2025 Webinar Series

Join your colleagues from around the world for a wide variety of learning opportunities in 2025. Registration is free for IBIA and affiliated organization members and $25 for non-members. We look forward to welcoming you to the 2025 IBIA Webinar Series. All webinar registrants will receive a recording of the webinar several days after the live event.

Questions: congress@internationalbrain.org

Registration links for the sessions are below. If you are signing up to receive the recording of the webinar after the live date, please email Jennifer Wyllie at jwyllie@internationalbrain.org.

Upcoming Webinars

A Perspective to Assessing Subjective Experience in Patients with a Disorder of Consciousness

Speaker: Jitka Annen, MSc, PhD
Date and Time: October 1, 2025, 9 AM EDT/3 PM CEST
Organized by Disorders of Consciousness Special Interest Group.

Session Summary:

In this webinar, there will be a brief overview of the current state-of-the-art approaches for assessing patients with disorders of consciousness. One of the most pressing open questions remains whether—and in what way—these patients are capable of feeling. Although this challenge may seem insurmountable in non-communicating individuals, the webinar will outline several potential avenues, particularly those involving brain–body interactions, that may offer a starting point. As will be discussed, some approaches could refine diagnostic accuracy, others may provide insights into patients’ subjective experiences, and still others might inspire new, more holistic treatment strategies.

Speaker Bio:

Jitka Annen is a neurobiologist investigating how brain structure and function interact across spatial and temporal scales. Her research integrates multimodal neuroimaging and neurophysiology, leveraging the complementary strengths of diverse acquisition techniques. This work aims to advance both the diagnosis and treatment of patients with severe brain injury. Motivated by the challenge of understanding consciousness as a subjective experience in non-communicating individuals, she now is particularly interested in developing approaches to assess the presence of feelings in patients with disorders of consciousness.

Registration:

Registration link below.

Sensorimotor Disruption and ACL Injury Susceptibility After Concussion: A Female-Specific Neuromechanical Model

Speakers: Melissa Anderson, PhD and Abby Baldwin, PT, DPT
Date and Time: October 8, 2025, 12 PM EDT
Organized by Concussion-mTBI Special Interest Group.

Session Summary:

Dr. Anderson and Dr. Baldwin will discuss the increased risk of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries in female athletes after sport-related concussions (SRC), focusing on the neurophysiological and biomechanical factors that contribute to this higher risk. They will also review an intervention study they conducted to strengthen the deep neck flexors with a collegiate women's soccer team.

Speaker Bios:

Melissa Anderson, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Ohio University, where she directs the Ohio Concussion Laboratory and co-directs the Neuromuscular Biomechanics & Health Assessment Laboratory. Her research focuses on sport-related concussion, repetitive head impacts, and neuromechanical risk factors for lower extremity musculoskeletal injury, with particular interest in sex-specific pathways and neuroimaging-biomechanics integration. She has published and presented widely on concussion assessment and recovery, and her work aims to improve both clinical care and athlete safety.

Abby Baldwin, PT, DPT, OCS, COMT, ITPT, SCS, GCS, AIB-VR, graduated from Thomas Jefferson University in 2011 and holds national board certifications in orthopedics, sports, and geriatrics. She specializes in concussion rehabilitation with a focus on reducing the heightened risk of lower body injuries that often follow head impacts, particularly in female contact sport athletes. Drawing on oculomotor data to assess neural efficiency, Abby designs targeted rehabilitation strategies that leverage the relationship between eye movements and locomotion while meeting the visual, vestibular, and cognitive demands of contact sports.

Registration:

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Recent Webinars

Machine Learning Applications for Disorders of Consciousness Diagnosis and Prognosis in Paediatrics

Speaker: Erika Molteni, MSc, PhD
Date and Time: June 18, 2025, 12 PM EDT
Organized by Disorders of Consciousness Special Interest Group.

Session Summary:

This contribution examines and discusses the current state of machine learning (ML) employment in paediatric Disorders of Consciousness (DoC) research. ML has proven valuable in the research on DoC for diagnostic classification, prognostic staging, and endotyping in adults and elderlies. However, the use of ML for DoC research in paediatrics is still in its nascent stage. This contribution begins with a brief review of the existing literature, and highlights the few advancements made in ML research for the diagnosis and prognosis of paediatric DoC. In the second part, some technical considerations are discussed, specific to the future use of ML in paediatric DoC research. The discussion encompasses challenges related to data availability and collection, as well as the choice of model architectures. Then, considerations are made on the role transfer and active learning techniques can play, and on the importance of bias mitigation. A short summary concludes with practices suggested for future employment of ML in this field. This presentation has two main goals: firstly, to promote critical thinking regarding the vast potential and specific limitations of ML applications in paediatric DoC research, and secondly, to encourage the mindful utilization of ML to enhance patient care to the fullest possible extent.

