Cheyney University is among five institutions awarded a four-year, $4 million grant to rethink how traumatic brain injuries are diagnosed and treated, writes Stacey Burling for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health awarded the grant to a consortium of researchers from Penn Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Moss Rehab, the University of Pittsburgh, and Cheyney. Douglas Smith, who directs Penn Medicine’s Center for Brain Injury and Repair, will lead the research team.

The goal of the study will be to go beyond symptoms like headache, dizziness, or confusion, which are often used to classify brain injuries, and begin to classify damage based on the type and extent of physical damage in the brain. This, Smith hopes, will lead to better clinical trials and treatment

Concussion, Smith said, now has 30 different official definitions.

“What we want to do is have a real diagnosis,” he said.

Brain injuries can be caused by bruising, bleeding, or swelling, each of which might require different treatment.

Read more about brain injuries in the Philadelphia Inquirer by clicking here.