Brain Waves: UAB Traumatic Brain Injury Model System Newsletter Volume 12 | Number 2

VOL 12 | NUM 2 2014 BrainWaves UAB Traumatic Brain Injury Model System Digital Newsletter Headline News Welcome to the new Brain Waves! We have a new, modern look and more visually interesting newsletter. There is more information. You can click on highlighted text to easily send emails and quickly go to websites. Click on phone numbers to dial your smartphone. And now, you will get audio and video whenever it is needed to give you a true interactive multimedia experience. Email us to tell us what you think. The University of Alabama at Birmingham Traumatic Brain Injury Model System (UAB-TBIMS) provides Brain Waves twice annually as an informational resource for people with traumatic brain injury (TBI). UAB-TBIMS Program Director: Thomas Novack, PhD Editor: Phil Klebine, MA 529 Spain Rehabilitation Center 1717 6th Avenue South Birmingham, AL 35233-7330 Phone: [phone] TDD: 205-934-4642 Fax: [phone] WWW.UAB.EDU/TBI [email protected] /UABTBIMS /UABTBIMS /UABTBIMS Brain Waves is funded by grant #H133A120096 from the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Community Living. Opinions expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the granting agency. ©2014 University of Alabama Board of Trustees. The University of Alabama at Birmingham provides equal opportunity in education and employment. The United States Army has signed on as the executive agent for the Department of Defense’s (DOD) concussion initiative with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The initiative is known as the Grand Alliance. The overall goals for this joint venture are to enhance and accelerate research of traumatic injuries and concussive brain injuries. The Grand Alliance will also look at the development, testing and regulatory approval of screening and diagnostic devices, clinical practice regiments, return to play/return to action protocol, and human prevention strategies, such as resiliency training to prevent such injuries. Go to website It is easy to see if someone is having a seizure. A person falls to the floor, muscles may stiffen or twitch out of control; eyes may roll back or eyelids flutter. But not all seizures are obvious to see. “Silent” seizures can ripple across regions of the brain without any visible clues, but there can be potentially damaging effects. Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany recently became the first United States military hospital capable of detecting those silent seizures in patients with brain injuries. Thanks to a rare civilian-military medical partnership. the medical center can now detect silent seizures through a diagnostic tool called continuous electroencephalography (cEEG). Go to website The Kessler Foundation and University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability recently released the October National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE) Report. According to nTIDE, employment is on the rise for people with disabilities for the first time since September 2013. The employment-to-population ratio reflects the percentage of people who are working relative to the total population (the number of people working divided by the number of people in the total population multiplied by 100). The employment-to-population ratio increased from 26.9% in October 2013 to 27.1% in October 2014 (up 0.7%; 0.2% points). This means there are 139,816,000 workers in the U.S. ages 16-64. There are 4,350,000 workers with disabilities. This means people with disabilities represents 3.1% of the total workforce. Go to website Two new studies published in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine shed light on the most common form of head injury seen in athletes. They suggest that concussions continue to be a ‘hidden injury’ in sports, even in the face significant increased public awareness. Go to website