“Our collaborative team of subspecialists and neurosurgeons provides rapid assessment, diagnosis and personalized treatment to accelerate our patients on the path to recovery. This multidisciplinary approach requires education and training to maintain and share our expertise. This is where philanthropy can really help, to allow the Neurotrauma Center to have continual excellence and to educate the next generation of neurotrauma subspecialists.”
LAURA B. NGWENYA, MD, PhD Director, Neurotrauma Center, UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute Vice Chair of Research, Department of Neurosurgery
Dear Friend,
When life is at stake, UC Health’s highly trained neurotrauma team is ready to treat even the most complex conditions with the fastest and most extensive critical care.
At the University of Cincinnati Gardner Neuroscience Institute, the UC Neurotrauma Center team offers the most comprehensive treatment available. As part of the Tristate’s only adult Level 1 trauma center, the UC Neurotrauma Center provides emergency care and rehabilitation for patients with mild to severe head injuries. Led by expert physicians and researchers, we conduct nationally supported research to deliver the best personalized care to our patients.
Our Neurotrauma Center team is unique in that we guide patients through their journey to recovery after acute care has ended. Our specialists see patients and families in the outpatient clinic for up to 12-months post injury. This level of intensive personalized care ensures the best outcomes.
Neurotraumatic injuries affect over 2 million people in the United States each year and can have a devastating impact on quality of life. Our skilled neurotrauma researchers and clinicians work every day to find ways to help those with a brain injury to get better.
With your partnership, we will continue to lead the way—forging pathways to potential cures, growing our outreach and influence and constantly improving patient care—as one of the best neuroscience institutes in the nation. We are so grateful for your thoughtful consideration to partner with our team in support of this important work that we are confident will improve lives here in Greater Cincinnati and around the world.
Laura B Ngwenya, MD, PhD Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Research Department of Neurosurgery Director, Neurotrauma Center
RESEARCH
Growing and retaining top talent
At the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute, our faculty leaders bring an evidence-based focus to everything we do. To attract rising-star researchers and expand our quests for discovery, we must evolve our resources to maintain the fast pace required for continual health care innovation.
Endowed chairs for clinical leadership and research faculty
Historically, endowed chairs were a want-to-have luxury, today they are a need-to-have tool in order for UC to be competitive with other nationally ranked academic medical centers. Chairs are essential to our ability to recruit and retain top talent among a competitive field of other neuroscience institutes. Establishing new chairs builds permanency and sustainability in our areas of excellence.
Clinical leadership to advance the subspecialty care areas of:
• Neurotrauma
• Traumatic brain injury
• Neurodegenerative disease
• Population health
• Patient outcomes
• Imaging
Neuroscience research chairs expand clinical trials and basic neuroscience research to enable the discovery of new medications and treatments while also protecting time for physician-scientists to balance patient care with research and teaching. An endowed research chair allows us to recruit new thought leaders or retain vital faculty and ensures continuity of important research efforts at the university.
Paired with our advanced facilities and research operations, endowed chairs will attract nationally and globally recognized faculty to the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute. This accelerates the research and development of new treatments, all to directly benefit more patients.
Expanding research for improved outcomes
MRI research technology
MRI scans are now a key component of clinical research trials at the neuroscience institute—including in traumatic brain injury, stroke, epilepsy, memory and mood disorders. Neuroimaging research allows a physician or researcher to evaluate a patient’s baseline or see how they respond to new medications or therapies. To support our robust research efforts, the institute is in need of a dedicated research scanner.
An MRI focused entirely on research, with staff trained in neuroinformatics and the latest imaging techniques, will broaden our discovery efforts across all specialty areas. The outpatient facility (that opened in 2019) was built to accommodate an additional MRI with researcher staffing space.
Research endowment fund
Neuroscience is the most prolific research area throughout the academic health center and the entire university. Creating a substantial research endowment will encourage further cross-disciplinary projects across departments and centers and can spark “high-risk/highreward” ideas that are less likely to find support through conventional grant funding.
Pilot grants are the mustard seeds of research. Their results lead to much larger grants from the National Institutes of Health and other external foundations.
For example, $925,000 in pilot grant funding from 2014 to 2020 resulted in $16,236,369 in monies from the government and external foundations—a 17 to 1 return on investment.
A research endowment fund is critical to progress and will allow investigators to pursue more novel, long-term and untested research projects, giving them the security to take the risks that will yield breakthrough discoveries right here in Cincinnati.
