Mayfield Clinic, UC and Cincinnati VA join One Mind for Research in the surge against brain injury
General Peter Chiarelli (retired), former Vice Chief of Staff for the U.S. Army and now CEO of One Mind for Research, has entered the field of neuroscience with thinking that is big and fast and new. He’s looking for a surge, not on the battlefield, but in the research arena. He wants new creative processes, new solutions and ultimately cures for traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress -- invisible conditions that have ravaged the lives of U.S. soldiers and their families. And he wants premier academic institutions like the Mayfield Clinic and UC to play a part.
General Chiarelli spoke about his vision for the 1-year-old One Mind for Research August 30 before a crowd of more than 200 at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The vision of One Mind is for all mankind to experience a lifetime free of brain disease. He acknowledged it’s a stretch goal. “In the military we like stretch goals,” he said.
General Chiarelli has invited Cincinnati neuroscience researchers to become one of eight academic research partners in the United States. He also seeks to shake things up. He wants researchers to share data, he wants to streamline processes for faster results, and he wants to flood laboratories with millions of new research dollars. “We want to break down the old way of doing medical research and start to share data,” he said. “We no longer want data belonging only to the researcher.”
Rather than seeing research dollars dribbled out in small packets to individual universities for small-scale studies, General Chiarelli wants to fund much larger, national, longitudinal studies that do not have time limits imposed. “We want to find good research and we want to blow that wide open,” he said. “We want to enroll 3,000 to 5,000 folks in a traumatic brain injury study. And one of our places is Cincinnati.”
Following the General’s presentation, Mario Zuccarello, MD, Professor & Chairman of the UC Department of Neurosurgery, noted: “There is not anyone in our neuroscience group who doesn’t share your vision. All of us would like to strive for that. We strongly believe in collaboration between basic scientists and clinicians and the value of research translated into clinical practice for much better outcomes for our patients.”
The event was co-hosted by the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, UC Health, Mayfield Clinic, the Cincinnati Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the Lindner Center of HOPE, the United States Army Grassroots Community Advisory Board, the Military Officers Association of America, the Association of the U.S. Army, and Kenwood Wealth Management of UBS Financial Services Inc.
 General Peter Chiarelli, USA (Ret.) was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of One Mind for Research in 2012. He is a retired General Officer with 40 years of experience creating and implementing American defense policy for the U.S. Army and Department of Defense in peace and combat.
As the CEO of One Mind for Research, General Chiarelli continues his advocacy for eliminating the stigma associated with Service Members and Veterans seeking and receiving the assistance they need for the treatment of the invisible wounds of war: Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS), and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). |
