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| WHAT: | The town hall is hosted by the Children’s National Medical Center and is a part of the Sarah Jane Brain Project’s 40+ state national brain injury tour. This particular event will address “How Do We Prevent, Identify and Treat Concussions in Youth?” |
| WHEN: | Friday, April 1st 2011 (3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.) |
| WHERE: | Children’s National Medical Center Board Room (5th floor, West Wing) 111 Michigan Ave, NW Washington, DC 20010 |
| WHO: | Moderator: Gerard Gioia, PhD Chief, Division of Pediatric Neuropsychology Director, Safe Concussion Outcome, Recovery & Education (SCORE) Program Children’s National Medical Center Associate Professor, Depts. of Pediatrics & Psychiatry George Washington Univ. School of MedicinePanelists: Shireen Atabaki MD, MPH Division of Emergency Medicine Children’s National Medical Center Jon Almquist, ATC, VATL Gabrielle and Dawn Smith |
| WHY: | This event is a part of The Sarah Jane Brain Project’s nationwide public awareness campaign dealing with brain injury, the leading cause of death and disability for America’s youth. The tour aims to bring awareness about youth sports concussions to high schools across the country as well as introduce the National Pediatric Acquired Brain Injury Plan (PABI Plan) through town hall meetings at local universities and hospitals.
The Sarah Jane Brain Foundation is one of the leading organizations in the country dealing with pediatric acquired brain injury (PABI), and its Advisory Board is comprised of over 200 leading experts from just about every major medical institution (from MD Anderson and Johns Hopkins to Mayo Clinic and Mount Sinai) and research university (from Harvard and Yale to UCLA and UNC) in the country. This Advisory Board created the National Pediatric Acquired Brain Injury Plan (PABI Plan) which develops a seamless, standardized, evidence-based system of care that is universally accessible for the millions of PABI families across the country. PABI can be caused by trauma (motor vehicle crashes, child abuse, sports-related concussions, blast injury from war, falls, etc…) as well as non-trauma (strokes, brain tumors, meningitis, hypoxia, etc…). (PABI covers these brain injuries from birth through 25 years of age, due to the fact the adolescent brain is still developing until about 25 years.) According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 1.6-3.8 million new brain injuries occur every year in America due to trauma in sports and recreational activities. More than 767,225 American youth visit the Emergency Department due to traumatic brain injuries each year, 80,715 are hospitalized and over 11,200 die. These numbers do not reflect the many more that do not enter a hospital, are not diagnosed or are caused by non-trauma. Upwards of 80% of the children in our juvenile detention centers across America have some form of a brain injury, most of which have not been identified or treated. |
| NOTES: | This event is open press. Media are asked to RSVP. Interviews with panelists and experts will be available prior to and following the event.Media contacts: For Children’s National Medical Center: Emily Dammeyer; 202-476-4500 For the Sarah Jane Foundation: Erika Langhart- 970-749-3963 |