VA and Department of Defense clinical practice guidelines for mTBI

Dec 16 2009

The current issue of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA's) Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development (JRRD) features 19 timely scientific articles on traumatic brain injury (TBI), based on work by VA researchers and colleagues from a variety of disciplines. The papers were commissioned for a "state of the art" conference VA held last year to advance research in this area.

This issue also contains joint VA and Department of Defense clinical practice guidelines for mild TBI (mTBI). These guidelines include a screening tool and evaluation protocol for adult patients in any VA/DoD clinical setting at risk of a concussion/mTBI diagnosis.

The intent of these guidelines is to reduce current practice variation and to provide facilities with a structured framework to help improve patient outcomes. These guidelines are available as part of the journal or individually.

Henry Lew, MD, PhD, Chief of the PM&R Service, VA Boston Healthcare System, and chair of the TBI SOTA planning committee, served as guest editor for this special issue.

To view or download this issue, please visit http://www.rehab.research.va.gov/jour/09/46/6/contents.html.