News Release

For Immediate Release -- December 13, 2017

USAARL publishes medical toolkit

One of the most challenging decisions facing military health care providers is if and when a previously wounded warfighter is fit to return-to-duty (RTD).

The U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory recently published a return-to-duty medical guide for health care providers titled, "Return-to-Duty Toolkit: Assessments and Tasks for Determining Military Functional Performance Following Neurosensory Injury."

The purpose of this Toolkit is to be a reference guide and resource containing currently available assessments for use by healthcare providers who must make RTD decisions. Depending on the symptoms experienced by the patient, the Toolkit intends to provide a tailorable selection of assessments from which to measure progress toward and make final RTD determinations.

While many of the assessments are well known and well validated, others contained in the Toolkit are at various states of trial and validation.

The guide can be used to customize performance assessments to specific military occupational requirements and/or to the warfighter's specific potential impairment–within the clinician's scope of practice.

The Toolkit contains the efforts of many dedicated experts including medical researchers, occupational and physical therapists, and healthcare providers who shared the goal of providing evidence-based tools for military RTD assessments.

The Toolkit is available for download at http://www.usaarl.army.mil/TechReports/2017-19.pdf.

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