Forum on Traumatic Brain Injury
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Forum on Traumatic Brain Injury convenes leaders across TBI prevention, care, research, and lived experience to advance recommendations from the report Traumatic Brain Injury: A Roadmap for Accelerating Progress (NASEM 2022), foster progress in understanding TBI and enhancing prevention, diagnosis, care and recovery, and identify opportunities for collective action. The Forum addresses topics relating to critical research gaps, the complexity of the systems involved in TBI treatment and rehabilitation, the challenge of coordination across the lifecycle, and other needs and challenges facing those involved in this field.
In progress
"Fostering understanding and action to advance traumatic brain injury (TBI) prevention, research, care, and recovery across the lifespan."
News and Updates
Mental Health After TBI – From Evidence to Integrated Care: A Workshop
Update
On May 11-12, 2026 the Forum on Traumatic Brain Injury will convene a virtual workshop exploring factors affecting mental health after TBI and practical strategies to improve screening, care delivery, and outcomes for patients and families.
Action Collaborative on TBI Care
Update
Members of the Forum’s Action Collaborative on TBI Care have published guidance to support outpatient management of TBI in adults able to care for themselves at hospital discharge or who did not require acute hospitalization (available from Annals of Family Medicine and Journal of Neurotrauma). Developed for primary care and frontline clinicians, these resources identify priority clinical actions spanning diagnosis, risk assessment, patient education, symptom management, return-to-activity, and referral to specialty care, providing a structured approach to management in the first months after injury.
Approaches to Address Unmet Research Needs in Traumatic Brain Injury Among Older Adults
Update
This interactive webpage translates findings from the Forum’s recent workshop into a dynamic, visual format. Sessions highlighted issues from better understanding comorbidities and recovery trajectories to gaps in data and representation, while pointing to opportunities to strengthen evidence and care for TBI in the older adult population.
Our mission
In 2022, the National Academies released "Traumatic Brain Injury: A Roadmap for Accelerating Progress". The report examines unmet needs across TBI assessment, care, rehabilitation, and recovery and offers recommendations to address gaps, accelerate research progress, and improve care systems. Shortly after its release, the National Academies launched the Forum on TBI, which aims to:
Advance the report’s recommendations,
Foster collaboration across the multidisciplinary TBI community,
Spur continued progress in understanding, preventing, and treating TBI,
Inspire action to improve research and care systems along the full continuum of care, rehabilitation, and return, and
Inform policy dialogues and priority setting.
Core themes
Core themes
The forum catalyzes multi-disciplinary relationships and cross-sector collaboration. Its membership includes TBI subject-matter experts and thought leaders from government, academia, industry, professional associations, and patient advocacy groups. Forum members work together to share perspectives that contribute to a nuanced and multi-faceted understanding of critical gaps in TBI prevention, research, and systems of care. View committee.
National Academies forums create environments to facilitate collaboration and dialogue among a variety of sectors and disciplines. Forum activities illuminate key issues and opportunities for further work by hosting stakeholder meetings, convening public workshops, and generating peer-reviewed publications. While forums do not issue conclusions and recommendations like consensus study committees do, they can host Action Collaboratives that create spaces for experts to convene, converse, and publish papers and commentaries independent of the National Academies.
The Forum on TBI is associated with the Action Collaborative on TBI, which seeks to develop and validate evidence-based outpatient care systems for community-acquired TBI. Learn more about the National Academies' study process.
The forum is always seeking to engage with new collaborators and sponsors.
About Working with the National Academies
Looking for independent, nonpartisan guidance from the nation’s top subject-matter experts? We stand ready to help potential sponsors across a variety of sectors shape research and policy agendas, regulation, investments, operations, state and local initiatives, and more.
Contact us to learn more about how to engage with the forum:
Description
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will establish a Forum on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). The Forum on TBI will:
- Foster multi-disciplinary relationships and cross-sector collaboration across the diverse TBI stakeholder community;
- Spur continued progress and innovation in the scientific and clinical understanding of TBI and its prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment;
- Inspire action to improve TBI research and care systems along the full continuum from prevention through acute care, rehabilitation, and return; and
- Inform policy dialogues and priority setting to advance TBI research and care.
The Forum will meet two-three times per year to provide an ongoing mechanism and a neutral setting in which the full spectrum of public and private sector experts and stakeholders can explore opportunities for collective action and address emerging issues important to short- and long-term strategic planning for advancing TBI research and care. Topics may include issues related to current research gaps, the complexity of the systems involved in TBI treatment and rehabilitation, the challenge of coordination, and the wide range of related needs and challenges facing stakeholders in this field.
All activities of the Forum will be conducted in accordance with institutional guidelines described in “Roundtables: Policy and Procedures.”
Contributors
Committee
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Ex Officio Member
Joe Brennan
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Sponsors
AARP Foundation
Abbott Laboratories
American Academy of Neurology
American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
American Association of Neurological Surgeons
American College of Surgeons
American Occupational Therapy Association
American Physical Therapy Association
Brain Injury Association of America
BrainScope Company, Inc.
Cohen Veterans Bioscience
Concussion Legacy Foundation
Department of Defense
Department of Veterans Affairs
Emergency Nurses Association
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Marcus Foundation
National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians
National Association of State Head Injury Administrators
National Collegiate Athletic Association
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
National Institute on Aging
National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research
National Neurotrauma Society
Toyota Motor North America
Staff
Katherine Bowman
Lead
Ashley Bologna