Category Archives: Brain Injury Treatment

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- US Community Behavioral, LLC (USCB), a leading multi-state provider of community-based residential and behavioral services, announced it has acquired ReMed Recovery Care Centers, LLC, a highly regarded provider of brain injury rehabilitation services based in Pennsylvania. The acquisition was made in partnership with ReMeds management team and will provide ReMed with support infrastructure and capital to expand its operations. ReMed will become a division of US Community Behavioral. Martin Favis, the CEO of US Community Behavioral, noted, ReMed is a leader and best-in-class provider of brain injury rehabilitation services. We are pleased to partner with its highly experienced management team to support its strategic initiatives in growing its business and further enhancing the excellent quality of care its patients receive. Joanne Finegan, the President of ReMed, stated, This transaction represents an exciting next step for ReMed, as part of a leading platform of community-based behavioral health services across the United States. ReMeds partnership with US Community Behavioral will provide resources and capital to continue to enhance the breadth and depth of our referral and patient relationships. We look forward to the opportunities ahead, especially as ReMed enters its 30th year. US Community Behavioral was acquired in August … Continue reading →

Vienna, VA (PRWEB) October 30, 2013 The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) is dedicated to increasing access to quality health care, which helps the entire brain injury community. Today BIAA announced the launch of the BIAA Career Center, matching brain injury professionals with the best jobs in their fields. For job seekers, the BIAA Career Center is a free service that provides access to employers and jobs in healthcare and brain injury. In addition to posting resumes, job seekers can browse and view available jobs based on selected criteria and save those jobs for later review. They can also create search agents to provide email notifications of jobs that match their search criteria. Employers can post jobs online, search for candidates based on specific job criteria, and create online resume agents to contact qualified candidates. They also benefit from online reporting that provides job activity statistics. BIAA has also launched a strategic partnership with the National Healthcare Career Network (NHCN), giving registered employers and job seekers access to a network of more than 280 top healthcare associations and professional organizations. BIAA's alliance with NHCN provides access to a larger database of industry-specific resumes and job postings, giving job seekers … Continue reading →

Back in the day, the thing to do after getting a bump in the head was to get right back in the game. The thinking was that if athletes werent knocked out or even if they were as soon as they could stand up again they were good to go. That thinking was very wrong. Doctors now understand that even small bumps to the head can cause concussion. Concussion is a brain injury, and if its ignored it can cause lasting problems especially in children and adolescents. Kids are more susceptible to the effects of concussion because their brains are still developing. In sports, concussions can happen from things like running into another player, falling, or hitting a gym wall or goal post. Concussions also occur on the playground, in the classroom or even in your own backyard. Thats because anything that causes the head to move rapidly back and forth even if it doesnt strike an object can injure the brain. So a jolt that results in a whiplash-type movement can result in concussion. Loss of consciousness is the most obvious sign of concussion. But according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, other signs and symptoms can … Continue reading →

Published: 11:06AM Tuesday October 29, 2013 Source: Fairfax Brain-injured offenders are packing Kiwi prisons, leaving experts calling for better assessment and rehabilitation of those suffering head injuries. Ministry of Health figures show 64 per cent of prisoners have suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI), compared with just 2 per cent of the general population. Studies put the number even higher, with 80 per cent of non-Maori and 90 per cent of Maori prisoners suffering from TBI. Neurologist Richard Seemann said it was "a given" brain injury was linked to offending behaviour. Seemann said the frontal lobes of the brain were "the part in charge of putting brakes on behaviour - so, you think a thought but don't say it out loud, or think about doing something but decide not to do it". People with frontal lobe injuries had trouble recognising consequences, resisting impulses, or discerning appropriate behaviour - tendencies that could land them in trouble with police, he said. Max Cavit, manager of brain-injury support provider ABI Rehabilitation, said while many people with brain injuries would never offend, some developed behavioural issues that landed them in court. Common effects of brain injury such as sexual disinhibition, poor risk judgment, difficulty … Continue reading →

In a bid to improve the mental health of soldiers and veterans, DARPA has launched a $70 million project to create an implant that tracks neuron activity and provides quantifiable brain data. There's a high incidence of mental illness reported among soldiers compared with the general population -- in fact, one in nine medical discharges is due to mental illness, according to US Army statistics. This is not surprising. If you ask people to see and do horrific things, it will likely impact them in pretty significant ways. DARPA is seeking to understand more about how the brain works in hopes of developing effective therapies for troops and veterans. It has announced a new $70 million project called the Systems-Based Neurotechnology for Emerging Therapies (Subnets). Subnets is inspired by Deep Brain Stimulation, or DBS, a surgical treatment that involves implanting a brain pacemaker in the patient's skull to interfere with brain activity and help with symptoms of diseases like epilepsy and Parkinson's. DARPA's device will be similar, but rather than targeting one specific symptom, it will be able to monitor and analyze data in real time and issue a specific intervention according to brain activity. "If Subnets is successful, it … Continue reading →

