Comparison set
Thousands of VA subjects across concussion through severe TBI.
Science
The wiring of the eyes is not a metaphor.
Saccades, pursuit, and fixation are generated by circuits that TBI disrupts. Record those movements with enough care, against a large enough comparison set, and the courtroom finally has a number.
Through two decades of in-depth human research — much of it at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, with colleagues at Virginia Commonwealth University — this practice developed a novel, patented method capable of supporting or refuting the presence or history of TBI with very high accuracy.
The underlying RightEye Vision System received FDA Breakthrough Device designation. VCU named Dr. Gitchel Inventor of the Year in 2019. The Federal Laboratory Consortium’s 2022 Impact Award was the first such honor, in more than forty years, given to a VA laboratory.
Peer-reviewed work associated with the program includes research on differential eye movements in mild TBI versus normal controls (Cifu, Wares, Hoke, Wetzel, Gitchel, Carne, Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, 2015).
Output
Quantitative traces a jury can see, not a qualitative impression.
Differential
Methods used across 30+ neurologic conditions, not a one-disease gadget.