MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute is joining top clinics across the country in a national effort to improve post-acute care for traumatic brain injury patients.
Dr. Javier Cárdenas, chief of the RNI’s Division of Sports Neurology and director of the RNI Concussion and Brain Injury Center, said a $300,000 grant from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Foundation will support efforts to showcase and expand the program already in use at RNI.
“We are already doing this work in an incredibly comprehensive way- the most comprehensive in the country,” Cardenas said during an appearance Wednesday on WAJR’s “Talk of the Town.” “This grant really provides recognition as well as an opportunity for us to lead the nation in demonstrating this comprehensive care.”
Patients at the RNI Concussion and Brain Injury Center have access to a comprehensive, multidisciplinary treatment plan tailored to each individual’s needs. This approach will now be shared with select clinics nationwide, which will also contribute patient data back to RNI to support collaborative research and improved care
“Our model includes neurologists, neuropsychologists, psychiatrists, and a whole team of therapists to address the physical, emotional, and thinking consequences of brain injury,” Cardenas said.
The result is that the same level of care typically reserved for athletes is now available to the average person who suffers a brain injury — including first responders and survivors of domestic violence. At the same time, lessons learned from treating these patients are used to further enhance the already advanced care provided to athletes.
” These are opportunities that are typically not afforded to people who not athletes to people who are not high performing individuals,” Dr. Cardenas said. ” So, this really helps to standardize and provide care to people that would not ordinarily get it.”
These grant funds will be matched through a fundraising campaign over the next three years, which will include efforts by the WVU Foundation and private donations made directly to the program.
“Our leadership is really interested in making sure that West Virginians have the absolute best neurological care,” Dr. Cardenas said. “And that comes from the top, the comes from our leaders.”