Williamsburg TBI Rehabilitation Conference Registration Is Now Open

The Virginia Commonwealth University Traumatic Brain Injury Model System cordially invites you to register for the 37th Annual Williamsburg TBI Rehabilitation Conference, Rehabilitation of the Adult and Child with Brain Injury: Practical Solutions to Real-World Problems. A group of nationally and internationally renowned faculty has been assembled. Keynote presentations will focus on the law, policy, and practice; interdisciplinary approaches to community-based treatment; and neuropsychiatric management. Breakout sessions will focus on executive function disorders, cognitive support technologies, neuropsychology, aging, community-based neurobehavioral programming, survivor and caregiver perspectives, and sports concussion. The conference will feature peer-reviewed oral presentations by leaders in the field as well as indepth, hands-on training with two exceptional, day-long preconference workshops from which participants can choose, one on behavior management and the other on empirically based family intervention. For more information on the conference agenda, please visit the conference Web site.

MSKTC introduces Caris Peace

The MSKTC would like to highlight the work of Gaylen Ross & Rebecca Nelson on their 76 minute film Caris’ Peace. The film was released in 2011 with Lewis Black, Kate Burton, Caris Corfman, Nancy Giles, and Tony Shalhoub. The film is the story of New York Theater and film actress Caris Corfman, a brilliant graduate of the Yale School of Drama who as the result of a brain tumor lost her ability to make new memories. Filmed over 10 years, the documentary chronicles her courageous return to the stage, a comeback performance featured in The New York Times, and the fascinating ways she challenged her memory loss. This film captures what it is like to live trapped in the past, with only the thinnest slivers of the present.

Caris’ Peace premiered this year at the Hamptons International Film Festival, and was the official selection for the Williamstown Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, Santa Fe Film Festival, with awards at the Calgary “Picture This” Film Festival on Disability, and 1st place for documentaries at the Athens International Film Festival in Ohio.

In New York, the film was featured as part of the Rubin Museum of Art’s prestigious Brainwave series, which paired moderators with neuroscientists for post film discussions. Dr. Barry Gordon of Johns Hopkins University (who is also in the film,) was part of the program as well as Dr. Andre Fenton, Dr. Robert Landry, of New York University, and Dr. John DeLuca of the Kessler Institute.

Dr. Robert Daroff of Case Western Reserve University moderated the post-discussion of the film for the Cleveland International Film Festival, and Dr. Peter Fox of University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio when the film was presented by the Austin Film Society. Please feel free to take a look at Caris Peace Trailer and for more information view the Caris Peace Facebook Page and spread the word about this wonderful documentary!

Call for Nominations of Papers for the 2010-2011 Rosenthal Award

Nominations for the 2010-2011 Rosenthal Awards are now being accepted. Winners will be announced at the June 2013 TBI Model Systems project directors meeting. The Rosenthal Award honors Dr. Mitchell Rosenthal by calling attention to his significant contribution to the TBI Model Systems National Database. The rules for nominating are as follows:

-Papers in hardcopy journals are considered only if published in the journal in calendar years 2010 or 2011; papers published in electronic journals are considered if they were posted in 2010-11.
-Peer reviewed: only papers published in peer-reviewed journals are considered.
-TBI Model Systems National Database: papers (e.g. from modules, collaborative research) that supplement the database information will be considered, but each paper should include at least some national database (i.e. form I and/or form II) data.
-2+ systems: the data from the national database should be from at least two model systems

Please send citations for papers authored by you and your staff to Dr. Marcel Dijkers from New York Traumatic Brain Injury Model System.

Model Systems Researchers Author a Paper Published in the New England Journal of Medicine

The MSKTC congratulates Dr. Sureyya Dikmen, Dr. Nancy Temkin and Jason Barber from the University of Washington Traumatic Brain Injury Model System on their paper: A Trial of Intracranial-Pressure Monitoring in Traumatic Brain Injury, which was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Get Involved!

Are you the partner, family member, or caregiver of someone who sustained a SCI, TBI, or Burn Injury in the past five years? Would you like to share your experience in research to help others in the future?


The Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center (MSKTC) is recruiting individuals over 18 years old who are the primary caregivers of someone who sustained a SCI, TBI, or Burn Injury in the past five years. Participants will participate in an interview about caregivers’ health information needs. Participants will be compensated $20.


