Military Alerting System for Monitoring Body Temperature During Active Cooling

BHSAI is developing a computational system that provides early alerts of a rise in core body temperature to help reduce the risk of heat injury in the field and during training. The goal of the body temperature alerting system is to use it during rest, exercise in the heat and during body cooling. Using this system during cooling will allow healthcare professionals and military personnel monitor core temperature to ensure cooling is effective (and prevent hypothermia). Therefore, the primary purpose of this investigation is to validate a body temperature alerting system using physiological responses that occur during rest, exercise in the heat and during body cooling. Multiple cooling modalities will be validated. The effectiveness of each cooling modality (passive cooling, mist-fan cooling, hand/forearm immersion) on physiological variables after exercise in the heat will be assessed. Lastly, subject characteristics (demographic and anthropometric characteristics) will be examined to examine their effect on physiological variables during exercise in the heat and during body cooling with each cooling modality.