Professor Melinda Fitzgerald.

Massive news out of the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute – A research mission led by our Deputy Director Melinda (Lindy) Fitzgerald to help improve the lives of children and adults with traumatic brain injuries has been awarded $50 million in Federal Government funding over the next 10 years.

The Mission for Traumatic Brain Injury initiative will bring together health professionals from major hospitals, universities and research institutes across Australia to help identify the predictors of poor outcomes following a traumatic brain injury and develop feasible initiatives to help improve the lives of patients.

The research will cover traumatic brain injuries of all severities, from concussion in sports to severe brain injuries from road accidents.

Lindy, who is the Mission Lead, and is also a researcher with the Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Science, said traumatic brain injuries dramatically affected the lives of patients and the people around them, both mentally and financially.

She said the research mission would help to address issues including the underreporting of milder traumatic brain injuries; inconsistency of treatments across the nation; and a lack of evidence to inform the public and health clinicians of how to best treat traumatic brain injuries, all of which can contribute to poor outcomes for patients.

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