BrainHX
Traumatic brain injury, stroke, dementia, and neurorehabilitation — the science, the policy, and the recovery journey across every care setting.
Five Fronts in Brain Health
The clinical and policy categories shaping how brain injury and neurological disease are prevented, treated, and paid for.
TBI & Concussion
Traumatic brain injury drives roughly 190 US deaths every day, and falls — not sports — are the leading cause of TBI hospitalization. Diagnosis, acute management, blood-based biomarkers, and the long tail of post-concussion recovery.
Stroke & Cerebrovascular
Nearly 800,000 Americans have a stroke each year. Thrombectomy windows keep widening, mobile stroke units are reshaping EMS, and secondary prevention remains the largest unclosed gap in cerebrovascular care.
Dementia & Cognitive Aging
Anti-amyloid therapies moved dementia from purely supportive care to disease modification — with real controversy over benefit, cost, and access. Early detection, blood biomarkers, and modifiable risk factors are the emerging battleground.
Neurorehabilitation & Recovery
Where brain health meets the care continuum NewsHX covers every day: inpatient rehab, post-acute placement, and home-based recovery. Brain injury and stroke are both CMS-qualifying conditions under the IRF 60% rule.
Research & Brain Policy
The NIH BRAIN Initiative has invested over $3B in neurotechnology since 2013. Trial results, FDA decisions, NINDS funding shifts, and the policy fights that determine which brain science reaches patients.
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Brain Health Data Snapshot
TBI mortality, Alzheimer's trajectory, and injury mechanisms. All figures from CDC and Alzheimer's Association public data.
Annual TBI-related deaths · CDC WISQARS
Projected prevalence · Alzheimer's Association 2025 Facts & Figures; CDC projections
Share of TBI-related hospitalizations · CDC TBI Surveillance Report, directional
Follow the Money: Brain Research Funding
Where federal neuroscience dollars land in the U.S., against the global scale of the problem they fund.
NINDS FY2025 funding by state · hover for total and award count
Federal brain research is strikingly concentrated: the top five states — California, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas — capture more than half of all NINDS dollars, tracking the country's major academic medical centers. That geography shapes where clinical trials open and which regions build neurological care expertise first.
Funding attributed to the awardee organization's state; totals exclude foreign and U.S. territory awards. NINDS is the primary NIH institute for brain injury, stroke, and neurological disease.
Estimated disease burden in DALYs (millions), 2025
Neurological disorders alone account for 282M DALYs — the single largest share. Unlike most disease categories, a large fraction of this burden is preventable or treatable with interventions that already exist, which is why McKinsey frames brain health as an economic growth lever, not only a clinical problem.
DALY = disability-adjusted life year, one lost year of healthy life. Neurological burden here includes stroke subtypes that GBD classifies under cardiovascular disease.
Share of the $2.55B national total
The Brain Economy
Why brain health is becoming workforce infrastructure — the burden lands in working years, and AI is raising the premium on brain skills.
Primary disease burden in DALYs (millions), by age, 2025
Brain health burden isn't an old-age problem. It peaks in the working years and shifts in kind: mental and substance-use disorders dominate under 50, then neurological disease — dementia, stroke, Parkinson's — takes over after 60. The economic weight lands squarely on the workforce.
DALY = one lost year of healthy life. Bar totals are published values; the split between disorder types is read from the source exhibit and is approximate.
Top 10 skills employers rank most important — today vs. the future
Skills needed today
8/10 brain skillsDesired skills of the future
6/10Even as AI and cybersecurity climb the rankings, 8 of the 10 skills employers need today are brain skills — analytical thinking, resilience, creativity, empathy. The McKinsey argument: as machines absorb routine work, the economic premium shifts to capacities only healthy human brains provide. Brain health becomes workforce infrastructure.
How nine everyday levers become business value, via brain health
Risk & resilience levers
Brain health
Value for employers
Risk and resilience factors identified via literature search and expert validation; connections based on peer-reviewed evidence. Employers proactively investing in brain health could raise global GDP by up to 12%.