REPORT TITLE:
Neuroscience Industry


DESCRIPTION:
Appropriates funds to develop a neuroscience industry in the
State.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                             
THE SENATE                              S.B. NO.           831
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 1999                                     
STATE OF HAWAII                                                 
                                                             
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                   A  BILL  FOR  AN  ACT

MAKING AN APPROPRIATION TO DEVELOP A NEUROSCIENCE INDUSTRY IN THE
   STATE.



BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 1      SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that pediatric and
 
 2 adolescent traumatic brain injuries are at epidemic levels.
 
 3 Brain injury is the most frequent diagnosis reported in the
 
 4 national pediatric trauma registry and the leading cause of death
 
 5 and disability among children and young adults.  Traumatic brain
 
 6 injury survivors are at a higher risk for a second injury by
 
 7 three times and a third injury by eight times.
 
 8      The brain controls the body's many functions and actions.
 
 9 Children might have acquired brain injuries because of illness,
 
10 infections, loss of oxygen, tumors, strokes, or metabolic
 
11 disorders.  Brain injury is also the diagnosis most likely to
 
12 result in multiple limitations in function and long term
 
13 disabilities.  Consequently, traumatic and acquired brain
 
14 injuries can interrupt, delay, or alter the development of
 
15 infants, children, and adolescents.  The consequences of brain
 
16 injuries impact the individual, family members, caregivers, and
 
17 community.
 
18      Most survivors go directly home from hospitals and trauma
 
19 centers.  This discharge assumes that home is the most
 

 
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                                     S.B. NO.           831
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1 appropriate placement.  However, there are no community
 
 2 integration programs available to the general public in Hawaii to
 
 3 help survivors transition and cope with the profound changes they
 
 4 may face.  In the case of students, the school is the primary
 
 5 transition program for the survivor, however, the family members,
 
 6 caregivers, teachers, and peers are unprepared for the many
 
 7 changes that need to be addressed for each brain impaired special
 
 8 needs student.
 
 9      In 1996, the U.S. Congress enacted Public Law 104-166, known
 
10 as the Traumatic Brain Injury Act.  In section 2 of the Act the
 
11 National Institute of Health is charged with four objectives:
 
12      (1)  The development of new methods and modalities for the
 
13           more affective diagnosis, measurement of degrees of
 
14           injury, post-injury monitoring, and prognostic
 
15           assessment of head injury for acute, subacute, and
 
16           later phases of care;
 
17      (2)  The development, modification, and evaluation of
 
18           therapies that retard, prevent, or reverse brain damage
 
19           after acute head injury, that arrest further
 
20           deterioration following injury, and that provide the
 
21           restitution of function for individuals with long-term
 
22           injuries;
 
23      (3)  The development of research on a continuum of care from
 

 
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                                     S.B. NO.           831
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1           acute care through rehabilitation, designed, to the
 
 2           extent practicable, to integrate rehabilitation and
 
 3           long-term outcome evaluation with acute care research;
 
 4           and 
 
 5      (4)  The development of programs that increase the
 
 6           participation of academic centers of excellence in
 
 7           brain injury treatment and rehabilitation research and
 
 8           training.
 
 9      Despite the lack of effective early identification,
 
10 assessment, and treatment throughout the healthcare industry,
 
11 brain impairment community-based services are a profitable niche
 
12 medical market.  While there is a small body of research
 
13 supporting the effectiveness of neurotraining programs at
 
14 inpatient facilities, little is published about the effectiveness
 
15 of a more cost-effective outpatient intervention.
 
16      The neuropsychology services program at the Hawaii state
 
17 hospital is known for providing one of the first outpatient
 
18 neurotraining treatment programs in the United States.  This
 
19 program is unique in that it follows a standardized and highly
 
20 specific assessment and treatment protocol that is objectively
 
21 documented.  The Hawaii state hospital is fiscally unable to
 
22 expand neuropsychology services beyond the patients at the
 
23 hospital.
 

 
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                                     S.B. NO.           831
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1      The Hawaii neuropsychology community research bureau is a
 
 2 private-public collaborative effort to establish the research,
 
 3 education, and training infrastructure for neuropsychology and
 
 4 neurotraining programs.  These programs are based on developing a
 
 5 multi-disciplinary team approach that utilizes diverse sensory
 
 6 and intellectual stimulation as well as traditional
 
 7 rehabilitation programs.  
 
 8      The purpose of this Act is to develop profitable "centers of
 
 9 excellence" in the private sector and to establish Hawaii as the
 
10 health care center of the Pacific for neuropsychology and
 
11 neurotraining technology.
 
12      SECTION 2.  There is appropriated out of the general
 
13 revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $150,000, or so much
 
14 thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 1999-2000, and the
 
15 sum of $150,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for
 
16 fiscal year 2000-2001, to develop a neuroscience industry in the
 
17 State.  The sums appropriated shall be used for research
 
18 infrastructure and program development of brain impairment
 
19 services and products with a commercial market value.
 
20      SECTION 3.  The sums appropriated shall be expended by the
 
21 department of business, economic development, and tourism for the
 
22 purposes of this Act.
 
23      The department of business, economic development, and
 

 
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                                     S.B. NO.           831
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1 tourism shall facilitate a public-private partnership with the
 
 2 Hawaii neuropsychology community research bureau, the University
 
 3 of Hawaii School of Public Health, the commission on the status
 
 4 of women, and representatives from the business community.
 
 5      SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 1999.
 
 6 
 
 7                           INTRODUCED BY:  _______________________