Programmatic Information

Pre-Congress Workshops and Sessions
Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Main Meeting
Thursday, March 20-22, 2025

To view the interactive program, click here.

Congress Overview

Our Pre-Congress sessions and workshops will feature two blocks of four concurrent educational sessions (8 total). Please note that the Pre-Congress Day is an additional cost of $195 USD.

If you are interested in attending, please be sure to add it to your registration when registering for the Congress.

Pre-Congress Morning Sessions
March 19, 2025, 8:15am-12:15pm

Cognitive Rehabilitation – A Practical Workshop

This workshop will teach therapists how to Design, Develop & Implement a comprehensive cognitive rehabilitation program. The course focuses on practical activities that can be used in the rehabilitation of attention, visual processing, information processing, memory and executive functions.

Paths to Possibility: Advancing Psychosocial and Peer Support Interventions in Pediatric Brain Injury

Acquired brain injuries (ABI) are common amongst children and adolescents. Using a biopsychosocial perspective, these injuries can have significant impact on the lives of young people and their families, including on their cognitive and physical abilities, mood and relationships, as well as the ability to engage in activities of meaning and importance such as school, work, physical activity and social interactions. One approach to intervention is to empower those impacted by ABI to support each other, leading to improved social connection, the provision of relevant social support and the promotion of psychosocial wellbeing. This symposium highlights research and clinical programming specific to peer support and psychosocial interventions designed to help children and youth with ABI across the spectrum of injury severity, along with their families. .

DoC Care Management: What’s New

This session will cover the following: Innovative neuroimaging in DoC such as fNIRS, the potential role of neuromodulatory techniques in persons with DoC, motor dysfunctions in DoC, music therapy, and Acute vs. Chronic management of DoC.

The Science Behind mTBI

This workshop will include a series of presentations that investigate current literature and novel research on the pathophysiology of mTBI and concussion. Presentations will include clinical, translational, and imaging research perspectives. The workshop will also include discussions on the autonomic nervous system, fluid biomarkers, cerebral blood flow, and more.

Pre-Congress Afternoon Sessions
March 19, 20256, 1:30am-5:30pm

An International Exchange of Knowledge and Resources for Brain Injury and Intimate Partner Violence

In this session, Dr. Valera will set the stage with an overview of the prevalence and correlates of brain injuries (BIs) from intimate partner violence (IPV) as well as newer data pertaining to women’s perception of as well as barriers to seeking help for IPV-related brain injuries. The next presentations will provide snapshots of research being done internationally to understand and address IPV-related BIs in different contexts and countries.

Partnership Research: A Catalyst for Individuals with Acquired Brain Injury
(French session: La recherche partenariale: Un catalyseur pour les personnes avec un trouble neurologique acquis)

This session will focus on partnership research in brain injury. The session will be conducted in French, with simultaneous translation, to foster participation from the local community. It will feature three presentations on partnerships between research and clinical settings, including the co-development of a mobile app for early rehabilitation of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI), the efficacy of a psychotherapy and support group for mild TBI, and the implementation and use of the Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory 4 in TBI rehabilitation.

Implementing Family Educational Tools and Resource Facilitation into Brain Injury Clinical Practice for Severe Brain Injury: An Interactive Workshop for Clinicians, Families, Caregivers and Stakeholders

This course will discuss the importance of family education experiencing a loved-one with moderate to severe brain injury. Current gaps in education and resources for families will be identified. Consumers with lived experience of moderate to severe brain injury will share their perspectives on available resources as well as resource disparities they encountered throughout the continuum of care. Presenters will highlight a recently developed website-based content specifically for families of severe brain injury and the systematic steps required to develop comprehensive, consumer-based content. This pre-conference will emphasize a call to action to promote collaboration between clinical partners to continue to develop future family educational content for consumers.

Aphasia, Discourse and TBI

The workshop will comprise a series of brief presentations which address specific challenges facing clinicians and researchers working with complex populations including those with severe aphasia, cognitive communication disorders, and will encompass topics such as return to work and self identity following the injury. Finally, the session will conclude with a discussion of self identity and self image, and how individuals with acquired brain injury shape their online image post-injury.

World Congress on Brain Injury – Main Program
March 20-22, 2025

The World Congress on Brain Injury will feature over 120 internationally recognized keynotes, panelists and speakers who will present the latest findings on the assessment, treatment, and future priorities in the field of brain injury research and rehabilitation. A small sampling of invited speaker topics include:

Use of Pharmacological Agents to Optimize the Recovery of Brain-Injured Patients: Opportunities with Sedatives and Psychedelics
Advancing Concussion Prevention and Recovery: Integrative Approaches and Innovative Strategies
Use of High Frequency In Situ Mobile Health Assessments in Chronic Traumatic Brain Injury
Optimizing Care of Sport-Related Concussion: Should This be Defined by Credentials or Scope of Practice, Competency, and Experience?
Long COVID: Neuropsychological Sequelae, CNS Pathology, and Rehabilitation
New Insights for a Better Understanding of Acute Post-Traumatic Agitation
Everyone, Everywhere, All the Time: Embodying Person-Centered Leadership to Achieve World Class Rehabilitation
Care Partners are People Too – Holistically Supporting Informal Caregivers of Individuals with TBI Over Time: Results from Three Recent Randomized Controlled Trials
Addressing Sexuality After Traumatic Brain Injury: A Much-Neglected Issue
Comparing Treatment Approaches to Promote Inpatient Rehabilitation Effectiveness for TBI

In addition to the special invited sessions, the Congress will include 200 oral abstract presentations and 600 poster presentations selected through the peer-reviewed abstract process.

The full interactive program can be viewed here.

Congress Room Blocks Open!
Reserve your accommodation in Montreal now! To secure the best rates and location, please reserve your hotel room as soon as possible. To view the variety of hotels available, please click here.

Registration Now Open
Registration is World Congress on Brain Injury is open – we encourage you to register now before rates go up in 2025! To register, click here.