Josh Duckworth, MD (USN-Retired), is a leading authority on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and an expert in sub-concussive blast exposure. He has provided medical and operational testimony to all three U.S. Armed Services, as well as to senior leaders such as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and several Undersecretaries of Defense. His innovative research and monitoring programs broadened the understanding of TBI to include sub-concussive repetitive blast injuries creating a new field of neurological research.

Dr. Duckworth deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). There, he served as the Neurologist and Neurointensivist at the NATO ROLE III hospital and as the Medical Director for both the Warrior Recovery Center and the Concussion Specialty Care Center. While in Afghanistan, he authored the NATO Deployed, Pre-Hospital, and Hospital-Based Neurocritical Care Treatment Guidelines and provided the Navy with a white paper on developing dedicated neurocritical care air transport teams. After returning from Afghanistan, Dr. Duckworth became Medical Director for the Defense Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC) at Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD) and for the Naval Office of Neurotrauma. He has contributed to the NFL Head Neck, and Spine committee, the NCAA-Department of Defense (DoD) consortium on concussion and to the Big Ten/CIC-Ivy League TBI Research Collaboration. In addition, Dr. Duckworth serves on the Medical Advisory Board of the Invisible Wounds Foundation, a non-profit organization supporting research and care for TBI among Special Operations Forces.

Through laboratory research, 3 clinical studies, and an operational monitoring program Dr. Duckworth was the first to link sub-concussive blast exposure and TBI to repeated use of shoulder-fired weapons—a common part of Navy Special Warfare arsenals. Dr. Duckworth’s research has demonstrated the cellular and molecular responses to both sub-clinical (below the threshold of causing symptoms) and clinical brain injuries from blast and impact. His work has been cited by other researchers over 1,000 times. His efforts led to the creation of the Department of Defense’s Warfighter Brain Health Initiative—Strategy and Action Plan, a DoD-wide policy for managing brain health risk from blast overpressure, and the introduction of the Blast Overpressure Safety Act to Congress.