Using Data to Support Soldiers and Save Lives

Todd Burnett knows a soldier’s life firsthand. He served in Operation Desert Storm, Iraq, and Afghanistan, playing a vital role in understanding and disarming improvised explosive devices (IED). He shaped the next generation of soldiers as a drill sergeant and as West Point’s command sergeant major. And today, he’s supporting the military community with the same type of wearable devices he and his family use in their daily lives: activity trackers, heart rate monitors, sleep monitors, and more.

It’s all part of human performance training at Booz Allen, which combines traditional strength and conditioning, advanced data science, and immersive simulations to optimize physical and psychological readiness, wellbeing, and performance.

“We’re analyzing the data, viewing our soldiers as tactical athletes, and recruiting coaches who have been in this field and who can help drive them in the right direction,” Todd says.

In honor of National Veterans and Military Families Month, Todd shares his thoughts on this area of data-driven innovation and how it can support soldiers at every stage of their service and lives. 

In recruiting and basic training, insights into sleep, training, and physical condition can help instructors set new recruits up for success, Todd says.

“People come to basic training, and we think they can immediately run five miles,” he shares. But wrong assumptions too often result in injuries like shin splints or stress fractures and recruits dropping out.

Human performance training counters such assumptions with concrete information about a recruit’s mobility, biodynamics, sleep, nutrition, and more.

“Data doesn’t lie if you have the right information,” Todd says. “With a wearable, I'm going to know what level they’re at, start them out gradually, and be able to coach them on what they need to do to get better.”

Such data-driven coaching is good for both individuals and the armed forces as a whole. “When we’re able to graduate more people from basic training and increase our recruiting, we can get our force up to the numbers that it needs,” says Todd.

Once a soldier has completed basic training, two other elements of human performance training factor in: building operational skillsets and sharpening situational awareness.

Here, Booz Allen enhances this training with augmented and virtual reality-enhanced simulations, virtual scenarios, and analytics-powered digital solutions to get soldiers ready for missions faster.

“It’s not a substitute for live experience,” Todd says. “But it accelerates a soldier’s ability to perform these operations live, and this saves two big commodities: time and money.”

Take, for example, a soldier working to get certified on a specific weapon. Mastering the necessary skills solely on a live firing range may require large quantities of ammunition. However, a soldier who has trained in a virtual battle space may need fewer rounds of ammunition to meet the necessary requirements.

“This saves money in terms of ammunition costs and saves time in terms of getting a soldier weapon-qualified faster,” Todd says.

Human performance data also helps with the leadership aspects of operational readiness. With data on a soldier’s physical and psychological state, plus the ability to correlate this information to team coordination and decision making, commanders can be more effective.

For example, heart rate information and updates can guide troop leaders to soldiers with lower stress levels and steadier nerves for combat assignments. And analysis of sleep levels and mental sharpness could be particularly valuable in activities like route-clearing patrols, where soldiers scan an area for IEDs.

When Todd was involved in these activities, he remembers that such patrols could last as long as 16 hours. Human performance training data could have changed this picture.

“Data from a wearable probably might have shown soldier alertness peaking in the first hour or so and dangerously degrading later on,” he says. Troop leaders might have used this knowledge to assign shorter, more frequent patrols—say four shifts of four hours each. 

Finally, these vital insights into cognitive, physical, and mental health can be invaluable to soldiers after they leave the battlefield. Todd notes how Booz Allen’s human performance training team recently provided volunteer coaching to participants of the Department of Defense Warrior Games and international Invictus Games. Both events provide wounded, injured, and ill service personnel with an opportunity to compete in multiple sports.

Todd emphasizes that you don’t have to be an athlete to benefit from insight on sleep, nutrition, mobility, and overall wellbeing.

This is especially true in the area of mental health. If a veteran doesn’t feel comfortable talking about anxiety or depression, data from a wearable can provide vital—and potentially lifesaving—signs to seek help.

“Suicide in the military community is way worse than people realize,” Todd acknowledges. “I've lost way too many soldiers, friends that I never thought would do that.”

Overall, wearables can help track information that will help a veteran be around for the long term, Todd says, and this is invaluable.

“The most important thing you have after you leave the military is your family,” says Todd. “So, what are you doing to be there for them and be present every day? I think wearables can help with that.”