Pioneering neuromonitoring platforms to improve patient care
UC has developed a pioneering multimodal neuromonitoring (MNM) platform to enhance care for patients with severe brain injuries. Spearheaded by Brandon Foreman, MD, an associate professor and associate director of neurocritical care research, and Laura Ngwenya, MD, PhD, associate professor, the initiative aims to standardize brain health monitoring in intensive care units, similar to how heart and lung functions are tracked. The MNM system collects real-time data on brain metrics such as blood flow, pressure, oxygen and glucose levels using advanced catheters placed directly into the brain. This comprehensive data is aggregated into a single platform, enabling more informed and timely medical decisions. UC’s approach addresses the current lack of standardized practices in neuromonitoring and is primarily used in academic settings due to the specialized equipment and expertise required. The team also published findings in Critical Care Medicine, highlighting areas of consensus and future research needs to further refine and expand the use of MNM in neurocritical care.
Understanding and treating ‘brain tsunamis’
Jed Hartings, PhD, professor in the Department of Neurosurgery, is leading groundbreaking efforts to treat spreading depolarizations (SDs), also known as “brain tsunamis”—waves of abnormal electrical activity that disrupt brain function after traumatic injuries. The INDICT trial (Improving Neurotrauma by Depolarization Inhibition with Combination Therapy) is the first clinical study aimed at treating SDs, which occur when brain cells lose their electrical charge and become nonfunctional. These waves can persist for days or even weeks, worsening patient outcomes.
Hartings and team are developing an algorithm that would aid in automating the diagnosis and monitoring of SDs, making the technology more widely accessible.
UC is leading the way in this field of research and has caught the attention across the global community of clinical and basic neuroscientists. Findings from these studies could have a significant impact on patient care, particularly in neurological centers.
“Pilot grants have been essential to our success in neurotrauma research. They give us the flexibility to pursue new ideas and either fail fast or demonstrate the promise of a new approach or insight. To achieve innovation, there must be programs that support the pursuit of creative thinking.”
JED A. HARTINGS, PhD Professor, Department of Neurosurgery
CLINICAL CARE
Grow our patient data infrastructure, strengthen services for our centers of excellence, creating a national destination for care
The power of big data: Improving patient outcomes
To offer truly world-class care for our patients, we need to rely on not just the expertise of one doctor, but leverage the expertise of every single doctor in our institute and beyond. We must continue to scale our approaches to personalized treatment for our patients, understanding that care is unique to each individual.
With the vast amount of health data now available, a physician has millions of data points at their fingertips. The flow of new information never stops as biomedical knowledge from new research doubles every 73 days. However, the time lag from putting new knowledge into practice currently takes more than a decade.
The UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute is building an integrated network of research, clinical data and quality improvement processes that will rapidly deliver new learnings to the bedside, vastly improving patient care, quality and longevity of life.
This network will connect all of our centers of excellence, and eventually connect us to peer neuroscience institutes like the top-ranked Weill Institute at UC San Francisco. These connectors multiply the expertise of our institute, identifying new approaches and treatments that will improve patient outcomes not only in our region, but worldwide.
Adopting a big data approach to care
Before
• Average 17 years from evidence to practice.
• Lacks patient input and learned experience.
• Disparities in practice, decision-making.
• Measures process with outcomes.
After
• Less than 3 years to apply new evidence to patient care.
• Patient-driven research and resources.
• Aligned use of best practices, efficient and accessible evidence.
• Measures real-time patient outcomes to continuously modify care.
Leveraging big data
This approach to care will measure real-world outcomes from our patients and make immediate and continuous improvements to the system as a result. Our leaders have already demonstrated how an integrated, data-driven approach can optimize patient outcomes for brain and mental health care.
For example, in the neuroscience intensive care unit (NSICU), families can quickly feel overwhelmed at the number of clinicians and staff coming in and out of a hospital room at all hours. Gathering insights from a patient advisory group, Laura Ngwenya, MD, PhD, director of neurotrauma, worked with her team to develop a patient guide that explains the various roles of an ICU team, as well as what types of questions they can help answer. Patient families now receive this handout as a guide to their care team, while the Neurotrauma Center tracks how families receive it, use it and gauge if it helps improve the patient and family experience in the NSICU.
“Getting to the truth of a patient’s problem and how best to cure it, requires data scientists, analysts and biostatisticians—people and tools that aren’t normally part of the healthcare model. And I think this is where philanthropy and the generosity of our community and patients can make a big impact.”
JOSEPH CHENG, MD
Associate Director for UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute
Frank H. Mayfield Endowed Chair & Professor of Neurosurgery
Enhanced clinical services
Expanding talented, highly trained staff is crucial to provide the most comprehensive care to our patients and their caregivers. In addition to our physician leaders, these key roles include:
• Nurse navigators who provide an essential core of clinical expertise for our center.
• Social workers who provide critical care and guidance to community and other resources for our patients, particularly those managing complex conditions.
• Data analysts who hold specialty training in neurological specialties and electronic records management, which enhance our data informatics to report on and improve patient outcomes.
