Funded Injury Control Research Centers (ICRCs)

Overview

The Mount Sinai Injury Control Research Center (MS-ICRC) is housed within the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The mission of the MS-ICRC is to reduce the impact of TBI, to improve quality of life after injury and to prevent violence in high-risk populations (with TBI or not). The MS-ICRC focuses on three areas: (1) building the knowledge base, (2) developing and evaluating interventions, and (3) supporting the expansion of systematic screening to identify individuals with “hidden” TBI, i.e., people who are unaware that the long-term symptoms they are experiencing are probably due to one or more TBIs, and who, because of their failure to causally link a possible/probable injury to its consequences, also fail to seek or find appropriate treatment or help of any kind, which exacerbates their injury-related problems and symptoms.

Four studies comprise MS-ICRC’s current research program:

• Evaluating the impact of a behavioral intervention to reduce violence and recidivism amongst youth, with and without TBI, who are on parole in the state of Texas. This study “translates” an intervention the MS-ICRC developed for an adult TBI population, for use with adolescents at risk for continuing criminal behavior, including violent behavior.
• Conducting a preliminary investigation to shape future research on post-TBI health issues associated with accelerated aging and pre-mature death, documented in many people injured after age 45.
• Analyzing a database developed by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, to explore the relationship between youth criminality and TBI, focusing on violent offenses.
• Conducting a longitudinal study of all college athletes at St. John’s University in NYC to document lifetime history of self-reported concussions at time of college admission and prospectively document concussions sustained during college, both on and off the field. Participants will be followed yearly to examine the medium- to long-term consequences of concussions, for example, on academic performance, post-college employment, alcohol and substance use and mood.

The MS-ICRC also engages in three types of outreach activity:

• Professional Training, Education and Technical Assistance - Focuses on building the field of injury prevention practitioners and researchers by training post-doctoral fellows and pre-doctoral externs. In addition, MS-ICRC provides educational opportunities for service providers and researchers through webinars, symposia at professional conferences as well as invited lectures at medical/educational institutions relevant to our mission. MS-ICRC offers a variety of resources online such as manuals for several TBI-relevant interventions. Technical assistance is provided upon request to support the adoption and use of products emerging from MS-ICRC activities.
• Outreach to Lay Audiences: Focuses on information sharing through social media and the MS-ICRC website as well as development of educational products that address challenges of living with TBI.
• Policy Research and Evaluation: One or more Policy Think Tanks will be formed to review data relevant to injury prevention policy interventions, i.e., data generated by the MS-ICRC and by others. The mandate will be to develop evidence based recommendations and strategies that MS-ICRC can adopt to address injury prevention priorities.