1999 — AnthroTronix founded
Dr. Cori Lathan co-founds AnthroTronix, Inc., building human-centered technologies in wearable computing, robotics, physiological sensing, and human-performance monitoring for government and commercial customers.
AnthroTronix est. 1999 · DANA developed 2010–2017
Built with the DoD. Proven under pressure.
DANA didn't start as a commercial product looking for a use case. It started in response to a requirement from the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, as a DoD-funded research program to solve a real warfighter problem — and everything about how it works today still carries that heritage.
Why it started
A brain-performance vital sign the military didn't have.
Fatigue, sleep loss, blast exposure, heat, altitude, and stress all degrade cognitive performance — often before a service member or their command can tell. The military had ways to measure physical readiness. It didn't have a fast, objective, field-deployable way to measure cognitive readiness. DANA was built to close that gap.
- AnthroTronix, Inc. was co-founded in 1999 by Dr. Cori Lathan; DANA's development began in 2010 under DoD SBIR/STTR and Rapid Innovation Fund awards through 2017, with sponsorship from the Navy, Army, and military medical research organizations.
- Designed for the same rigor as physical readiness testing — but for the brain.
- Built to work in the field: self-administered, mobile, offline-capable.
What DANA measures underneath Total Force Fitness
Mental
Sleep & Fatigue
Nutritional
Physical
Environmental
Medical
Behavioral / Psychological
Social & Family
DANA provides the objective brain-performance measurement layer underneath every Total Force Fitness domain.
The timeline
From a DoD research program to a commercial platform.
2010 — DANA's origin
In response to a requirement from the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, AnthroTronix begins developing DANA under DoD SBIR/STTR and Rapid Innovation Fund awards (2010–2017).
2013 — Research begins
Military labs and medical universities begin using DANA across diverse populations and real-world conditions — the start of an evidence base that now spans dozens of independent, peer-reviewed studies.
2014 — FDA clearance
DANA receives FDA 510(k) clearance (K141865) — broad clearance covering any condition or factor that affects reaction time. See the clearance details →
2016 — Patent
AnthroTronix patents a sensor-triggered workflow — cognitive assessments that can be automatically prompted by biomarker changes like sleep, stress, or heart-rate variability.
2022 — Commercialization
AnthroTronix is acquired by DANA Brain Vital, Inc. to commercialize and scale the technology into healthcare, wellness, and enterprise settings.
2023 — SOC 2 Type II
DANA Brain Vital becomes SOC 2 Type II certified, adding independently audited security controls to its existing compliance posture.
2024 — Inspection, no action indicated
DANA passes a post-clearance FDA inspection under current software and cybersecurity expectations with no action indicated — the highest rating.
2025 — Recovery & Performance SDK
A non-clinical, performance-based platform with white-label integration for wearables and partner apps.
2026 — Population management at scale
Additional features roll out to support population management at scale — rolling individual results up into program-wide dashboards for units, cohorts, and care panels.
Legacy testing heritage
Continuity with the standard the military already trusted.
DANA offers continuity with the legacy computerized neurocognitive testing tools long used across the military — comparable subtests and the same core performance metrics: reaction time and accuracy.
Offline-first, encrypted
Capture in the field with no connectivity; sync encrypted when the network returns. Built for austere settings.
Legacy-paradigm continuity
Simple & procedural reaction time, Go/No-Go, spatial processing, match-to-sample, code substitution, memory search — rooted in legacy military cognitive testing.
Military normative data
An established military normative dataset supports reliable-change interpretation for longitudinal use.
Compliance depth
FDA-cleared; HIPAA, 21 CFR Part 11 & SOC 2 Type II compliant; encrypted in transit and at rest.
Deploy at scale, self-administered
A validated, self-administered assessment that scales across units without adding proctor or clinician time — no specialized training required to run it.
Population readiness dashboard
Roll individual results up into a program-wide view of cognitive readiness — filterable by unit, position, and injury status — to manage readiness at scale, not one record at a time.
API & EHR integration
Secure APIs integrate DANA's assessment data into existing databases and electronic health record systems — DANA has successfully integrated with Smartabase and other platforms.
Role-aware access
Subject, Examiner, Clinician, and Administrator roles — administration separated from interpretation.
Where DANA operates today
Current military & research use.
711th Human Performance Wing / AFRL
Supporting U.S. Space Force — used within the USSF Continuous Fitness Assessment research to evaluate cognitive fatigue alongside wearables and longitudinal metrics.
USSOCOM / JSOC
Used within its POTFF human performance model to measure cognitive performance, establish longitudinal trends, and support data-informed optimization for special operations personnel.
Naval Health Research Center
Warfighter Performance Department — using DANA in cold-weather operations research to evaluate nutritional interventions and preserve cognitive performance in extreme environments.
SWORD Lab, USUHS / WRAIR
Using DANA in a DHA-funded study assessing blast effects on Marines — quantifying cognitive readiness and how blast exposure, sleep, and recovery affect operational performance.
See the full list of peer-reviewed publications for the studies behind this evidence base.
Next step
See where DANA's heritage meets your use case.
Schedule a walkthrough, or explore the evidence and regulatory record behind the platform.
Schedule a Demo