Defense Brain Injury Center, Two Decades of Research and Advancements Published May 3, 2013 By Christy Crimmins Health.mil March 29, 2013 -- For more than 20 years, the Defense and Veteran's Brain Injury Center, one of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, has served service members, beneficiaries and veterans with state-of-the-art clinical care, innovative clinical research initiatives and educational programs. "DVBIC is seen as the epicenter for DoD Traumatic Brain Injury research," Kathy Helmick, DVBIC's deputy director said. "Prior to the 90s, either you survived your bad brain injury or you didn't, and for those who survived, the outcome was not great." Today, she says the outlook for those impacted by brain injury, whether in the military or civilian population, is much brighter. When the organization was founded in 1992 by Congressional mandate, its network of hospitals included three DoD medical centers and three VA medical centers. Today, DVBIC, which is a partnership between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense, is comprised of a central headquarters in the national capital region and network sites at 11 military treatment facilities, five Veterans Affairs medical centers and two neurorehabilitation community reintegration centers. Each location treats, supports, trains and monitors service members, veterans, family members and providers who have been affected by TBI. Among the services that DVBIC provides are screening and briefing troops and health providers before heading into theater, gathering data mandated by Congress and the Department of Defense and overseeing research programs. Additionally, DVBIC treats service members and veterans with mild, moderate or severe TBI, and helps them from the moment of injury to their return to duty or reintegration into the community. Helmick says that DVBIC has contributed to many advancements that have transferred to civilian medicine. For instance, some of the protocols developed to evaluate individuals who may have sustained concussion on the battlefield are also being used to evaluate head trauma in those injured in football, soccer and other contact sports. Likewise, pre-deployment cognitive testing employed by the military services to establish a baseline for use later when a suspected TBI or concussion occurs, are also being used by civilian health care providers. "Standardization and identifying gaps and filling those have been a huge part of what the DoD and DVBIC have contributed to the civilian sector," Helmick explained. When asked about goals and challenges for the future, Helmick points to 672 TBI research studies that have been conducted since 2007. "Part of DVBIC's challenge and mission is to review the findings from that research and translate and implement it to clinical practice." DVBIC offers a wealth of free information and resources to service members and veterans, family and friends, and civilian and military medical providers, and offers free webinars, online courses for health care providers, and links to other training opportunities. Visit health.mil for more information about brain injury awareness.