Personal Injury Law

Florida Nets $2.25M Grant For Traumatic Brain Injury Research

By Flaxman & Lopez

Researchers believe that Florida brain injury patients ? and patients across the country who have sustained traumatic brain injury due to car accidents, workplace accidents, and other causes ? may have a cause to celebrate. The National Institutes of Health haw awarded Orlando Health a $2.25 million grant. The grant is specifically earmarked for traumatic brain injury research.

The grant recipient and lead researcher at Orlando Regional Medical Center, Dr. Linda Papa, plans to use the money to develop more effective tools to diagnose brain injuries. According to Papa, about 90% of the roughly 2 million Americans who sustain a traumatic brain injury yearly sustain either a mild or moderate brain injury. In some instances, diagnosing these injuries is challenging for health care professionals.

Papa?s study will begin in 2008 and will try to create blood test that will help doctors evaluate biomarkers in the blood. Biomarkers are released by the brain during brain injury and Papa and her team believe they may be able to devise a test that not only helps to indicate brain trauma but could also potentially help tell doctors the seriousness of a traumatic brain injury. If successful, the test would help doctors select better treatment options for patients.

The research into this issue is badly needed. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 5.3 million people in the US currently live with brain injury-related disabilities. Almost 50,000 people die each year in the US due to brain injuries. Many people who suffer from a brain injury face life challenges such as suicide, depression, divorce, unemployment, substance abuse and other problems.

The difficult thing about traumatic brain injury is that many forms of brain injury can be avoided. Careful driving on the road, for example, can reduce the car accidents that lead to brain injuries. Careful evaluation of water depth before diving can help prevent not only brain injuries but also the spinal cord injuries that occur each year when swimmers dive into water that proves too shallow.

Full post as published by Florida Injury Lawyer Blog on October 10, 2008 (boomark / email).