David Chesney awarded funding to research treatment for traumatic brain injury

A team of researchers, including Dr. David Chesney and co-PI Dr. Rodney C. Daniels (Pediatric Critical Care) received funding for their research proposal at the Massey Foundation Traumatic Brain injury (TBI) Grand Challenge Pitch Day, which took place April 29th. Their research proposal was one of five U-M research proposals that were selected to receive funding.

The Massey Foundation TBI Grand Challenge was created from a donation from the Massey Foundation to UMHS to discover innovative treatments for severe TBI through the U-M Center for Integrative Research in Critical Care (MCIRCC). During the Pitch Day, a panel of TBI experts from around the country attended the event to hear ten proposals (out of the 24 proposals that were received) for innovative therapeutic, diagnostic, devices and digital health technologies.

Dr. Chesney, Dr. Daniels, and their co-investigators, Hyesun Yun, MS (Pediatric Critical Care Medicine) and Hakam Tiba, MD (Department of Emergency Medicine), proposed the development of a digital external ventricular drain (EVD) system with an integrated intracranial pressure (ICP) monitor and a cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) flow monitor/pressure regulator.  The EVD will have the ability to automatically adjust to changing patient positions and condition while quantifying the amount of CSF drainage and alerting the caregiver to changes in ICP or CSF drainage. This device could not only be useful in the ICU or field hospital setting, but also during long military patient transport, and especially in situations in which limited personnel and resources are available.

Projects will be funded from a pool of up to $500,000 for a 12-month timeframe and each project will be assigned mentors to assist in executing their research plans.