CIMIT, TATRC co-host successful symposium on TBI

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CIMIT expanded its education mandate recently when it co-hosted a Traumatic Brain Injury Symposium entitled, “Clinical Management and Advanced Treatment for Closed Head Injury.”

CIMIT and the U.S. Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) organized a day-long symposium to review progress in TBI research and high-tech innovations in the care of TBI. Doctors and researchers from around the country attended the event, which was held the day after the CIMIT Innovation Congress 2007 (Nov. 15). Ross Zafonte, DO, of Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and Lee Schwamm, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, co-chaired the gathering. Kirby Vosburgh, PhD, associate director of CIMIT, was a key organizer of the event.

Close to 5.3 million Americans are living with disabilities resulting from TBI, the cost of which is about $60 billion per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

The concern about TBI has increased as more injuries are reported in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. About 30,000 Americans have been injured overseas, and about one-third of those injuries are to the head and neck, according to presenter Ken Proctor, PhD, of the University of Miami.

Those attending the symposium at Starr Center on the MGH Campus in Boston were among the most elite researchers in the country. Virtually all said that more research must be done in numerous areas so that healthcare providers have a better understanding of the brain, and can provide more effective care.

Local researchers who were involved in conference included Maj. Luis Alvarez, (MIT); Lee Schwamm, MD, (MGH); Marc DeMoya, MD, (MGH); John Sims, MD, (MGH); Ron Hirschberg, MD, (SRH); Seward Rutkove, MD, (BIDMC); Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD, (BIDMC); Ziv Williams, MD (MGH); Steve Schachter, MD, (BIDMC); Rox Anderson, MD, (MGH); Mel Glenn, MD, (SRH); Neville Hogan, PhD, (MIT); Raúl A. Radovitzky, PhD, (MIT); and Emad Eskandar, MD (MGH).

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