The Traumatic Brain Injury Conference 2011

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a major cause of death and disability globally and is considered a serious public health problem. In the US, an estimated 1.7 million people sustain a TBI every year, and over 30 percent of all reported injury-related deaths list TBI as a contributing factor. Moreover, mild traumatic brain injury is the most common combat-related injury and along with spinal cord injury, TBI accounts for nearly 25 percent of combat casualties.

Treatment of TBI and especially acute TBI is still a major unmet medical need. Therapies that prove an ability to limit the damage done to the brain and improve clinical outcomes of patients of TBI will have a major impact on the global pharmaceutical market. Although past clinical trials for new therapies have ended in failure, there is indeed renewed interest in this field and with recent initiatives from both the US Congress and Department of Defense to improve treatment options for TBI patients, the time has come for a rethinking of the potential for pharmaceutical management of this condition.

Key Questions Addressed by this Conference Include:

*How can animal model results translate to clinical research?

*What are the key patient populations for future clinical trials?

*What outcomes should new clinical trials measure?

*How can the blood-brain barrier be overcome in drug delivery?

Themes and Topics Include:

*Animal models and TBI: translating results to the clinic

*Designing effective clinical trials, taking into account prognostic factors and likely clinical outcomes

*Drug delivery (blood-brain barrier) challenges facing developers of TBI therapies

*Acute TBI

*Post-Acute/chronic neurorehabilitation

*Neuroprotection

*Halting secondary injury in TBI

*Proper diagnosis – biomarkers and molecular diagnostics in TBI