BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) – The Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at WVU Medicine unveiled its new Neuroperformance Innovation Center on Thursday. The new state-of-the-art facility is designed to help WVU athletes and patients who have suffered a brain injury and enable them to make a full recovery. The director of the Concussion and Brain Injury Center, Dr. Javier Cardenas, has extensive experience researching head injuries, especially in professional athletes, and he believes this facility can offer something unique.
“This center offers a comprehensive approach with neurologists, physiatrists, therapists, neuropsychologists and psychiatrists to treat the physical, emotional and cognitive consequences of this injury. We bring our patients into our offices and evaluate them, using all of our fitness rooms to provide comprehensive care. This way we can speed up their recovery from the concussion and ensure they have a better life.”
The new facility will not only house some of the best minds in the field of neurology, but will also feature the state-of-the-art equipment to go with it.
“That includes a collaboration with the NFL where we’re looking at both eye movements and pupillometry. So how the pupil responds to light in these athletes and how those measurements affect concussion recovery. That includes research in virtual reality. Using special floatation tanks for concussion recovery. Photobiomodulation, the things we’re going to show you are key to understanding recovery and ensuring athletes perform better.”
This facility is a huge step toward helping athletes recover fully, but it’s not just about their health. WVU Medicine wants to make sure those in the local community are seen and heard, too.
“My biggest goal is that we take everything we’ve learned at the professional level, at the NFL level, and apply it to those who don’t have those opportunities. So we have three specialized programs: one for youth, the other for first responders, and the last one for victims of domestic violence. And we really provide them with the comprehensive care that our professional athletes get but don’t typically get. So in many ways, we provide them with the best experience and care that a professional athlete can get.”
All rights reserved.
