Every year, more than 20,000 Finns are injured and several thousand lose their ability to work as a result of traumatic brain injury. The problem is also considerable in terms of the Finnish economy. Traumatic brain injury results in more lost working years than cancers, cerebrovascular diseases and HIV/AIDS together. For example, on a global scale, the number of working years lost due to traumatic brain injury is four times that of diabetes-related loss.
Due to a high degree of variation in the injuries of individual patients, the methods currently in use in the treatment of brain injury patients lack strong scientific evidence. Coordinated by VTT, the TBIcare project aims to develop methods to allow each brain injury patient to receive individual treatment that is optimised for his or her needs.
The aim is to develop a tool that will make the day-to-day clinical work of doctors easier and also revolutionize the treatment of traumatic brain injury. The main objective of the project is to create a new type of software that will enable doctors to match the different variables describing the injury and the medical condition of the patient with each other. Using the extensive database and system simulation, the software will then form a detailed analysis of the nature of the patient's brain injury and the necessary treatment.
The budget for the three-year project is EUR 4.2 million, of which EUR 3.2 million is contributed by the EU. The Consortium includes VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, GE Healthcare Ltd. (UK), Turku University Central Hospital (Finland), University of Cambridge (UK), Imperial College London (UK), Complexio S.a.r.L. (France), Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania), and GE Healthcare Finland Oy. The project is part of the National Brain Injury Centre to be established in Turku, one of whose objectives is to be responsible for the future development of research and treatment practices in this field in Finland.
About VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is a leading multitechnological applied research organization in Northern Europe. VTT creates new technology and science-based innovations in co-operation with domestic and foreign partners. VTT's turnover is EUR 280 million and its personnel totals 2,900.