Newest Generation of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Medical Program to Highlight Efforts

Traumatic Brain Injury a signature wound of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to be the focus of medical research meeting in DC.  March 7th targeted to bring researchers and government and military medicine together to tackle the issue of finding new therapies for the newest and youngest veterans of this country.  So while the hunt goes on for 20 years on Gulf War Illness and to find help for those veterans that have waited, those veterans were also the first to stand up and push to help the youngest group in hope they will not have as longer of a wait as previous wars. 

It will be up to the citizens of the US to recognize the needs of these veterans of the past 20 years and to join the fight to help them by continuing to apply pressure by way of communicating with US Senators and Representative that this is the cost of wars and that this after cost is a moral and ethical obligation of our government.  The need is for recognition of these veterans and for the backbone from the american citizens that funding is needed and should be a priority in order that these veterans may have a doorway of health treatment so that they can rejoin society and be part of the workforce and contribute to their communities.

America this is your chance to assist these veterans in meaningful ways by lending your voices and your efforts in communicating with your elected representatives.  Show the veterans your support in a meaningful way communicate in writing to your US House of Representative member and US Senators now.  Remember that the treatment of injuries from war have always historically benefited civilian health care advances.

Arrowhead’s Annual Traumatic Brain Injury Conference, set to take place on March 7, 2011 in Washington, DC has been organized to bring together individuals from the biopharmaceutical industry, government, military and academia to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing those involved in the research and development and commercialization of new therapies for acute and chronic traumatic brain injury (TBI).

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.

Attendees will hear from the following R&D leaders:

• Frank C. Tortella, Ph.D., Chief, Department of Applied Neurobiology & CCCRP Brain Trauma Program, Manager, Division of Neuropsychiatry & Neuroscience, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
• Darryl Kaelin, M.D., Medical Director, Acquired Brain Injury Program, Shepherd Center
• David X. Cifu, M.D., Chairman & Herman J. Flax, M.D. Professor, Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R), Executive Director, Center for Rehabilitation Sciences & Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University, National Director for PM&R Services, Veterans Health Administration, Chief, PM&R Services, McGuire VA Medical Center
• Donald G. Stein, Ph.D., Director, Department of Emergency Medicine, Brain Research Laboratory, Emory University
• Jackson Streeter, M.D., Chief Executive Officer and Chief Medical Officer, Banyan Biomarkers
• Allen Davidoff, Ph.D., Vice President Product Development, Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp.
• Christine Marx, M.D., Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center
• Amy K. Wagner, MD, Associate Professor, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Pittsburgh
• R. Loch Macdonald, M.D., Ph.D, Keenan Endowed Chair of Neurosurgery, University of Toronto, Chief Scientific Officer, Edge Therapeutics
• Neal M. Farber, Ph.D., CEO, NeuroHealing Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

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