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Media Roundtable: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Virtual media roundtables provide reporters with an opportunity for direct discussion with leading VA researchers on key research topics and portfolio areas. Each hour-long session includes brief remarks by researchers on a designated topic followed by a question and answer session. Reporters may participate in-person at VA headquarters in Washington, DC, or by teleconference. For more information, including a call-in number, please contact Laurie Tranter, VA Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs, at Laurie.Tranter@va.gov

Panelists

Joel Kupersmith, MD: As Chief Research and Development Officer of the VA, Dr. Kupersmith has completed projects and published papers on a number of health and research policy projects including how to fund, oversee and promote comparative effectiveness research, how Academic Medical Centers should be accountable, quality of care in teaching hospitals, regional IRBs, medical manpower and other issues.
Regina McGlinchey, Ph.D. - Dr. Regina McGlinchey is currently serving at the Boston VA Rehabilitation Center of Excellence as Director and Principal Investigator of the TRACTS Program. She also is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the Harvard School of Medicine. Since receiving her doctorate from Tufts University, Dr. McGlinchey has focused on expanding the understanding of normal functions such as attention, perception, language, memory, and learning through the study of individuals for whom these functions have become compromised. Recently, Dr. McGlinchey has turned her focus to understanding how mild TBI and related stress disorders, independently and interactively impact the brain, which can lead to issues in thinking abilities and problems with family and work-life. Several of Dr. McGlinchey's research projects, such as Translational Research Center for Traumatic Brain Injury and Stress Disorders (TRACTS), focus on the development of innovative treatments that target both TBI and related stress disorders, simultaneously, in order to maximize recovery.
Dr. William Milberg, Ph.D. - Dr. William Milberg is a Research Neuropsychologist at the VA Brockton/West Roxbury Medical Center in Boston, Mass. and a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Milberg's research program has focused on the basic problem of the manner in which stroke and dementia impact patients' cognitive functioning. He is well known for his work showing how information, and the processes that use that information, may be studied separately in patients with neurological disease. In collaboration with Dr. McGlinchey, Dr. Milberg helped lead the effort to acquire a new center of excellence funded by VA Rehabilitation Research and Development (RR&D) and is currently serving as the Co-Principal Investigator of the TRACTS program.

Media Toolkit & Resources

Roundtable Materials

*Files are in PDF format.

• Detection of blast-related traumatic brain injury in U.S. military personnel.
• Complicating factors associated with mild traumatic brain injury: impact on pain and posttraumatic stress disorder treatment.
• Exploring the convergence of posttraumatic stress disorder and mild traumatic brain injury.
• Mild traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress disorder in returning veterans: perspectives from cognitive neuroscience.

About VA Research

How is VA research different from research sponsored by other federal research agencies?

• VA Research is the only research program focused entirely on Veterans' needs.
• VA Research is intramural, meaning only VA employees can conduct research under VA's sponsorship. Typically, VA researchers collaborate with academic institutions. We feel that this is an exceptional benefit because it allows us to identify the direct needs of patients at chair and bed side, and to find discoveries and innovations directly in-step with these needs-keeping the Veteran at the center of health care from the very beginning.
• More than 60 percent of VA researchers are also clinicians who provide direct patient care, which is important because it allows VA Research to quickly move scientific discovery from the research setting to advancements in health care and to recruit the best and brightest healthcare professionals.

For more information, please visit http://www.research.va.gov/about/.

VA Research and Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic Brain Injury

• Research Advances in TBI
• VA Rehab R&D Brain Rehabilitation Research Center
• TRACTS: VA Research explores unique issues of Veterans with both TBI and PTSD
• Healing the injured brain: How can research help?
• Special Journal Issue on Traumatic Brain Injury

Information on TBI for Veterans

• VA Polytrauma System of Care
• Veterans Health Initiative: Traumatic Brain Injury

Media RoundtablePress Coverage

VA Press Release, March 31, 2012, "Research Roundtable Caps VA Celebration of Women's History Month"

Can writing exercises for veterans help cure PTSD?" in Stars and Stripes on March 16, 2012

"VA touts research department's newest efforts" in Stars and Stripes on November 15, 2012

Previous Roundtables

• March 27, 2012 Roundtable "VA Research: Making a Difference in the Health of Women Veterans"
• February 16, 2012 Roundtable: "Translating Mental Health Research into Health Care Excellence"

Questions about the R&D website? Email the Web Team.

Any health information on this website is strictly for informational purposes and is not intended as medical advice. It should not be used to diagnose or treat any condition.