Ambler, PA - July 10, 2014 - Yesterday, former Congressman Patrick Kennedy visited the medical device manufacturing facility of Moberg Research, Inc. (Moberg), a producer of advanced neurological monitors. Rep. Kennedy and Moberg’s President, Dick Moberg, discussed their efforts to promote cutting-edge research in neurological disease and treatment. Later this year, Moberg’s products will be used in international brain injury research studies supported by One Mind, an organization co-founded by Rep. Kennedy.
In 2011, Rep. Kennedy and mental health advocate, Garen Staglin, created One Mind, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to fostering fundamental changes that will radically accelerate the development and implementation of improved diagnostics, treatments and cures for diseases and injuries of the brain, while eliminating the stigma and discrimination that persists. Previous to co-founding One Mind, Rep. Kennedy served 16 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. During his tenure, Rep. Kennedy authored and co-sponsored dozens of bills to increase the understanding and treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Unlike other major disease areas, such as cancer and heart disease, the brain does not have an umbrella organization. However, One Mind is poised to take the lead in research, funding, marketing, and public awareness of mental illness and brain injury. One Mind brings together governmental, corporate, scientific, and philanthropic communities with the goal to drastically reduce the social and economic impact of brain injury and disorders over the next decade.
For the past thirty years, Dick Moberg has led companies that create medical devices and technological solutions for the care of brain injured patients. Moberg has engaged in extensive research and development in neurological monitoring which, with support from the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, has resulted in several successful commercial products. The SBIR program – which Patrick Kennedy’s late father, Sen. Edward “Ted” Kennedy, helped create – encourages domestic small businesses to engage in Federal research and development with commercialization potential. Currently, Moberg offers a commercial patient monitor that provides comprehensive neurological data integration to support caregivers’ abilities to provide timely, effective treatment.
Moberg and One Mind share the goal of giving scientists and physicians access to integrated data to enhance brain injury research and clinical care. Data integration is a key tenet of One Mind’s Open Science Principles, which assert that open-source big data and research will decrease the time from initial research to cure.
Moberg will provide its brain monitors for data collection and integration in One Mind’s inaugural projects, Track-TBI and Center-TBI. These clinical studies will investigate traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress (PTS) with support from National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), and the European Commission. The studies will result in databases available to all researchers, which will be of particular value for those studying diseases with similar biological characteristics.
The Honorable Patrick J. Kennedy is a former United States Representative for Rhode Island, Co-Founder of One Mind for Research and SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana), and Founder of the Kennedy Forum. For more information visit www.patrickjkennedy.net.
Moberg (Moberg Research, Inc.) is a privately owned medical device manufacturing company specializing in neurological patient monitoring solutions for acute care. Moberg Research was founded in 1998 and is located in Ambler, PA in the greater Philadelphia area. For more information visit www.moberg.com.