Company
Portfolio Data
Back to Company SearchTIER 1 PERFORMANCE SOLUTIONS LLC
UEI: SQLGQDFWBJ51
Number of Employees: 350
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
SBIR/STTR Involvement
Year of first award: 2009
24
Phase I Awards
14
Phase II Awards
58.33%
Conversion Rate
$3,068,364
Phase I Dollars
$14,056,245
Phase II Dollars
$17,124,608
Total Awarded
Awards
ECCCHO: Effective Combat Casualty Care Handoff Operations
Amount: $1,695,661 Topic: DHA17B-002
According to the Joint Commission, approximately 70% of sentinel events in medical care are related to communication mishaps, and despite regular and frequent occurrence, poor communication during patient handoffs (i.e., transfer of patient care information, responsibility, and authority from one provider to another) remains a major contributor to medical errors (Nether, 2017; The Joint Commission, 2017, SEA 58). These estimates are based on the 21,000 health care organizations accredited by the Joint Commission but ignore errors in combat casualty where these numbers are likely to be higher due to the harsh nature of combat environments. Why do patient handoffs matter? Patient handoffs are critical for facilitating and informing decisions about the next level of care and can impact treatment throughout the continuum of care. A standardized approach can help mitigate known risks related to information loss. In addition, the written information transferred during a handoff serves as a patient record. This record informs the patient’s long-term care and determines disability benefits for life. Handoffs are conducted by teams of at least two; and in combat casualty care, there are many known challenges. First, these teams could have little or no previous interactions and may even involve transport teams with no medical background, further complicating communication and coordination of care. Operational experience suggests that context/environment, experience, expertise, and state of the individuals involved in the care of the wounded are among the many factors that could affect successful handoff. These factors impact the way in which information is captured and communicated, which drive the success of the handoff. Imagine a common scenario in recent engagements involving a Marine unit on a foot patrol in Afghanistan—one explosion, then another. This routine procedure of transferring care from one provider to another is fraught with challenges. On the bird, the medic gives the patient more morphine because he appears to be in extreme pain. Unfortunately, the patient immediately deteriorates as his heart slows and blood pressure drops. The patient dies due to a combination of morphine overdose and blood loss. The ultimate goal of this proposed work is to improve combat survivability and reduce preventable deaths by focusing on the challenges that revolve around communication during patient handoffs in combat situations. Products of this work will be a patient handoff protocol based on science and operational requirements and associated training linked to existing Tactical Combat Casualty (TCCC) training. The Effective Combat Casualty Care Handoff Operations (ECCCHO) protocol incorporates the science of effective team communications as well as current best practices in the field. Associated ECCCHO training was developed based on adult learning principles and operational training constraints.
Tagged as:
STTR
Phase II
2021
DOD
DHA
CREWS -- Instructional Strategies and Methods for Pilot Training
Amount: $139,984 Topic: N202-112
New technological advancements in flight systems and unmanned or autonomous platforms is requiring pilots interpret, understand, and respond to new forms of data through sensor fusion or automated control inputs. It is critical to understand how pilots are responding to these new multi-domain environments and how they can create new mental models that allow them to respond more quickly and appropriately. Traditional Crew Resource Management (CRM) models have served well for instructing crew members in appropriate communications and interactions with their human counterparts. However, they have fallen short in instilling best response to automation or non-human crew. To improve pilots’ ability to synthesize data and respond to remote, autonomous, or non-human crew, TiER1 proposes developing a desktop trainer (CREWS) that will allow pilots to practice in high-context situations that is easily accessible and can be completed in an instructorless ecosystem or one that requires minimal intervention. To get there, TiER1 will seek to redefine traditional CRM models to expand crew definitions to include remote, autonomous, or non-human crew, allowing for better data analysis, decision making, and response. By expanding this definition, TiER1 can focus on the most influential tasks and behaviors that will lead to the greatest amount of change and allow pilots to create new mental models more quickly. By identifying the right set of tasks and behaviors, TiER1 can build new instructional methods that will allow pilots to practice and build their skills. The goal is to transfer these instructional methods to the CREWS platform that integrates data from autonomous sources, simulated remote crews, and context-driven mission profiles which allows pilots to repeatedly practice their new skills in a low-stakes environment.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2021