Registration:

To register, click on the link below.

Advancing Communication Partner Training following Brain Injury: Past, Present, and Future

Speaker: Petra Avramović, PhD, BAppSc, CPSP
Date and Time: February 6, 2025, 3 PM EST/February 7, 2025, 7 AM AEDT
Organized by Social Cognition, Communication and Affect Special Interest Group.

Session Summary:

This webinar will trace the journey of Communication Partner Training (CPT), from its traditional roots in communication rehabilitation to its current role in improving conversations for people with brain injury. It will highlight how core treatment elements of CPT have been adapted and maintained in digital health environments through collaborative design processes, allowing for greater flexibility and accessibility without losing their original intent. The session will also examine current innovations and future directions, including new technologies and efforts to enhance accessibility for diverse populations.

Registration:

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Clinically Focussed mTBI Research in New Zealand

Speakers: Josh McGeown, PhD and Katherine Forch, PhD candidate, PGDip, BHSC
Date and Time: January 29, 2025, 2 PM EST/January 30, 2025, 8 AM NZDT
Organized by Concussion-mTBI Special Interest Group.

Session Summary:

This webinar will provide an overview of the clinically focussed mTBI research landscape in New Zealand. Dr. Josh McGeown will share preliminary insights on how advanced magnetic resonance imaging can enhance our understanding of symptom burden and clinical recovery after mTBI. Katherine Forch will discuss learnings from the development of their mTBI clinic model at Axis Sports Medicine Specialists – from one site, with one physician, one physiotherapist and an exercise physiologist, to multiple sites and over 40 clinical staff. This is an example of an interdisciplinary clinical management pathway for mTBI in New Zealand, informed by, and collaborating with, research. Katherine will also outline her PhD research aimed at improving mTBI assessment and return-to-play decision-making for sports-related concussion.

Registration:

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The Post-Traumatic Confusional State: Defining the Upper Boundary of Disorder of Consciousness

Speaker: Yelena G. Bodien, PhD
Date and Time: November 20, 2024, 11:00AM ET
Organized by Disorders of Consciousness Special Interest Group.

Session Summary:

After a severe traumatic brain injury, a common trajectory of recovery progresses from coma, to vegetative state/unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, minimally conscious state, and ultimately recovery into a confusional state marked by disorientation, significant impairments in cognitive function, inattention, and a constellation of clinical symptoms including behavioral dysregulation and fluctuation in symptoms. Referred to as the post-traumatic confusional state (PTCS), this phase of recovery can be distressing for families to witness and challenging for clinicians to treat. We will discuss the recently published case definition for PTCS and ongoing work to understand the biomarkers underlying this condition.

Registration:

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Clinical Evolution and Multimodal Prognostic Evaluation of Anoxic People with Disorders of Consciousness

Speaker: Anna Estraneo, MD
Date and Time: October 9, 2024, 11:00AM ET
Organized by Disorders of Consciousness Special Interest Group.

Session Summary:

Although anoxic aetiology is thought to have worse outcomes than traumatic brain injury from the acute phase, advances in treatment from the acute to the long-term phase have led to an increase in the number of post-anoxic individuals who persist in a prolonged disorders of consciousness. In this context, accurate multimodal assessment can help clinicians to identify patients with a high probability of recovery and avoid inappropriate withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy in the acute phase. This webinar will provide an overview of evidence-based neuro-prognostication with a focus on conventional predictors that are easy to collect at the patient's bedside and in all clinical settings.

Registration:

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Standardized Patient Flow for Concussion Registry within an Outpatient Sports Medicine Clinic

Speaker: M. Nadir Haider, MD, PhD
Date and Time: July 16, 2024 at 12:00PM ET
Organized by Concussion - mTBI Special Interest Group.

Session Summary:

Outcomes registries are crucial for improving patient care; however, patient flow should be standardized between clinicians at the same practice to ensure uniformity and reliability of automated data retrieval. This presentation discusses the standardized approach to seeing concussion patients at three UBMD Orthopedics and Sports Medicine clinics and the additional steps undertaken to implement a prospective registry at multiple sites.

Registration

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