New Partnership to Advance Brain Health, Especially for Individuals Living with Neurological Conditions

Easter Seals Teams with Vista Life Sciences

CHICAGO, March 25, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Online exercises and other web-based tools are showing promise to enhance our memory, improve our focus, speed our thinking and achieve other gains in brain function. These same tools are also showing real promise for people living with neurological conditions, illness or other disabilities. As a trusted resource for people with disabilities and their families, Easter Seals and its new partner, Vista Life Sciences, are now supporting individuals in navigating this new world of brain health and accessing the services they need.

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"Imagine a world where people could protect, rehabilitate, improve or enhance their brain function and better manage or ameliorate chronic conditions like attention deficit disorder, traumatic brain injury, depression, addiction, Alzheimer's disease, autism and many more," says James E. Williams, Jr., president and chief executive officer, Easter Seals. "This is the vision behind Easter Seals' new partnership with Vista Life Sciences."

Easter Seals' new Brain Health Initiative gives assistance to people struggling with neurological conditions by bringing together assessment, diagnostic, and treatment products developed by various partners, including Vista Life Sciences. The effort serves as a focal point for taking brain health research into practice via Easter Seals' national network 500+ service centers, public education, and community-based practitioners.

Vista Life Sciences will work with Easter Seals' to advance its overall Brain Health Initiative through innovative technological, computer-assisted tools, health-informatics, and other resources. Together, Easter Seals and Vista Life Sciences will be able to serve and positively impact millions of lives.  Vista Life Sciences' health information technologies, including neurocognitive, psychological and health assessment, will support those in the Easter Seals' national network to measure and document health changes over time.

"The Brain Health Initiative empowers people with information so they can manage and improve their health," says Peg Molloy, president and chief executive officer, Vista LifeSciences.  "If you can measure your health status, you can manage and improve it," says Molloy.  "We partner with those who share our passion to improve health and healthcare.  Easter Seals is the perfect partner on that journey."

Why Easter Seals?

For nearly 100 years, Easter Seals has helped children and adults with disabilities achieve better health and improve their ability to live inclusively in the communities of their choice. Promising new discoveries in brain research and commensurate products enables Easter Seals to expand services that advance health, function, and independence of children and adults with neurologically-based cognitive and other disabilities including service members and veterans, youth and professional athletes who sustain sports related injuries and seniors.

"A hallmark of Easter Seals longevity is our constant surveillance of new and innovative ways to help millions more people improve their health and function," adds Williams. "With pioneering advancements in brain research utilized by promising technological advances of partners like Vista Life Sciences, Easter Seals is poised to expand our portfolio of services for people affected by neurological conditions."

About Easter Seals

Easter Seals is the leading non-profit provider of services for individuals with autism, developmental disabilities, physical disabilities and other special needs. For nearly 100 years, we have been offering help and hope to children and adults living with disabilities, and to the families who love them. Through therapy, training, education and support services, Easter Seals creates life-changing solutions so that people with disabilities can live, learn, work and play. Support children and adults with disabilities at www.easterseals.com.

About Vista Life Sciences

Vista LifeSciences' health information technologies support improved health outcomes where the need is most urgent.  Vista's Electronic Medical Pathways are used internationally to support improved public health and prevention and care for chronic diseases, including HIV/AIDS.  Vista's neurocognitive/psychological test, ANAM, is used to measure cognitive change from injury/illness/exposure by hospitals, clinics, the Department of Defense and NASA. More than 300 peer-review studies including Vista LifeSciences technologies have been published.

SOURCE Easter Seals