DOD
NAVY
Advance
Amount: $999,948 Topic: AF20R-DCSO1
The USAF Academy (USAFA) is seeking a solution to track and evaluate leadership development activities, providing insight into potential gaps in curricula and activities that align with character, leadership, and comprehensive airman fitness (CAF) competencies. TiER1 Performance has developed the Advance platform that will enable USAFA cadets to visualize and track their leadership development journey while at USAFA. Advance will provide USAFA with the tools they need to provide non-academic personal and professional development curriculum that will support the cadets’ development. The academic courses at USAFA will also be able to leverage the features of Advance to integrate with their curriculum. Advance includes the development of a mental fitness curriculum to fully support the integration of CAF competencies into the character and leadership development journey at USAFA. The current COVID-19 crisis has revealed the need for cadets to be more resilient by living out and inspiring others to apply the CAF framework. The mental fitness curriculum in Advance will support cadets while at USAFA and prepare them to effectively lead others during operational conflict and crisis events. The Advance solution will also include the development of mobile device support features so that cadets may access content and resources at the point of need. This mobile enablement will provide cadets with a full suite of features for leadership development at their fingertips, including reflections, action plans, mentor feedback and input, and the mental fitness curriculum.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2020
DOD
USAF
Inspire: Faculty Onboarding and Development Platform
Amount: $49,964 Topic: AF192-001
As organizations scale it becomes increasingly difficult to have a consistent experience for new employees being introduced to the culture and their role. We know that onboarding experiences—and how well they meet expectations and needs—influence how employees engage with the culture and their success in the role. The academic leaders at the United States Air Force Academy have observed that the complexity of the organization and the limited classroom experience for many incoming faculty members makes onboarding and continuous development a critical need for the Academy. However, the Academy team has limited capacity to create the portals, experiences, simulations, orientation materials, and skill development resources necessary for faculty. Relatedly, the Air Force Combatives Center of Excellence, is hiring faculty to lead this new program and requires a solution to provide preboarding, onboarding, and continuous development. To meet these needs, we propose to extend TiER1’s onboarding and development technology platform to create Inspire, a faculty onboarding and continuous development solution for the Academy.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2019
DOD
USAF
Transformation Accelerated through Redesign, Guidance, and Enhanced Training (TARGET)
Amount: $2,349,396 Topic: N17A-T017
As submarine threats from adversary countries continue to rise, the U.S. Navy must maintain and expand its anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities. Warfighter readiness is the linchpin of the Navy’s ASW strategy, but the complexity of the ASW domain necessitates time-consuming training, and practical experiences to transfer those skills to the operational environment. Innovative training approaches can accelerate mastery and foster skill transfer. The TARGET (Transformation Accelerated through Redesign, Guidance, and Enhanced Training) project uses two key components to address this need: (1) a task-centered instructional design strategy for ASW education, and (2) an electronic learning activity coach (eLAC) assisting faculty in application of this strategy. During Phase I, we developed prototypes designed to improve the STG’s ability to visualize the effects of oceanography on sonar. We also defined a library of other innovative learning methods for application to STG training. During Phase II, TARGET will work with ASW faculty to redesign the curriculum adopting a task-centered learning framework for integrating teaching methods and technologies. As eLAC is integrated into faculty processes, the impact of task-centered instructional design will expand, by allowing instructors to apply the task-centered learning approach to other ASW topics and throughout Navy schoolhouse and ship-board training.
