The Sarah Jane Brain Project Changes Rehabilitation For Children With Brain Injuries

Press Release
Using the Principles of Open Source for the First Time, www.TheBrainProject.org Creates New Portal for Parents and Professionals Dealing With Children Suffering From Traumatic Brain Injuries

New York, NY – October 22, 2007 – The Sarah Jane Brain Foundation launched the first phase of The Sarah Jane Brain Project through the web portal www.TheBrainProject.org at a press conference in New York City today. The site uses the principles of Open Source with a person’s medical records for the first time in history and aims to bring parents and professionals dealing with children suffering from Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury (PTBI) together in an open and free forum. The first phase displays Sarah Jane Donohue as the model for Open Source Medicine by freely and completely disseminating all of Sarah Jane’s medical records and videos of therapy treatments. This first phase will recruit additional children suffering from PTBI from around the world to be part of the Project and recruit parents and professionals from around the world to be part of the different Advisory Boards being established. Sarah Jane Donohue is! a two-year old who was shaken by her baby nurse when she was only five days old and suffered a severe brain injury.
“As a father of a two-year old daughter suffering from pediatric traumatic brain injury, I am very optimistic about creating a collaborative environment so we can see our children reach their maximum potential,” Sarah Jane Donohue’s father, Patrick said at the press conference today. “With today’s technology, we can easily create communication between a research scientist in Switzerland, a physical therapist in Florida, and a parent in Toronto to find the best practical advice and direction for our children. By putting all of Sarah Jane’s information on www.TheBrainProject.org we are using the principles of Open Source for the first time to create an open, free forum.”
“There are tens of thousands of children across the United States and around the world who are suffering from the impact of a traumatic brain injury. The Sarah Jane Brain Project will help families help their children,” said Darryl Gibbs, the Co-founder of the Cynthia Gibbs Foundation which advocates reducing incidents of child abuse and neglect and raises awareness about Shaken Baby Syndrome. “The website www.TheBrainProject.org will quickly become the most important site for these families.”
“The Sarah Jane Brain Project will change the paradigm of partnership between parents and professionals,” said Margaret Mikol, Executive Director of SKIP of New York, a not-for-profit advocacy and case management agency for families of developmentally disabled children. “By using Open Source principles, The Sarah Jane Brain Project creates an atmosphere of shared interests – parents, professionals, and researchers – all working to enrich the lives of these children and their families.”
The largest killer and disabler of our children each year is brain injuries. Every year 1,000,000 kids are taken to emergency rooms with traumatic and non-traumatic brain injuries and an estimated 30,000 children become permanently disabled every year due to brain injuries. The Sarah Jane Brain Project is working to assist the rehabilitation of these children by bringing together research, medical and therapeutic professionals along with the parents and guardians of these children in a free and open online forum, www.TheBrainProject.org. This forum will be the first time the principles of open source will be used dealing directly with people.