Research Coordination Branch

Overview

The Research Coordination Branch's mission is to lead an advanced, collaborative effort to better unify the individual mission objectives of research organizations, academia, and industry by focusing on relevant knowledge gaps between auditory-vestibular health and injury, knowledge, and need. In accordance with its mission, the directorate:

• Facilitates collaboration within the Hearing Center of Excellence, or HCE, and provides outreach and synchronization efforts to unify academia and industry around research initiatives and the achievement of common clinical research objectives
• Ensures information gathered from active duty service members and disabled or injured Veterans with service-related tinnitus and hearing and auditory issues is available to appropriate Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs personnel to support gap analysis and research development
• Utilizes data within the developing HCE registry to identify patterns of injury and make epidemiologic associations within the hearing and balance sciences, and across the spectrum of disability for the multi-injured patient, and
• Uses gap analysis outcomes to explore and expand preventive measures, diagnostic efforts, therapeutic modalities, and rehabilitative programs, as well as identify devices to treat and prevent hearing loss and auditory-vestibular injuries

Goals and Objectives

• Charter an interagency auditory research working group
• Host and participate in collaborative research conferences
• Set up procedures and obtain formal approvals for the HCE Centralized Institutional Review Board
• Participate in multi-site North Atlantic Treaty Organization investigations
• Develop a directory and dialogue across the HCE labs and clinics, and between departments, agencies, and other research organizations, that is transparent, efficient, and prioritized based on gap analysis
• Collate and publicize subject matter experts’ research activities
• Provide an interactive forum that will consolidate research information, resources, and tools on a common platform to encourage and facilitate the conduct of evidence-based practice research, and promote the adoption of emerging technologies and practices
• Provide regional research coordination to leverage interests and direct resources between investigators, clinicians, study populations, academic partners, and sponsors, and
• Ensure that the scope and magnitude of military-related auditory injury and hearing loss is accounted for by research sponsors, and develop dialogue between services and sponsoring agencies to enable efficient utilization of resources