BETHESDA, Md.  –   Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) continually evaluates emerging medical technologies to enhance diagnostics and care for Military Health System (MHS) beneficiaries. Focused on this initiative, healthcare providers at the hospital recently concluded a successful three-month trial in July of a mobile electroencephalogram (EEG) system for enhanced brain care.

The mobile EEG system is a lightweight, wearable, wireless device that when placed on a patient’s head, tracks and records brain electrical activity. Electrodes on the device provide readings of brain activity for neurologists to diagnose conditions like epilepsy, sleep disorders, and brain tumors. It can also monitor coma depth and brain function of intensive care patients.

“EEG is a critical capability in the treatment of trauma and traumatic brain injury (TBI), and for the management of patients in the emergency and critical care settings who are unconscious,” stated U.S. Army Maj. (Dr.) Zachary Davey, a neurologist and director of epilepsy at WRNMMC. He added the recent trial of the mobile EEG at Walter Reed met with a “resounding response.”

Davey explained that one in ten patients with TBI and unconscious will experience seizures that can only be detected with brain waves electrical recordings. The mobile EEG system tested at Walter Reed is able to provide rapid diagnoses and help providers treat disorders of altered consciousness without explained causes, seizures, and status epilepticus.

He added that the mobile EEG system can also enhance military readiness, allowing healthcare teams greater opportunities for managing more higher acuity patients in the MHS without having to transfer them out of the system for diagnosis and care.

In addition, the system allows remote monitoring so that neurologists such as Davey can view a patient's brain activity and not be at the same location as the patient. This is especially beneficial for when troops are injured on the battlefield, and the device can transmit neurological data directly to rear-based neurologists and medical teams so they can rapidly triage TBI. The device can also monitor stress, assess sleep deprivation, and predict neurological events without having to evacuate troops from the field, or determining if evacuation is necessary.

“Unlike conventional EEG, which requires a trained EEG technologist to affix electrodes on the scalp with specialized equipment, [this mobile system] is rapid, using a soft headband with built-in electrodes that can be quickly placed on the patient's head to record EEGs on a patient that there is concern for seizures within minutes,” Davey explained. Traditional EEGs, such as those used at WRNMMC and other military medical treatment facilities, use wired, stationary lab setups that require a patient to stay still for a period of time to accurately read brain activity. With the wireless mobile EEG system, patients can move around while data is still accurately recorded and more rapidly.

The wireless mobile EEG uploads data to a HIPAA [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act] compliant cloud that can then be interpreted by neurologists remotely who can then communicate back the findings and provide guidance to the local healthcare team should the patient not be at the same location as the neurology team, Davey explained.

“This [mobile] device answers a critical capability whereby EEG is not rapidly available. The implication, if employed, would be a reduced time to EEG data, and time to recognize and treat critical EEG patterns requiring intervention,” Davey concluded.