The Neurography Institute Celebrates the 25th Anniversary of the Invention of Diffusion Tensor Imaging & the Advent of Human Brain Mapping While Calling for Renewed National Focus on Brain Mapping Science

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Apr 20, 2016, 07:00 ET

WASHINGTON and SANTA MONICA, Calif., April 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Speaking today at the 5^th Annual Brain Mapping Day at the United States Congress the lead inventor of the DTI brain mapping technology - Aaron Filler, MD, PhD, JD - called for a national commitment to further advances in the study and utilization of Brain Mapping. http://www.worldbrainmapping.org/uncategorised/5th-annual-brain-mapping-day

Comparison of standard brain MRI image with the three dimensional internal structure of the brain revealed by Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI). Brain injury from most impact sports, many civilian injuries, as well as those affecting war fighters are often invisible on standard MRI but are well seen on DTI. Dr. Aaron G. Filler was awarded the Pioneer in Medicine Award by the Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics for his invention of DTI.

Former Lt. Colonel US Army Reserve, Aaron G. Filler, MD, PhD, FRCS, JD and his wife former Captain, US Air Force, Annelise Shaw. Dr Filler - awardee of the Pioneer in Medicine Award of the Society for Brain Mapping & Therapeutics (SBMT), is currently President and Counsel for SBMT. He is the lead inventor of Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) the method that visualizes human brain tracts to detect brain injury in impact sports, accidents, and in war fighters in the field.

Aaron G. Filler, MD, PhD, FRCS, JD – formerly Commander of the United States Army 1466^th Med Team, Neurosurgery, President (2015-16) & Counsel to the Society for Brain Mapping & Therapeutics (SBMT) today advised US House and Senate leaders to renew and expand the nation's commitment to brain mapping science through investing in high gain high risk innovative projects.

Dr. Filler, an editor of the neurosurgery textbook – Youman's and Winn Neurological Surgery (Elsevier, 6^th edition & upcoming 7^th edition) – explained the role of DTI (Diffusion Tensor Imaging) in modern brain medicine. "Standard MRI and CT scans of the brain cannot detect many of the types of brain injury associated with battlefield head injury as well as those associated with impact sports and severe concussions. The invention of DTI has solved this problem and made brain mapping in living humans possible."

"Diffusion Tensor Imaging has raised the curtain by making subtle injuries of brain tracts visible for the first time," said Dr. Ken Green, Executive Director of Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics (SBMT).

Dr. Aaron Filler was amongst the recipients of 2016 "Pioneer in Medicine Award" from SBMT at the 13^th Annual Meeting of the SBMT in Miami, Florida, for his contribution to the field of brain mapping and his patent in the field.

"The original work commenced at Atkinson Morley's Hospital in Wimbledon, at the very site where Nobel Prize winner Godfrey Hounsfield built the first CT scanner 20 years before that in 1971," said Dr. Aaron Filler.

Neither the CT scanner, nor DTI received any national scientific funding for their original development yet these technologies have utterly revolutionized and transformed neuroscience, neurology and neurosurgery.

"Scientific funding at the national level tends to favor incremental advances in well known fields, but often fails to promote the sort of major transformative innovations that actually drive science and medicine forward," said Dr. Aaron Filler; "It is critical that research funding methodology be changed in fundamental ways if real, substantive and transformative innovations are to be advanced. Thomas Jefferson wrote the first patent act in 1790 and became the United States' first patent examiner. Jefferson understood the critical role of government in fostering innovation if we were to succeed as a nation, and modern legislators must come to understand this as well."

Dr. Filler is amongst an international elite group of scientists, surgeons and engineers who will be briefing the US Congress on advance translational neuroscience at the 5^th Annual Brain Mapping Day, which is co-sponsored by SBMT, Brain Mapping Foundation, X2 Biosystems, National Center for NanoBioElectronics and the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus. The event will be held at room B-338 of the Rayburn building of the US Congress House Office Building from 11-2PM EST on April 20^th 2016.

The Neurography Institute Medical Associates provides advanced nerve imaging (Magnetic Resonance Neurography) and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) at a variety of locations around the United States and in the UK. Images are processed and expertly interpreted at our base in Santa Monica after electronic transfer. http://www.neurography.com

About The Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics (SBMT) (http://www.worldbrainmapping.org/about-sbmt) The Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics (SBMT) is a non-profit society organized for the purpose of encouraging basic and clinical scientists who are interested in areas of Brain Mapping, engineering, stem cell, nanotechnology, imaging and medical device to improve the diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of patients afflicted with neurological disorders.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160419/357011

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160419/357010

SOURCE Neurography Institute