The Department of Defense (DOD) has a lot to learn about concussions. The National Football League can empathize. For decades the NFL has faced similar questions on prevention, diagnosis, treatment and long term effects. With a concussion occurring approximately every other game, research efforts benefit from an ample and growing population. Recognizing the value in such uniquely willing lab rats, the DOD hopes to steal a few ideas from the league’s playbook.

As many as 320,000 U.S. troops may have sustained brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan, yet less than half of them were evaluated by doctors. But now the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Pentagon is funding a project to develop a device that would do on-site testing for brain trauma, and be tough enough to hold up in a war zone.

The gadget, which is being developed by neurosurgeon Jamshid Ghajar and his team at Weill Cornell Medical College, will use eye-tracking technology to measure the brain's health.