As part of its mission to advance research and appropriate treatment for people with brain injuries, the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) announced in July that it has awarded a grant to the Brain Injury Research Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The grant funds a three-year investigation to develop Guidelines for the Rehabilitation and Disease Management of Adults with Moderate to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).
Fifty of the nation’s top researchers and clinicians, as well as family members of people with brain injuries, were selected to review and assess evidence in functional, medical, cognitive, behavioral, and social domains. They held their first meeting September 9 and 10 in Dallas, Texas.
Dr. DiTommaso has published and presented nationally regarding prognosis of independence after TBI as well as the management of headache after brain injury. He received his medical degree from Tulane University in New Orleans and trained at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He also completed a fellowship in Brain Injury Medicine at University of Washington, and was recently named Medical Director at Baylor St. Luke's Inpatient Rehabilitation Center.
“Individuals who sustain TBIs rarely have access to rehabilitation of sufficient timing, scope, duration, and intensity that would allow them to recover to the maximum extent possible,” said Susan Connors, President and CEO of BIAA. “When a person’s care is delayed, discontinued, or denied altogether, the result is often increased re-hospitalization rates and greater levels of disability. This creates a cycle of joblessness, homelessness, and dependence on public programs.”
BIAA and Mount Sinai are addressing this problem head-on. During the next three years, panelists will:
Identify and fully describe the continuum of care available following TBI;
Determine the evidence for various rehabilitative treatments and, based on that evidence and/or expert opinion, make recommendations for treatment and management in various settings;
Produce a document that supports improvements in the quality and consistency of rehabilitation treatment; and
Broadly disseminate the recommendations to payer, provider, patient and advocacy communities in an effort to increase access to care.
The goal of the project is to learn how much rehabilitation adult patients with moderate to severe TBI should receive, in what setting, and at what time. BIAA and Mount Sinai have pledged to keep the brain injury community fully informed and invite input and feedback at certain key points along the way. Visit www.biausa.org/TBIGuidelines for more information.
