On March 15th Governor Chris Christie met with the management teams of the International Brain Research Foundation (IBRF), a 501 (c)(3) public charity with a mission of advancing

cutting-edge brain discoveries for diagnosis and treatment of brain impaired individuals, and the Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center (MHMC), in order to learn of their plans to partner to create a Neuroscience Center of Excellence to be located at the Meadowlands Hospital facility at 55 Meadowlands Parkway, Secaucus, NJ. This meeting became one of the important events scheduled for March 2011, which is declared Brain Injury Awareness Month in the State of New Jersey.

During the meeting Dr. Philip A. DeFina, CEO/CSO of the IBRF, had revealed the plan to develop the infrastructure to establish a state-of-the-art clinical research center at MHMC, which will include a Magneto Encephalography (MEG) system for functional brain mapping, as well as a 3Tesla GE Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine and a 1.2 Tesla Hitachi Open MRI unit.

Clinical research applications of MEG include such neurological and psychiatric disorders as autism, traumatic brain injury, MS, Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases, schizophrenia, depression, as well as various learning disorders, including dyslexia, memory problems and other brain dysfunctions. The MRI would be used for non-invasive structural investigations of the brain, as well as functional MRI (fMRI), which is a neuro imaging technique that allows detection of the brain areas involved in a task, a process or an emotion.

Meadowlands Hospital plans to incorporate a comprehensive suite of treatment programs to compliment the research facilities, to include a thirty-bed acute rehabilitation program directed by Jonathan Fellus, M.D., with eight beds reserved for a specialized coma program in partnership with the IBRF, who has developed so called Advanced Care/Multimodal Care Protocol (ACP/MCP). The protocol represents the advanced treatment program to normalize the brain's electrochemical environment to improve brain function. 53 patients out of 70 coma patients that underwent this innovative protocol has been successfully "awaken" as documented in the prestigious publication Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience.

"The brain is so complex, it’s inconceivable that there is one magic pill, any one drug that can fix the problem," explains Dr. DeFina. "Since the brain is composed of chemical, electrical, and magnetic systems, we have to look at it in a broad way and try to jumpstart multiple systems simultaneously."

Plans also include a four-bed state-of-the-art Neurological Intensive Care Unit (neuro-ICU), within the fourteen bed overall Acute Intensive Care Unit and an outpatient neuro rehabilitation program focusing on treatment for stroke, brain injuries, and other neurological conditions; a neurodevelopmental program specializing in Autism Spectrum Disorders, learning disabilities, and attention deficit disorder (ADD); and a center for the aging brain that focuses on improving ones quality of life for patients suffering from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson disease, MS and multi-infarct dementia (MID).

Extensive investments in advanced applications and leading-edge technologies will allow MHMC to provide the highest levels of patient care in the diagnosis and treatment of brain related illness, which will help to differentiate the hospital in its capabilities relative to accuracy in diagnosis and efficiency in treatment procedures.

"This represents a great example of new business initiative in the Garden State" said Governor Christie.

Meadowlands Hospital was recently purchased by MHA, a private group of investors, who plan to significantly improve the service levels by implementing best patient practices to make MHMC the first choice for patient care.

"It is our intention to turn around a facility that has been losing millions of dollars a year, into a successful robust facility," said Bill Maer, a spokesman for MHA.

The group had announced in December that it plans almost $20 million in upgrades and new equipment to attract more patients at the financially ailing hospital.