Canadians have decreased their odds of being declared brain dead over the past decade, but better survival rates after brain injuries may also be responsible for a decline in donor organs, according to a study published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. From 2002 to 2012, the proportion of brain-injured patients in southern Alberta who deteriorated to neurologic death (brain death) declined from 8.1 per cent to 4.2 per cent a 50-per-cent reduction, noted study author Dr. Andreas Kramer, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Calgary. He said the findings are consistent with reports of decreased mortality in brain-injured patients in other regions. Brain death is on the decline in Canada, he said. Neurologic death is clearly defined in Canadian guidelines, Kramer said. It is the irreversible end of all brain activity due to permanent loss of blood flow and oxygen to the brain. It is not the same as vegetative states, in which patients may have partial awareness. And it is unlike ambiguous states of consciousness detected in patients such as Hassan Rasouli, who was kept on life support after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Oct. 18 that doctors at Torontos Sunnybrook Hospital could … Continue reading →

By Misti Crane The Columbus Dispatch Sunday October 27, 2013 6:36 AM Never before has brain injury been given more attention. Troops are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with lingering problems. This summer, a $765 million settlement was reached between the NFL and former players over brain injuries. And youth sports programs nationwide and in Ohio are on notice to keep kids out of the game when theyve suffered a concussion. Advocates for better prevention of brain injuries and care for those whove been hurt hope that a recent change in Ohio, coupled with the overall momentum, will improve the outlook here. Ohio State University now is at the helm of the Ohio Brain Injury Advisory Committee, a group that for more than two decades has worked toward better prevention, treatment and diagnosis. The university and its resources could bolster those efforts and perhaps secure more money to make improvements in Ohio, said Stephanie Ramsey, who is chairwoman-elect of the committee and president of the board of trustees for the Brain Injury Association of Ohio. The states Opportunities for Ohioans With Disabilities department (formerly the Rehabilitation Services Commission) previously oversaw the committee. The group receives about $125,000 a year in … Continue reading →

Kevin Robinson has been knocked unconscious 30 times and received more than 100 concussions in his 23-year career as a professional BMX rider. Nobodys ever taken (head injury) seriously, he said in a lecture Thursday at the Alpert Medical School entitled Diagnosed with a Concussion, Now What? The lecture featured Robinson and four doctors who spoke about different aspects of traumatic brain injury, diagnoses and treatment. The event was a part of the Brain Power lecture series, a set of quarterly lectures sponsored by the Norman Prince Neurosciences Institute, designed to educate the public about neurological problems. In his years as a BMX rider, Robinson said he has witnessed countless concussions. He has lost and regained his ability to speak, his dexterity and his sense of self, he said. He has seen other bikers experience concussions and return to biking immediately, only to receive yet another concussion, which can often be fatal, he said. Because of his experiences, Robinson has devoted himself to educating the public about the dangers of concussions. Neha Raukar, assistant professor of emergency medicine and director of the division of sports medicine, spoke next. The brain sits on top of the spinal cord like a lollipop … Continue reading →

Dublin, Oct. 23, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/33dhcm/neuromodulation) has announced the addition of the "Neuromodulation Market - [Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS), Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS), Gastric Electrical Stimulation (GES), Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), Sacral Nerve Stimulation (SNS), & Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)] - Forecasts to 2017" report to their offering. Neuromodulation devices have emerged as one of the fastest growing segments of the medical device market due to high demand for minimally invasive and non-invasive treatment. With advancements in technology, neuromodulation is expected to become a promising therapeutic area and high growth industry in the next decade, as it offers symptomatic relief mainly from chronic pain, incontinence, heart failure, headache, depression, epilepsy, etc. The neuromodulation devices market includes deep brain stimulation, spinal cord stimulation, vagus nerve stimulation, sacral nerve stimulation and others external stimulation devices such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). The neuromodulation technique acts directly upon nerves or the target area where the activity of nerves is altered due to biological responses produced by electrical stimulation or drug infusion. These devices include small electrodes that are attached to the brain, the spinal cord, or peripheral nerves. These precisely placed leads are … Continue reading →

(PRWEB) October 23, 2013 Phillip Koss, owner of http://www.strechforlife.com/ is quick to point out that this process is no panacea. A severely disabled individual will need weeks of daily treatments, as much as two hours twice daily. Commitment and dedication is required of both the patient and practitioner. Each session is individually tailored to meet the specific needs of the person at each stage in the process. Since 2009, Stretch for Life has been enabling persons with stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI) to regain feeling and function. The process involves full body stretching, massage, acupressure, strength training coupled with mental focus, breathing and visualization to eliminate spasticity and restore feeling and muscle function. Once the habitually tight muscles have been coaxed into relaxing, the relaxation is permanent. Persons who have been in chronic pain report the pain is alleviated.The process begins as a series of treatments to relax the tight muscles and continues as a relearning to use the atrophied muscles. Lastly, the procedure involves exercises to restore strength and coordination. "By pretreating a client with perispinally administered etanercept (Enbrel), we vastly speed up the entire process and obtain results that would not be possible without the Enbrel," stated … Continue reading →