Defense Intrepid Network for TBI and Brain Health (DIN) has initiated formalization as a program of record for TBI care across the Military Healthcare System (MHS). As the DIN formalizes, there is a need to systematically describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of service members treated at locations across the network to inform clinical and educational programming related to TBI care across the MHS and to guide targeted, patient-centered research initiatives.
Materials And Methods:
The analysis leveraged existing de-identified clinical data collected within the MHS between January 2023 and February 2024 to identify network-wide characteristics and explore site-specific differences.
Results:
Across all sites, 17,063 unique patients were identified with patients per site ranging from 469 to 2,933. Total clinical encounters per patient ranged from 1 to 276. Total clinical encounters per patient differed significantly across sites (P < .001) with median patient encounters per site ranging from 2 to 14. Demographics variables including age, sex, and marital status significantly differed across sites (P values <.001). In addition, services-related variables including branch of service, rank, and beneficiary category significantly differed across sites (P values <.001).
Conclusions:
Overall, results demonstrate significant differences across DIN sites in demographics, service-related variables, and number of clinical encounters per patient. The results highlight the benefits of including a characterization of patient populations in future network decisions regarding clinical care, educational programming, and targeted research initiatives related to TBI care across the DIN and the greater MHS. Future work should expand this type of analysis to investigate similarities and differences in service member characteristics for interdisciplinary TBI treatment programs in the DoD, VA, and non-profit sectors to inform future organizational collaborations.
