# Harmonizing Veteran Longitudinal Cohorts to Identify Prognostic Factors in Post-Traumatic Brain Health

> **NIH VA I01** · PORTLAND VA MEDICAL CENTER · 2024 · —

## Abstract

The TBI literature provides preliminary evidence supporting associations between TBI exposures and poor health
and functional outcomes, particularly as they occur in the context of the traumatic and stressful circumstances of
military deployment. Ongoing longitudinal cohort studies of service members and Veterans with military combat and
training exposures offer researchers access to extant data addressing factors that modify risks for developing and/
or recovering from a range of brain disorders, including TBI, PTSD, pain, depression, and suicidality. These
longitudinal studies of participants with TBI present an opportunity to accurately categorize this risk by
harmonizing the overlapping elements from two or more VA-funded resources. Pooling individual participant level
data from longitudinal TBI research studies will result in a large enough dataset to consider relevant moderators,
mediators, and confounders in analyses and allow for more impactful and clinically meaningful findings. In order
to address the present knowledge gaps and harmonize largescale, multi-modal data from varied sources, well-
planned and reproducible standardization, curation, and dissemination is needed to allow for meaningful analyses.
Recent advances in FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data methods can guide these efforts and
ensure efficient and accurate results with large and similar enough data. Our multiple-investigator proposal
team has identified two longitudinal cohort studies that can address the above-mentioned Post-traumatic
Brain Health knowledge gaps in the relatively near term. Longer-term prospects from this work include
incorporation of other potential largescale datasets that can be added once the initial harmonization and FAIR
data methods development are established. The Long-term Impact of Military-relevant Brain Injury Consortium's
Prospective Longitudinal Study (PLS) is a 10-year, 17-site cohort of >2,500 service members and veteran
participants with combat-exposure who are well-characterized initially and then have annual reassessments, and
the Translational Research Center for TBI and Stress Disorders is a 14-year, 2-site longitudinal cohort of >925
veterans with combat-exposure who are deeply characterized initially and then undergo comprehensive
reassessment at 2, 5 and 10 years. Our proposed leadership team has experience pooling and harmonizing data
from large studies that measure similar concepts with a variety measurements and disparate variable names.
We have developed a model data harmonization system to combine data from multiple heterogenous
studies and facilitate the analysis of a single pooled dataset. The system combines study files into a single data
model and leverages natural language processing techniques to facilitate data pooling and harmonization using
algorithmic approaches. Notably, this team's preliminary success resulted in being the first and only team to
create and disseminate FITBIR metadata and re...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11012824
- **Project number:** 5I01RX004910-02
- **Recipient organization:** PORTLAND VA MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Maya Elin O'Neil
- **Activity code:** I01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-09-01 → 2026-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11012824

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11012824, Harmonizing Veteran Longitudinal Cohorts to Identify Prognostic Factors in Post-Traumatic Brain Health (5I01RX004910-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11012824. Licensed CC0.

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