Research Funding Sources

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) funds Brain Injury Research Center investigations that contribute to the CDC Injury Center’s mission of promoting public health through research, prevention, and the dissemination of information through the Mount Sinai Injury Control Research Center (MS-ICRC).

The MS-ICRC’s mission is to reduce the impact of traumatic brain injury (TBI), to improve quality of life after injury, and to prevent violence in high-risk populations (with or without the presence of TBI).

The MS-ICRC focuses on three main goals:

1. Building the knowledge base in our field
2. Developing and evaluating interventions
3. Expanding systematic screening to identify individuals with TBI, i.e. those who are unaware that their long-term symptoms are likely linked to TBI(s), and who therefore fail to seek appropriate treatment or support

Learn more about the CDC’s support of the Mount Sinai Injury Control Research Center (MS-ICRC)

The Traumatic Brain Injury Model System (TBIMS) program, sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), Administration for Community Living, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, supports innovative projects and research in the delivery, demonstration, and evaluation of medical, rehabilitation, vocational, and other services designed to meet the needs of individuals with traumatic brain injury.

NIDILRR awards TBI Model System grants to institutions that are national leaders in medical research and patient care for TBI. These institutions provide the highest level of comprehensive specialty services from the point of injury through eventual re-entry into full community life. TBI Model System grants are awarded in five-year cycles, and the Brain Injury Research Center is proud to announce our continued funding for the current cycle (2017-2022).

Each TBI Model System contributes to the Traumatic Brain Injury Model System National Data and Statistical Center (TBINDSC), and participates in independent and collaborative research. They also provide information and resources to individuals with TBI and their families, caregivers, and friends; health care professionals; and the general public.

Learn more about the NIDILRR’s support of Mount Sinai's Traumatic Brain Injury Model System (TBIMS) program.

Two National Institutes of Health (NIH) institutes - The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) support the Late Effects of TBI (LETBI) project, a multi-center and multi-disciplinary, brain donation study, designed to dramatically increase understanding of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and the late effects of traumatic brain injury. This project represents the most systematic and scientifically rigorous effort to date to develop a more complete understanding of the long-term clinical and neuropathological sequelae of single and multiple TBI.  

Learn more about the NIH’s support of TBI research

The Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) supports a multi-center pragmatic trial called Brain Injury Rehabilitation: Improving the Transition Experience (BRITE).

The main goal of the BRITE project is to find out how improving the transition from the hospital to outpatient care can improve the lives of people with moderate to severe TBI and achieve better results that are important to patients with TBI, their families, and healthcare providers. In this study, patients with TBI who are discharged from inpatient rehabilitation at one of six national TBI Model Systems sites (University of Washington, Indiana University, Ohio State University, Mount Sinai Hospital, Moss Rehabilitation, and Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation) will be randomized (like the flip of a coin) to either standard care or to standard care with additional telephone follow up for the first 6 months after discharge. The project team will compare patient and caregiver functioning and quality of life at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after hospital discharge in these two groups. The researchers have formed a team of TBI patient and family stakeholders who have helped define the study aims, study population, treatments, and outcome measures, and will take part in all phases of the research. The project team has also found clinical, health system, policy/advocacy, and payer stakeholders to work on this project and help the researchers apply and distribute results in order to raise standards of care and improve healthcare systems for people with TBI.

The Department of Defense (DoD) funds a project called “Late Life Consequences of TBI and Military Service: A Population-Based Study” under the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program’s Epidemiology of Military Risk Factors Award. People who serve in the military have specific risk of exposure to head injury or traumatic brain injury (TBI) in addition to the typical risks faced by all people. TBIs can be fatal or cause severe disability, but many people survive TBI and recover well. The long-term consequences of survived TBIs are not entirely clear. Some studies suggest an association between TBI and dementia, while others do not. Both TBI and military service may increase the risk for medical problems in late life, but other studies suggest military service can have a positive impact on health. These questions are of great importance to society at large and to the Department of Defense (DoD) in particular. As medical care has improved, many people are surviving TBI and living to older adulthood, so determining the effects of survived head injuries on the aging brain becomes of incredible relevance. This information is needed to plan service needs for the numerous service members and civilians who sustain a TBI.

In the current project, we will address these important questions using data from the already-established Adult Changes of Thought (ACT) study. ACT is a prospective cohort study of older adults who are followed over time to characterize their health and functioning, and also to identify incident cases of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. We have decades of medical records and pharmacy data, plus neurocognitive and behavioral data collected at every study visit. Our proposal addresses the hypothesis that TBI and military service have independent and joint effects on AD and other dementias, late-life cognition, medical health, functional independence, and mood. Specifically, we will investigate the associations of TBI and military service with clinical and postmortem diagnoses of dementia, and also with late life cognitive, medical, functional, and emotional health. Finally, we will explore the clinical phenotypes of post-TBI aging as compared to those of well-characterized neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. People aging with TBI have unique symptoms, and many TBI survivors and military service members retain excellent health as they age. This project will allow us to better understand the factors associated with healthy aging and late-life decline among people living and aging after TBI.

Additional research funding support is provided by:

• The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA)
• The Seton Brain Research Fund

Learn more about additional brain injury research funding sources.