Research
Brain Injury Research Center
David Hovda, a professor of neurosurgery and director of the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center, was selected by the U.S. Army as the recipient of the 2011 Strength of the Nation Award, presented to an individual who engages in exemplary public service that makes a substantial contribution to the Army's mission. Hovda was cited for his breakthrough research that led to a system for the diagnosis of and recovery from traumatic brain injury on the battlefield as well as the establishing of the National Intrepid Center for Excellence, a national institute dedicated to advancing our nation’s understanding about the invisible wounds from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His visionary efforts have helped hundreds of military men and women at war receive state-of-the-art treatment for mild traumatic brain injury caused mainly by improvised explosive devices. If not treated, these injuries can lead to brain damage and mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
Ronald A. Katz Center for Collaborative Military Medicine
Ronald A. Katz Center for Collaborative Military Medicine at UCLA works with the U.S. military to address the unique challenges of healing and caring for the nation's most critically wounded warriors. By serving as a nexus for UCLA's many research projects and services designed to help America's servicemen and servicewomen, the center will help foster collaborations and partnerships both within the university and between UCLA and the military to increase our nation's ability to care for wounded veterans.
UCLA’s Nathanson Family Resilience Center
The Nathanson Family Resilience Center conducts research and provides an array of programs in resiliency training to military families and veterans facing the challenges of deployment and reintegration. Project FOCUS, offered at military bases across the United States and to families of patients receiving treatment through Operation Mend at UCLA, helps to improve the lives of families facing the loss of a parent or parental depression, medical illness, and wartime exposure. The NFRC team has partnered with Volunteers of America and US Vets to deliver FOCUS prevention services for female veterans and their children in transitional housing facilities in the Long Beach and San Pedro areas. The Nathanson Center also helps families strengthen and renew family relationships in a U.S. National Park setting through the National Military Family Association's Operation Purple Camps. The Welcome Back Veterans Family Resilience Center integrates research, practice and technology to provide a continuum of family and community interventions — including web-based tools, education and training materials — that can be implemented in a variety of contexts.
Please visit the Nathanson Family Resilience Center website for additional information about their services.
For Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology (CASIT)
At UCLA's CASIT, doctors and researchers are pioneering a new world of robotic and sensing technologies that will dramatically improve medical care for both military members and civilians. Among the center's innovations is a revolutionary prosthetic-leg "touch feedback" system in which sensors placed in the prosthetic transmit real-time messages to the body and brain about balance and gait, allowing veterans and others to adapt far more quickly, efficiently and safely to their new limbs.