MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital
Faculty provides care for thousands suffering from mild to traumatic brain injuries. The concussion clinic at Medstar NRH focuses primarily on this form of brain injury and is regarded as one of the best in the country according to U.S. News & World Report. 75 percent of all traumatic brain injuries that occur are concussions. Traumatic brain injuries contribute to a third of all deaths in the United States with over 1.5 million brain injuries occurring each year. During their stay, patients are also educated on precautions they can take to prevent a future incidence.
Traumatic brain injury modeling
While modeling itself only gives estimations, research based on these estimations could give rise to amazing technology. For example, a human head and combat helmet were modeled under blast waves, and the results showed that the helmet did very little to stop blast-induced damage. With this information, a new type of combat helmet could be created that minimizes the damage that blast waves can cause. This technology could then also be applied to general armor, or even clothing (blast waves damage internal organs as well). This kind of advancement is only the beginning of TBI reduction. Methods such as genetic manipulation may also become available in the future that could increase the stress and strain thresholds for neurons, or perhaps methods for healing the brain altogether will be created based on the modeling done in the present.