Episode 5
Awareness Is the First Step: Brain Injury Diagnosis & Treatment
feat. Gregory O’Shanick, MD
1.5 million Americans experience a brain injury each year, but among those, only 230,000 admit themselves to a hospital for treatment. Knowing the warning signs and when to seek help is the first step in brain injury recovery. Physiatrist Dr. Gregory O’Shanick, Medical Director Emeritus of the Brain Injury Association of America and President and Medical Director of the Center for Neurorehabilitation Services, joins for a discussion about brain injury diagnosis, treatment, and recovery.
Episode Guests
Gregory O’Shanick, MD
Physiatrist; President and Medical Director of the Center for Neurorehabilitation Services (Richmond, VA); Medical Director Emeritus of the Brain Injury Association of America; Member of the American Board of Medical Specialties Examination Committee (developing a subspecialty Board examination in Brain Injury Medicine for the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry
Dr. O’Shanick has been the Medical Director of the Center for Neurorehabilitation Services in Richmond, VA, since 1991. After attending Ohio State University, he entered the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and received his MD in 1977. His post-graduate studies were at Duke University Medical Center. His academic career includes faculty appointments at Duke University Medical Center, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Medical College of Virginia and, most recently, in the Department of Neurological Surgery and the Virginia Neurological Institute at the University of Virginia. He has authored more than 100 publications, including editing or co-editing three textbooks. As a result of his international reputation in neuropsychiatry and neurorehabilitation, he was asked to be the first National Medical Director of BIAA in 1996, a post he vacated in 2010 when he was elected Chair for BIAA’s Board of Directors. His contributions to BIAA during his tenure were recognized by naming him Medical Director Emeritus. Dr. O’Shanick is a member of the American Neuropsychiatric Association, the American Academy of Neurology, the American Society of Neurorehabilitation and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He has previously chaired a panel developing evidence-based guidelines for the evaluation of mild traumatic brain injury and has received commendations from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control for his contributions to the CDC Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Work Group and the “Report to Congress on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in the United States: Steps to Prevent a Serious Public Health Problem” submitted in September 2003. He currently sits on the Examination Committee selected by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry to develop the subspecialty Board examination in Brain Injury Medicine.