MOSCOW, Idaho — Two significant multi-institutional grants from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) will bolster machine learning research at the University of Idaho (U of I) aimed at enhancing the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and fortifying support systems for military families during the deployment cycle. The combined funding for these two projects exceeds $6 million, with U of I receiving $1.33 million to support its research efforts.
Colin Xu, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and Communication within the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences, will spearhead the development of machine learning models intended to improve the early detection of adverse health outcomes affecting military servicemembers and their families. “These projects will examine how machine learning techniques can be applied to psychiatric and public health data in order to strengthen military health,” Xu noted. “Through these machine learning models, we hope to improve early identification and prediction of PTSD risk for servicemembers and enhance prediction and prevention of adverse health outcomes for servicemember families.”
The first award, a $4.2 million collaborative DoD-funded initiative, allocates $974,000 to U of I and will focus on integrating smart wearable devices, biochemical markers, and biophysical signals to advance PTSD screening and diagnosis. This collaborative effort involves co-principal investigators from various institutions, including Manish Bhomia from the Uniformed Services University, Dr. Christina La Croix from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Sameer Sonkusale from Tufts University, Dr. Steven Cohen from Northwestern University, and CJ Brush from Auburn University. Xu’s team will create machine learning models to harness biomarker and biophysical data collected from wearable technologies, enhancing the diagnostic accuracy for PTSD.
“PTSD is a complex multifaceted disorder,” Xu stated. “By applying machine learning models to this multimodal biosensor data, we can better understand the biological signatures of PTSD and help clinicians improve diagnosis and early detection.”
The second grant, totaling $1.9 million, with $361,000 designated for U of I research, will concentrate on understanding how deployment-related stress impacts military families, potentially leading to harmful behaviors. Xu’s team will collaborate with co-principal investigators Elizabeth Hisle-Gorman, Christin Ogle, and Dr. Stephen Cozza from the Uniformed Services University to identify predictors of family violence, substance misuse, suicidality, and injury within military families.
Utilizing machine learning models on extensive longitudinal health care records of military families, this project seeks to pinpoint risk factors associated with harmful behaviors and analyze how these risk factors evolve across the pre-deployment, deployment, and post-deployment phases. Xu’s models will help in identifying subgroups of military families at heightened risk, as well as the timing and interaction of various risk factors, allowing for earlier and more targeted interventions.
“Military families navigate unique stressors throughout the deployment cycle,” Xu emphasized. “Our work aims to give clinicians better insight into who may be at elevated risk, and when, so that support can be provided proactively.”
The PTSD and wearable technologies project is slated to run for four years, while the military family health project is set for three years, beginning in 2025. Xu is currently recruiting three funded graduate students and two postdoctoral researchers for these initiatives. Interested candidates may contact him at [email protected].
These projects are funded through the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for The Advancement of Military Medicine Inc. by the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences under awards FAIN: HU00012520060 and FAIN: HU00012520057, with the total project funding for the former being $974,717 and for the latter, $361,352, both entirely sourced from federal funds.
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