Brain Trauma Foundation
For over 30 years, Brain Trauma Foundation has been conducting innovative clinical research and developing evidence-based guidelines that improve outcomes for the millions of people who suffer from traumatic brain injuries every year. From concussion to coma, Brain Trauma Foundation’s expertise allows us to better educate and train myriad audiences that encounter traumatic brain injuries in situations ranging from the battlefield to an athletic arena to a hospital. Brain Trauma Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit, was founded in 1986 by Dr. Jam Ghajar, MD, PhD, FACS and has its headquarters in Campbell, CA. Current research projects include EYE-TRAC Advance, which tests normal and concussed subjects using a novel goggle eye tracking technology that assesses visual attention focus precisely, and BTEC (Brain Trauma Evidence-Based Consortium), which is developing an evidence-based classification for the spectrum of traumatic brain injury and modeling post-TBI trajectories and outcomes.
History
1980s
-In 1986, Dr. Jamshid Ghajar and the board of the Sunny von Bulow Coma and Head Trauma Research Foundation founded Brain Trauma Foundation (BTF) in order to support ongoing research on TBI.
-In the late 1980s, BTF began awarding TBI research fellowships to young neurosurgeons at top universities to advance their research and foster interest in head injury.
1990s
-BTF’s first evidence-based Guidelines for Managing Severe TBI (Coma) was developed in 1995. This pivotal patient care standard was the result of collaboration between a national and international group of experts dedicated to finding the best evidence to improve patient outcomes. In the two decades since, BTF has expanded to six additional guidelines, including Management of Severe TBI, Management of Pediatric Severe TBI, Early Prognosis in Severe TBI, Surgical Management of TBI, Pre-hospital Management of Severe TBI, and Field Management of Combat-Related TBI.
2000s
-In 2000, BTF established the first New York State TBI trauma center tracking and compliance network with the New York State Department of Health; similar networks throughout the U.S. and internationally followed.
-Then in 2002, BTF became the first organization to lead a university consortium to research the neurobiology of mild TBI (concussion) with funding provided by the James S. McDonnell Foundation. Six years later, BTF was awarded a second grant by the James S. McDonnell Foundation to lead another research consortium to examine the nature of attention and deficits in concussion patients.
-A 2008 Department of Defense TBI Advanced Technology award funded BTF’s development of a portable device that detects concussion in seconds. Today, that technology is fully functioning and being applied and tested through BTF’s “EYE-TRAC Advance Study,” which tests 5,000 high school and college athletes and 5,000 military personal using BTF’s custom-developed portable eye-tracking device “Dynamic Visual Synchronization (DVS) Goggles”.
-In 2009, BTF helped spin off Sync Think, Inc., a technology company dedicated to developing a commercial goggle eye tracking solution for concussion.
-In 2011, BTF partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the “Concussion Definition Consortium-An Evidence Based Project” to create an evidence-based definition of concussion to help with the identification, screening, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of the condition. That definition has since been adopted by organizations such as the NCAA.
Today
-Today, BTF continues to focus on conducting innovative clinical research, updating its evidence-based guidelines, and working towards its goal of improving outcomes for the millions of people who suffer from traumatic brain injuries every year.
Research
Brain Trauma Foundation constantly seeks to improve the diagnosis and treatment of TBI. To do this, we lead the way in cutting-edge clinical research spanning the spectrum from concussion to coma. We are primarily funded by the Department of Defense and partner with some of the most prestigious research organizations, such as Stanford University, Oregon Health & Sciences University, Portland State University, University of Southern California, University of California Berkeley, and University of California Santa Barbara.
Board of directors
- Alan G. Quasha (Chairman)
- Francois M. Chateau
- Jamshid Ghajar, MD, PhD (President)
- Paul J. Manafort
- Pamela J. Newman
- Sarah Jessica Parker
- George Soros
- Elizabeth H. van Merkensteijn
- Deborah Ward
- Christina H. Wilson
Medical Advisory Board
- M. Ross Bullock, MD, PhD, Chairman – Virginia Commonwealth University
- Mary Kay Bader, MSN,CCRN,CNRN – Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center
- Robert M. Domeier, MD – National Association of EMS Physicians
- James Ecklund, MD, FACS – Walter Reed Army Medical Center
- Thomas J. Esposito, MD, MPH, FACS – Loyola University
- Steven R. Flanagan, MD – Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine
- Thomas A. Gennarelli, MD – Medical College of Wisconsin
- Ronald L. Hayes, PhD – Banyan Biomakers, Inc.
- E. Brooke Lerner, PhD, EMT-P – Medical College of Wisconsin
- Peter B. Letarte, MD, FACS – Loyola University Medical Center
- Harvey S. Levin, PhD – Baylor College of Medicine
- Andrew I.R. Maas, MD, PhD – Enasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Geoffrey T. Manley, MD, PhD – University of California, San Francisco
- Michael Pasquale, MD – Lehigh Valley Hospital
- Peter T. Pons, MD, FACEP – University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
- Claudia Robertson, MD – Baylor College of Medicine
- Franco Servadei, MD – M. Bufalini Hospital, Cesena, Italy
- John Whyte, MD, PhD – Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute