09/15/2025
The world of concussion has been rapidly changing in recent years. New data has been released in the last few years identifying rates of persistent post concussive symptoms, and TBI has now been designated as a chronic health condition by CMS as of this year, 2025.
When I first went to nursing school back in 2000, very little was taught about concussion/TBI, and little has changed in healthcare education since that time.
It wasn’t until I attended the National Brain Injury conference this year that I learned that approximately 25% of the population has experienced some level of brain injury, and greater than 30% of those with termed “mild TBI” continue to have persistent post concussive symptoms beyond a year.
In fact, in June 2025, the NIH-NINDS report was published proposing a new classification system for TBI, discarding the old terms of mild, moderate, and severe, and including biomarkers and modifiers to better characterize TBI.
I recently had a workers compensation patient undergo an IME evaluation that essentially stated that there was no evidence of brain injury and even if there was, that this person should be better already. Research cited to defend this decision was dated from 2005 and 2007. 20-year-old research should never be used to define a medical phenomenon that is rapidly being updated. 2025 alone has a been a banner year for concussion research, and we’re not even in the 4th quarter yet. 20-year-old data is no longer accurate.
I wasn’t allowed to use citations older than 3 years in school, and I promise you I follow that rule in practice, also. It’s time to update the research Rolodex.
