|
The
Bright Foundation's Vision:
BRain
Injury
Group
- Hope
Through
Treatment
BRIGHT is a newly forming
501(3)c non-profit. We are primarily
a parent’s group with the strong
involvement of clinical and research
professionals. We serve the
population of infants and children
that suffered an acquired brain
injury early in life. We are
concerned with the developmental
process, both motor and cognition.
We have a quickly growing membership
of parents and professionals
(currently about 400) that primarily
benefit from our website http://brightfoundation/.tripod.com
where we feature current research
reviews, therapy effectiveness
reviews, advocacy information, and
practical advice and support forums.
While these website services
serve to enlarge our membership and
provide much needed resources to the
community, they are not our primary
focus. Our primary focus is the
engagement of the professional
community to accelerate the
translation of cutting edge research
into clinical applications, to
promote focused research in limited
high impact areas, and to generate
excitement among media and public
and private funding sources.
Our research agenda is guided by
a growing world class Scientific
Advisory Board, consisting of
experts from multi-disciplinary
backgrounds including basic
medicine, rehabilitation, neurology,
bio-mechanics, robotics, kinematics,
etc. Our goal is to help the
professional community achieve
significant improvements in clinical
outcomes with-in three to five years
through a focused research agenda.
Given this aggressive timetable we
will focus on promoting the
enhancement of existing
rehabilitation methodologies to
optimize plasticity, rather than
venture into more uncertain
territory such as stem cells.
With the help of our Scientific
Board, we have conducted an
extensive evaluation of the current
state of knowledge in the field of
childhood rehabilitation after brain
injury (BI). We have found ample
evidence that plasticity can play a
powerful role in dramatically
improving outcomes. We have found
splintered research that suggests
effective treatment modalities.
However, in general we have come to
the conclusion that the field is
still in its infantile stage.
Because of this, we hold great hope
for the future. We believe that what
is needed today is a focused,
grassroots movement to help provide
the professional community with the
vision, funding, motivation and
urgency to achieve results in the
three to five year timeframe.
|  |
| We
take mentorship from
organizations such as the
Christopher Reeves
Foundation, Project ALS
and Cure Autism Now. All
of these organizations
have been extremely
effective in promoting and
advancing the state of
knowledge in their
respective fields. We do
not believe that any
existing groups represent
the Childhood BI community
in a similar manner and
this is the gap that
BRIGHT intends to fill.
Our current focus
includes the electronic
cataloging of empirically
proven facts concerning BI
rehabilitation, review of
the theoretical and
empirical basis for
current treatment
modalities including
mainstream as well as
alternative approaches,
the creation of a on-line
database of children with
BI including their birth
and medical history, their
treatment history and
their developmental
history, and finally we
plan to host our first
meeting of the scientific
board to refine the most
promising areas of
research in April of 2003
with a much larger event,
possibly with NIH funding,
in September 2003.
With many of the
founders having strong
backgrounds in business,
engineering and other
practical problem solving
areas we believe in a
disciplined and focused
approach to achieve our
goal. We start with a
definition of the
objective, define the
problem boundaries,
establish a measurement
system, define success
with-in that measurement
system, collect data,
analyze the data,
implement possible
solution strategies,
measure again, improve
again or put in place
controls to maintain the
improvement.
With this mind, one of
our top priorities is a
call for the community to
come together to develop
more effective
measurements and
measurement systems. This
area alone represents a
huge opportunity and
demands adequate
leadership, focus and
funding immediately.
As a final note,
although we recognize the
obvious need for funding
to solve any problem, our
knowledge and experience
has shown us time and time
again that problems are
never solved with money
alone. Problems are solved
with a clear vision, a
motivated team and the
ability to step outside
the boundaries of current
practice. It is these
conditions that BRIGHT
seeks to create. We are
confident that our
children have a very
BRIGHT future.
|
|
