• Press Release

National Grant Awarded to Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to Continue the New York Traumatic Brain Injury Model System

  • NEW YORK, NY
  • (October 17, 2017)

The National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) has awarded the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and the Brain Injury Research Center a five-year grant totaling $2.2 million to fund the New York Traumatic Brain Injury Model System at Mount Sinai to study traumatic brain injury (TBI).  

NIDILRR awards TBI Model Systems grants to 16 institutions in the United States that are national leaders in research and clinical care for TBI. TBI Model System centers provide the highest level of comprehensive clinical care and multidisciplinary rehabilitation for individuals with TBI from the point of injury through community re-entry. 

The grant will fund the work of researchers from the Brain Injury Research Center at Mount Sinai who will contribute to the largest study of TBI outcomes in the world, curated by the NIDILRR-funded TBI Model Systems National Data and Statistical Center. Together, the TBI Model Systems have enrolled over 15,000 individuals with TBI and followed them over time for up to 25 years. Under this award, the Brain Injury Research Center at Mount Sinai will test the effectiveness of an internet-delivered neurobehavioral intervention to improve emotional regulation after TBI, and will continue its research on the long-term neurocognitive effects of TBI. The New York TBI Model System also provides information and resources to individuals with TBI, their families, health care providers, and the general public.

“This award recognizes the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and our Brain Injury Research Center as one of the premier centers for the treatment and research of traumatic brain injuries,” says Joseph E. Herrera, DO, System Chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine..  “Even more importantly, this is recognition of our commitment to discover treatments that will maximize functioning quality of life for those living with TBI and their families.”

Established in 1987, the Brain Injury Research Center of Mount Sinai has conducted research that has greatly expanded the medical community’s understanding of the long-term challenges of living with TBI and the best approaches to leading better lives after injury. 

“Thanks to the ongoing support of the NIDILRR, our researchers have the opportunity to continue advancing scientific knowledge about the challenges faced by those who sustain a traumatic brain injury, to test innovative new treatment methods, and help improve the health and well-being of our patients,” says Kristen Dams-O’Connor, PhD, Director of The Brain Injury Research Center of Mount Sinai and Project Director of the New York TBI Model System.  “Our work will benefit our patients here in New York, but will also stretch beyond our state borders, as the knowledge gained through this project will be shared with clinicians and researchers worldwide.”


About the Mount Sinai Health System

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with more than 43,000 employees working across eight hospitals, over 400 outpatient practices, nearly 300 labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time — discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.

Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 7,300 primary and specialty care physicians; 13 joint-venture outpatient surgery centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and more than 30 affiliated community health centers. We are consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals, receiving high "Honor Roll" status, and are highly ranked: No. 1 in Geriatrics and top 20 in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology/Lung Surgery, Rehabilitation, and Urology. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked No. 12 in Ophthalmology. U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Children’s Hospitals” ranks Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital among the country’s best in several pediatric specialties.

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