A rapidly growing body of evidence shows the importance and effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation for individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI). A major update of the groundbreaking INCOG guidelines for cognitive rehabilitation following TBI is presented in the January/February special issue of the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation (JHTR). The official journal of the Brain Injury Association of America, JHTR is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
The INCOG 2.0 guidelines for cognitive rehabilitation reflect the “rapid pivot to telehealth-assisted rehabilitation” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and new tools to aid in translating the updated recommendations into clinical practice, according to an introduction by Mark Bayley, MD, of University of Toronto, Jennie Ponsford of Monash University in Australia and colleagues of the INCOG international Expert Panel.
Cognitive rehabilitation after TBI: High priority, persistent challenges
Improving the practice of cognitive rehabilitation is an ongoing priority for patients with TBI, reflecting the “diffuse damage to the brain networks that are essential for attention, memory, executive functions, and cognitive aspects of communication,” Dr. Bayley and coauthors write. They highlight the continuously expanding evidence base on cognitive rehabilitation after moderate to severe TBI, with more than 160 interventional studies published since the original INCOG guidelines in 2014.
In addition to the “especially complex and highly individualized” nature of cognitive rehabilitation, barriers remain to translating research evidence into clinical practice – contributing to “significant variations in implementation of best practice cognitive rehabilitation,” the Expert Panel writes. INCOG 2.0 seeks to address these barriers by adding tools to promote clinical implementation, as part of ongoing efforts to close the “evidence-practice gap.”
