Texas A&M to debut PTSD management system
Researchers will introduce a breakthrough wearable device for PTSD management at the 2025 Project Hero Texas Challenge.
image: A cyclist prepares for a ride as ISEN Professor Dr. Sasangohar checks his equipment during a cycling event, ensuring data is being collected for PTSD research being conducted at Texas A&M. | Image: Courtesy of Project HERO.
Credit: Courtesy of Project HERO
To help veterans and first responders with post-traumatic stress disorder improve their mental health and live normal lives, the Texas A&M University College of Engineering will debut a breakthrough technology called the First Watch Device (FWD), a novel wearable PTSD management system, at Project Hero’s 2025 Texas Challenge, a multi-day therapy bicycle ride for veterans and first responders from San Antonio to the Arlington/Fort Worth area from May 4–10.
Founded in 2008, Project Hero is a national non-profit organization dedicated to helping veterans and first responders affected by PTSD, TBI and injury achieve hope, recovery and resilience in their daily lives. Project Hero has helped tens of thousands of Healing Heroes at no cost to participants through cycling events, building and providing adaptive bikes, community-based programs throughout the U.S. and supporting research.
PTSD Monitoring That Learns And Responds
The innovative FWD system developed by faculty at Texas A&M works with Apple smartwatches. FWD learns and responds to the wearer’s PTSD-specific physical cues to manage and reduce PTSD episodes, capture valuable therapeutic data and provide real-time user support.
“The FWD is an innovative PTSD monitoring and self-management tool that uses our proprietary technology. The tool works with readily available smartwatch devices to monitor, manage and reduce the intensity and frequency of PTSD episodes and help the wearer improve their overall mental health,” said Dr. Farzan Sasangohar, associate professor in the Wm Michael Barnes ’64 Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and creator of the FWD system and program.
Sasangohar also directs the Applied Cognitive Ergonomics Lab (ACE-Lab), a multi-disciplinary research laboratory focused on human-centered design, development and testing of complex human-systems.
FWD tracks and analyses numerous metrics such as unique changes in heart rate patterns and activity relevant to stress that is not associated with athletics or normal activities. It boasts robust data capture and analysis resources accessible to users and their healthcare providers. FWD also interacts with the wearer to provide real-time contact support and assistance.
Partnering With Heroes
Thirty-six participants from the Project Hero community will take part in an upcoming study that seeks to understand the unique benefit of the FWD digital health self-management tools for veterans with PTSD; 24 participants will take part in the 2025 Texas Challenge, with 12 of the 24 riders receiving the full suite of FWD features (including monitoring of PTSD and the integrated supportive self-management tools). Twelve riders will receive only the monitoring features of FWD, and the remaining 12 participants will be recruited from the broader Project Hero community not taking part in the 2025 Texas Challenge to serve as a control group to help Texas A&M researchers determine the interactive effects of the FWD device and healthy physical exercise.
Participants will wear the devices before, during and after the Texas Challenge for a total of four months, providing a significant body of robust, clinically reliable data for understanding the long-term benefits of FWD and continued development of the FWD system.
“We are committed to improving veterans’ quality of life nationwide, and FWD will play an important part in helping achieve that goal and in supporting positive mental health for all members of the military going forward,” said Sasangohar. “FWD is an easy-to-use, novel means of delivering evidence-based therapeutic resources to the user.”
Sasangohar began developing the technology used in the FWD in 2016 and began working with Project Hero developing opportunities to test the system with Project Hero participants and at the organization’s events.
Using data gathered from Project Hero participants through the end of the year, the FWD program’s goal is to partner with all branches of the armed forces and provide service members with the FWD tool when they begin active duty, providing a baseline for each service member’s mental health status and helping support positive mental health throughout their service career.
“Project Hero is honored by our partnership with Texas A&M because the FWD system is a unique and important new way to fight PTSD and help reduce veteran suicides nationwide. This new tool is an invaluable and vital resource for our participants not just during our events, but in their daily lives,” said Todd Setter, chief operating officer of Project Hero.
Texas A&M and Project Hero are also planning to introduce FWD in Project Hero’s additional upcoming multiple-day rides this year including the Europe Challenge in July and California Challenge in October.
By Texas A&M University College of Engineering
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