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VCU To Lead $62M Study of Vet Brain Injuries

Virginia Commonwealth University has been awarded a $62 million federal grant to oversee a national research consortium of universities, hospitals and clinics that will study what happens to service members and veterans who suffer mild traumatic brain injuries or concussions, the White House announced.
 
The concussions that will be studied include both combat injuries, such as those from blasts and bullets, and civilian injuries, such as those from car accidents, sports injuries and falls.
 
[Read Article HERE].

“This is another significant milestone in VCU’s ascent as a national-caliber public research university,” said VCU President Michael Rao. “We recognize that an award of this magnitude only results from the research excellence that is fostered and encouraged across VCU.”
 
This is the second particularly large grant that VCU has received in recent years. In 2010, VCU received a $20 million grant – until now, the largest federal award in its history – from the National Institutes of Health to become part of a nationwide consortium of research institutions working to turn laboratory discoveries into treatments for patients. VCU was the only academic health center in Virginia selected to join the consortium.
 
Quotes by the Administration on the topic of brain injury...
 
"Imagine if we could reverse traumatic brain injury or PTSD for our veterans who are coming home."  - President Obama (speaking at the NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MENTAL HEALTH)
 
"For our veterans with PTSD, we’ve made it easier for you to get the VA care you need as well, regardless of the war that you served in."  - First Lady Michelle Obama (speaking at a DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS CONVENTION)
 
"We have seen doctors and nurses take bold new steps to care for the families affected by PTSD and traumatic brain injuries." (speaking at a JOINING FORCES EMPLOYMENT EVENT)
 
"We’re also focused on the urgent needs of our veterans with PTSD.  We’ve poured tremendous resources into this fight -- thousands of more counselors and more clinicians, more care and more treatment.  And we've made it easier for veterans with PTSD to qualify for VA benefits.  But after a decade of war, it’s now an epidemic.  We’re losing more troops to suicide -- one every single day -- than we are in combat.  According to some estimates, about 18 veterans are taking their lives each day -- more every year than all the troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.  That's a tragedy.  It's heartbreaking.  It should not be happening in the United States of America."  (speaking at THE 113TH NATIONAL CONVENTIONOF THE VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS

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