US Department of Defense
BLAST INJURY RESEARCH
COORDINATING OFFICE
Advancing Blast Injury Research to Protect and Heal Those Who Serve

International State-of-the-Science Meeting on Blast Injury Dosimetry

Understanding the health risks associated with specific types and levels of blast exposure enables DoD scientists and engineers to develop and/or improve existing protective equipment, medical evacuation and return to duty guidelines, weapon system safety thresholds, and other tools and guidelines for the prevention, assessment, and treatment of blast injuries. The Department of Defense (DoD) Blast Injury Research Program Coordinating Office (PCO) hosted the International State-of-the-Science (SoS) Meeting on Blast Injury Dosimetry on June 8-10, 2010, in Chantilly, Virginia. This meeting explored ways to objectively record and document blast-related exposures and to correlate these exposures with acute injuries or chronic health effects. Knowledge gaps and recommendations were reported at the conclusion of the meeting.

Purpose and Meeting Objectives

  • Identify and prioritize the blast injuries of concern that should be the focus of the DoD’s blast dosimeter development efforts
  • Determine if there are blast dosimeters that can be fielded now or within the next two years
  • Identify and prioritize the research gaps that exist in the development of blast dosimeters in the areas of both blast-related human effects modeling and sensor development

Questions for Discussion

The meeting participants were charged with answering the following questions during the working group sessions:

  • What blast injuries are we interested in addressing with dosimeters?
  • What exposure data are needed to predict the likelihood of the injuries of concern?
  • What sensor technologies are available to address the required data elements?
  • What biomedical research has been done, or is required, to develop human effects models that correlate the blast-related exposures (sensor data) with resulting injuries?
Last modified: 01-Dec-2020