As our patient outcomes continue to excel, new technology and comprehensive services in support of the whole person will evolve across the institute. Our current priorities include:
• Software to improve the patient journey, upgrading our ability to seamlessly communicate with patients.
• Brain health longevity program, to offer in-depth neurological assessments for signature world-class preventative care.
EDUCATION
As an academic institution, part of our mission is to train the next generation of expert physicians and researchers.
In the hospital setting, talented nurses, residents and fellow physicians often spend a significant amount of time with patients and families. These expert care teams provide compassionate, research-driven care to the bedside—and are a key component to becoming the neuroscience institute by which all others are measured.
Clinical fellowship in neurotrauma
To ensure the continuation of this extraordinary care, we are committed to training the next generation of critical care leaders through our Neurotrauma Clinical Fellowship Program.
The one-year post-graduate neurotrauma fellowship training program for physicians provides the opportunity to train in advanced neurotrauma care at the region’s only Level 1 Trauma Center. Neurotrauma fellows will have opportunity to learn advanced patient care in our neuroscience ICU, including neurocritical care management and multimodality neuromonitoring in addition to working with the data scientists of the learning health system. An integral component of the neurotrauma fellowship is clinical neurotrauma research, program improvement projects and leadership development to prepare fellows to be future neurotrauma clinical care leaders.
Research fellowship in neurotrauma
Neurotraumatic injuries affect over 2 million people in the United States each year and can have a devastating impact on quality of life. In the lab setting, our talented skilled neurotrauma researchers work every day to find ways to help those with a brain injury get better.
To ensure this vital research continues, we offer two research training opportunities through our Neurotrauma Research Fellowship Program. A neurotrauma research postdoctoral fellowship and an undergraduate summer research neurotrauma fellowship provide the opportunity for the next generation to study and train with research leaders while they hone their skills and contribute meaningful work to improve patient care and outcomes through neurotrauma research.
Unlike residency programs, funding for fellowships is not typically covered by federal programs like Medicare. We rely on philanthropy and other efforts to provide the funding to train the next generation of subspecialists in neurotrauma clinical care and research.
Education and training programs
The UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute is a magnet of talent, attracting out-of-state high school graduates and potential graduate students to Ohio with the promise of a world-class education, mentors in research and industry and access to leading laboratory and clinical facilities. We plan expansion and support of the following areas:
• Gap year research fellowship in neurosurgery
Designed for medical school students finishing their 3rd year, this position will provide research and observation opportunities for a student who is committed and dedicated to pursuing the neurosurgery specialty. Opportunities for this one-year fellowship position may include clinical trials, data science and database studies as well as basic science lab work, ideally leading to multiple publications or presentations at research meetings.
• Student recruitment and programming
The UC College of Medicine is committed to building a physician workforce that accurately reflects the community we treat. Our mission is to recruit and retain the most talented students, residents and faculty to our academic medical center and support them in pursuing neuroscience specialties.
• Continuing medical education
Training programs will provide continuing medical education in our areas of excellence. New programming will offer primary care physicians opportunities to enhance learning in often requested specialties like depression and anxiety.
MEASURES
OF SUCCESS
Philanthropic support will speed our time to impact in the areas of research, patient care and training the next generation. We will track and measure our success in these areas through improved scores and metrics in:
Research
Our research portfolio will grow and be measured by: the number of publications in top level journals, faculty presentations at conferences and scores/rankings from the National Institutes of Health and Blue Ridge Rankings. Additionally, we will track membership growth in premier research networks such as StrokeNET, TRACK-TBI Net (Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Traumatic Brain Injury Network) and ADRCs (Alzheimer's Disease Research Centers).
Clinical
Investments into personalized medicine and clinical advancements will be measured by: improving patient outcomes (relevant to a patient’s quality of life including symptoms, functionality, and physical, mental and social health), impacting key hospital metrics like decreasing mortality and re-admissions rates and improving patient safety and satisfaction. These will additionally support our reputation rankings in mass media outlets like U.S. News and World Report.
Education
Being a destination for complex neurological care also means being a destination for the best and brightest talent—from students pursuing our residency and specialty fellowship programs to new clinicians and researchers. As demand increases for limited spots (for example, hundreds of fellowship applicants for 10 openings), so will competitiveness and the strength of applicants, along with the quality of care and research across the institute. Professional physician networks like Doximity and professional organizations like Association of American Medical Colleges will help us measure this.
THANK YOU
We’re grateful for your thoughtful consideration of a leadership gift to UC’s Neurotrauma Center in support of our 10-year Vision for Neuroscience.
CONTACT
Heather Sherwood Director of Development University of Cincinnati Foundation
Heather.Sherwood@foundation.uc.edu
859-802-1913
To learn more about how philanthropy can make a meaningful impact, scan the QR code or visit foundation.uc.edu/ucgni/neurotrauma