The study is funded by the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) and conducted by the American Institutes for Research and George Mason University. If you are interested, please call (202) 403-5127 or email msktc@air.org for more information.

Model Systems Researcher Interviewed about Athlete’s Concussions

Nancy Chiaravalloti, Ph.D., director of the Northern New Jersey Model Traumatic Brain Injury System, was interviewed about the effects of concussions and second impact syndrome on football players. Featured on Washington DC's WTOP radio, Chiaravalloti spoke about Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III's return to play. She also spoke on Michiana's WSBT radio, where she discussed the risk of further injury for Notre Dame players who had been treated for concussions.

Model System Researchers Present at the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) Meeting

A host of SCI and TBI model systems researchers participated in the 2012 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) in Vancouver, Canada from October 9-13, 2012.  Susan Harkema, PhD, of the Kentucky Regional Model Spinal Cord Injury System received the John Stanley Coulter Lecturer Award for her professional achievement and contributions to the advancement of the field of rehabilitation. Marcel Dijkers, PhD, FACRM, of the New York Traumatic Brain Injury Model System received the 2012 Gold Key Award, the highest honor given by the ACRM, for his extraordinary service to the cause of rehabilitation. Additionally, numerous model systems researchers presented papers and delivered lectures to advance the field of Rehabilitation Medicine. Information about these presentations can be found in the conference program. A list of model systems researchers that participated in the conference can be found below:

Participating Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems

Kentucky Regional Model Spinal Cord Injury System

Frazier Rehabilitation, Louisville, KY

·         Susan Harkema, PhD

Midwest Regional Spinal Cord Injury Care System

Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago

·         Anne Deutsch, Ph.D.

·         Allen W. Heinemann, PhD, ABPP (RP), FACRM

New England Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center

Boston University Medical Campus, Boston, MA

·         Alan Jette, PhD

Northern New Jersey Spinal Cord Injury Model System

Kessler Foundation Research Center,West Orange, NJ

·         Amanda Botticello, PhD

Regional SCI Center of the Delaware Valley

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Magee Rehabilitation Hospital
Philadelphia, PA

·         Ralph Marino,MD

Rocky Mountain Regional Spinal Injury System

Craig Hospital, Englewood, CO

·         Susan Charlifue, PhD

·         Gale Whiteneck, PhD, FACRM

Southern California Spinal Cord Injury Model System

Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, Downey, CA

·         Philip Requejo, PhD

Southeastern Regional Spinal Cord Injury Care System

Shepherd Center, Inc., Atlanta, GA

·         James Krause, PhD

·         Keith Tansey, MD, PhD

UAB  Spinal Cord Injury Model   System

University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL

·         Scott Richards, PhD, ABPP

University of Michigan Spinal Cord Injury Model  System

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

·         Anthony Chiodo, MD

·         Martin Forchheimer, MPP

·         Claire Kalpakjan, PhD

·         Denise Tate, PhD, FACRM

·         David Tulsky, PhD

Participating Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems

Moss Traumatic Brain Injury Model System

Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, Elkins Park, PA

·         Mary Ferraro, PhD, OTR/L

·         Tessa Hart, PhD, FACRM

·         John Whyte, MD, PhD, FACRM

New York Traumatic Brain Injury Model System

Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY

·         Joshua Cantor, PhD

·         Marcel Dijkers, PhD, FACRM

·         Wayne Gordon, PhD

·         Brian Greenwald, MD

Northern New Jersey Traumatic Brain Injury Model System

Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, West Orange, NJ

·         Anthony Lequerica, PhD

·         Karen Nolan, PhD

 Ohio Regional Traumatic Brain Injury Model System

Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

·         John Corrigan, PhD, FACRM

Rocky Mountain Regional Brain Injury System

Craig Hospital, Englewood, CO

·         Cindy Harrison- Felix, PhD

Texas Traumatic Brain Injury Model System of TIRR

TIRR Memorial Hermann, Houston, TX

·         Allison Clark, PhD

·         Angelle Sander, PhD

·         Mark Sherer, PhD

Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems National Data and Statistical Center 

Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colorado

·         Jeffrey P. Cuthbert, MPH, MS

·         Christopher Pretz, PhD

University of Washington Traumatic Brain Injury Model System

University of Washington, Seattle, WA

·         Kathleen Bell, MD

·         Sureyya Dikmen, PhD

·         Jeanne Hoffman, PhD