International Experts To Explore Brain Injury, Treatment In The Elderly, Conference

Main Category: Neurology / Neuroscience
Also Included In: Conferences
Article Date: 06 May 2008 - 3:00 PST

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Internationally renowned brain experts will gather at Moody Gardens in Galveston on May 14-16 to discuss ways to treat and rehabilitate elderly men and women with traumatic brain injuries.

The Galveston Brain Injury Conference is an invitational event sponsored by the Center for Rehabilitation Sciences and the School of Allied Health Sciences at the University of Texas Medical Branch in collaboration with the Transitional Learning Center at Galveston which provides rehabilitation for those who have suffered an acute brain injury

Of the 1.4 million Americans who receive a traumatic brain injury each year, the hospitalization and death rate is highest for individuals over the age of 75 with injuries stemming primarily from falls and automobile accidents, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

"This year we are looking at the diagnostic and treatment challenges for elderly patients who sustain a traumatic brain injury," said Dr. Ken Ottenbacher, associate director of the UTMB Sealy Center on Aging and the Russell Shearn Moody Distinguished Chair in Neurological Rehabilitation.

"We're defining risk factors, prevention tactics, best practices, effective treatments, and rehabilitation timelines," he said.

During the conference, Dr. John Whyte, will receive the 2008 Robert L. Moody Prize for Distinguished Initiatives in Brain Injury Research and Rehabilitation. The award recognizes Whyte's brain injury research, clinical care and his advocacy of people who are severely injured. He is recognized as a teacher, a mentor and for his influential research on the basic treatment mechanisms for arousal and attention disorders

Whyte directs the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute (MRRI), the Attention Research Laboratory, multiple brain injury and responsiveness programs, and the Jerome M. and Sylvan Drucker Brain Injury Center. He is a staff physiatrist and a professor of rehabilitation medicine at Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University.

Whyte is past president of the Association of Academic Physiatrists and was on the Institute of Medicine panel that updated "Disability and America." In both 2000 and 2005, Whyte became principal investigator of one of the prestigious research infrastructure grants awarded by National Institutes of Health to foster research capacity and expertise nationwide. Whyte's neuro-cognitive rehabilitation research network supports pilot work on cognitive rehabilitation and neuro-imaging and provides training and consultation for clinical scientists seeking to learn the methodology needed to conduct high-quality cognitive rehabilitation research.

Past Moody honorees include: John Corrigan, Barbara A Wilson ; Marilyn Price Spivack; Roberta DePompei, Jeffrey Kruetzer, ; and Mitchell Rosenthal .

Nominations for the 2009 Robert L. Moody Prize are due Nov. 15. More information on the prize, the corresponding conferences, and past and present recipients are available at: http://www2.utmb.edu/TLC/MoodyPrize/.

University of Texas Medical Branch