MIT Lean Advancement Initiative awarded $8 million for post-traumatic stress innovations project

The MIT Lean Advancement Initiative (LAI), in collaboration with MIT Collaborative Initiatives (CI), is partnering with the U.S. Military Health System (MHS) to develop innovative recommendations for transforming the military psychological health care system related to post-traumatic stress in support of service members and their families.

The MHS is a global medical network within the Department of Defense that works to ensure the highest standard of health care for all U.S. military personnel and their families through innovative research, training and service provision.

The Post-Traumatic Stress Innovations (PTSI): U.S. Military Enterprise Analysis project is analyzing the national military psychological health system's current state using both quantitative and qualitative information and methods and mapping enterprise-level policies, decisions and their interactions. The three-year project, which includes extensive fieldwork, will make recommendations for architecting a more effective and efficient future military psychological health care system.

“LAI is housed with the MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center (SSCR), which is focused on the high-impact, complex, sociotechnical systems that shape our world, and the center has some unique capabilities for working with complex systems of national and international significance,” says SSRC Director and PTSI project lead Deborah Nightingale, a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Aeronautics and Astroautics and the Engineering Systems Division. “We are excited to be engaged in finding new areas of opportunity to strengthen the MHS psychological health enterprise.”

The current $8 million, three-year grant cooperative agreement is jointly sponsored by MHS and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, and extends across the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines.

“We are honored to partner with MHS and the U.S. Armed Services to help address such a critical national issue,” says CI Director Dr. Tenley Albright. “We look forward to making an important contribution.”