Tagged as:
STTR
Phase II
2019
DOD
NAVY
SCYTHE: Simulate CYber Threats using Hybrid Entities
Amount: $1,009,194 Topic: MDA18-001
TiER1’s proposed SCYTHE (Simulate CYber Threats using Hybrid Entities) system will advance the state-of-the-art in cyber operator training technologies. SCYTHE combines proven technologies and gameful learning design with innovative advances in intelligent agent authoring capabilities. SCYTHE leverages your training sandbox where trainee cyber defenders interact with SCYTHE’s advanced attacker agents. In a sophisticated pedagogical design, trainee defenders will train and rehearse in a realistic operating environment with threats created by external and internal sources. The hybrid agents are enabled with cutting-edge human behavior representations to generate adaptive, realistic behavior in a way that supports the achievement of learning objectives. Approved for Public Release 19-MDA-10203 (4 Sep 19)
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2019
DOD
MDA
CODE: Cadet Outcomes Development Evaluation
Amount: $49,974 Topic: AF182-005
The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) provides an elite undergraduate educational program that integrates academic, military, and athletic programs to develop leaders of character, motivated to lead the Air Force in service to our nation. By the time cadets graduate and are commissioned as second lieutenants they are expected to acquire a combination of knowledge, skills, and responsibilities for leadership. However, USAFA leadership has identified a need to discover opportunities to improve cadet leadership development. To meet this need we will develop Cadet Outcomes Development and Evaluation (CODE), leveraging our commercial Performance1 platform and extend the tools we have developed for Pararescue Jumpers and Combat Rescue Officers (PJ/CROs). CODE will meet USAFAs needs by providing cadets with a tool to: (1) visualize their leadership and character strengths development journey across their 4-year mission at the Academy; (2) track their leadership and character strengths development activities through a leadership portfolio; (3) collaborate with supervisors to plan future leadership and character strengths development activities; (4) view feedback received directly related to leadership proficiencies; and (5) record personal reflections about their own development. Additionally, supervisors will be able to evaluate cadets leadership activities through rubrics provided in CODE.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase I
2019
DOD
USAF
AWARE: Anti-air Warfare Awareness and Readiness Environment
Amount: $1,509,743 Topic: N181-038
As the nature of Naval warfare changes due to increasing technological innovations and adversarial capabilities, the US Navy must maintain its edge by continuing to invest in and develop sailor training. One technology area that is integral to the Navy’s future success regards the capability to enhance its distributed lethality by aggregating disparate sensor networks to create a common situational awareness, coordinated engagements, and distributed resource control. However, creating a netted fighting force represents a complex coordination among sensors, platforms, and personnel, whereby each sailor must consider their own role and available data within the overall mission objective to best support their strike group. TiER1 will build on our Phase I prototype and continue to develop AWARE: Anti-air Warfare Awareness and Readiness Environment into a state-of-the-art learning game for sailors. Once fully developed in Phase II, AWARE will be a realistic, portable learning environment that will teach the conceptual, non-intuitive value of an integrated Naval battle force in an adaptive way across a wide range of learners. AWARE will enable a data-driven, competency-centric learning lifecycle by analyzing user interaction data, generating performance metrics, and presenting the user’s performance in a gameful simulation environment.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2019
DOD
NAVY
InSite: Targeted Training Content Management
Amount: $1,009,763 Topic: A18-092
To respond to ever-evolving enemy tactics, realistic, effective training is needed in the operational environment. The Army has, and is currently developing, numerous computer-based resources to support scenario-based training at the point of need. To support the personnel who use these training systems, a content management system is needed. Further, recommendations for training, and adaptively changing training paths are required. The fact that the Army training systems have many different users inputting and accessing information increases the likelihood that relevant scenarios can be difficult to find, as tagging terms used by developers and search terms used by operational personnel might differ. This situation results in relevant training components going unused, and, importantly, results in operational units that are not fully prepared. To mitigate these problems, we propose to develop the InSite Targeted Training Content Management Tool. InSite will allow access to a variety of relevant resources, provide recommended training paths, and adapt that path based on unit performance. It will allow users to discover relevant training content, and develop training specific to their needs. In Phase II, we will develop InSite with structured and frequent user input, to ensure that the end result is both useful and usable.
Tagged as:
SBIR
Phase II
2019
DOD
ARMY
ECCCHO: Effective Combat Casualty Care Handoff Operations
Amount: $149,986 Topic: DHA17B-002
Approximately 70% of sentinel events in medical care are related to communication mishaps, and despite regular and frequent occurrence, an even higher percentage (80%) of severe medical errors are related to miscommunication during handoffs (i.e., the transferring of information, responsibility, and authority for patient care from one provider to another). The TiER1 team proposes to address challenges related standardized handoff protocols, validation of those protocols, and transfer of evidence-based approaches to the field. To address these challenges, we propose to develop the Effective Combat Casualty Care Handoff Operations (ECCCHO) system. Three components comprise the ECCCHO system: (1) The Toolkit including mnemonics and a digital Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) Card to ensure the right elements accompany a handoff; (2) The Methoddrawn from team performance research and applications, current best practices in patient handoffs, and TiER1s approach to addressing performance and organizational gaps in Fortune 500 companies; and (3) Outcome measures against which methods and elements of handoff protocols can be evaluated. The Toolkit will include what (required elements) to communicate as specified by DHA Procedural Instruction Number 6040.01, and the Method will specify how (process) to communicate during handoffs throughout the continuum of care.
Tagged as:
STTR
Phase I
2018
DOD
DHA