TIRR Memorial Hermann Researchers Publish Handbook on the Neuropsychology of TBI

Mark Sherer, PhD, ABPP, FACRM, and Angelle Sander, PhD, are editors of a new handbook compiled to provide practical information to neuropsychologists and others practicing in the field of brain injury medicine. Called the Handbook on the Neuropsychology of Traumatic Brain Injury, the 20-chapter volume is the second in a series of Clinical Handbooks in Neuropsychology published by Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global scientific, technical and medical publisher.

“Our goal was to put together a comprehensive, clinically relevant book that would appeal to both researchers and clinicians,” says Dr. Sherer, who was invited to serve as editor of the traumatic brain injury (TBI) book by the series editor, William B. Barr, PhD, director of neuropsychology in the departments of Neurology and Psychiatry at New York University’s Langone Medical Center in New York City. “The book has a clinical component with case examples. There’s a strong focus on the tools available for assessment, along with suggested interventions.”

The handbook, which has been in progress for three years, includes four chapters written by Dr. Sherer and Dr. Sander and 16 written by other experts in the field of brain injury medicine who were invited to contribute. Much of their research collaboration has sprung from the participation of TIRR Memorial Hermann in the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems Program. Sponsored by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), the program supports innovative projects and research in the delivery, demonstration and evaluation of services designed to meet the needs of individuals with TBI.

“The handbook demonstrates the importance of collaboration in our area of research,” says Dr. Sherer, who is director of research at TIRR Memorial Hermann and clinical professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine and McGovern Medical School at UTHealth. “Even with a high-frequency condition like TBI, it’s very difficult to collect enough data in a short period of time at one center. If you wait too long to publish the results of a study, your findings are less relevant. Very few of us are so on top of our field that we can’t benefit from help from others to improve our research ideas and methodologies. Collaborative research is like going on a group run. You run further and faster because you don’t want to lag behind.”

“The book is a culmination of many years of work,” says Dr. Sander, who is director of the Brain Injury Research Center at TIRR Memorial Hermann and associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine. “We looked at everything we’ve done in terms of research and integrated that with our clinical experience, including what we’ve learned from patients and their families over the years. Readers can have confidence that they’re reading a book with a strong empirical basis that will be useful in everyday practice in the treatment of patients with TBI.”

The book is available at Amazon, Springer, Barnes and Noble and Powells; search for “handbook neuropsychology traumatic”.