News Release

Kessler Foundation's A.M. Barrett appointed to National Quality Forum Steering Committee

A.M. Barrett, MD, stroke rehabilitation specialist at Kessler Foundation, joins Steering Committee of National Quality Forum's Neurology Endorsement Maintenance Project

Grant and Award Announcement

Kessler Foundation

West Orange, NJ. July 13, 2012. The National Quality Forum (NQF) has appointed A.M. Barrett, MD, to the Steering Committee for the Neurology Endorsement Maintenance Project. Dr. Barrett is director of Stroke Rehabilitation Research at Kessler Foundation and president of the American Society for NeuroRehabilitation. Dr. Barrett also serves on the Stroke Progress Review Group of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

National Quality Forum is recognized as a voluntary consensus standards-setting organization. NQF uses its formal Consensus Development Process (CDP) to evaluate and endorse consensus standards, including performance measures, best practices, frameworks, and reporting guidelines in all areas of health care. The CDP is designed to call for input and carefully consider the interests of stakeholder groups from across the healthcare industry.

Dr. Barrett's expertise lies in brain-behavior relationships from the perspectives of cognitive neurology, cognitive neuroscience, and cognitive neurorehabilitation. She is an expert in hidden cognitive disabilities after stroke. On joining the forum's Neurology Project's Steering Committee, Dr. Barrett said,"It is a great honor to work with people knowledgeable about care and how decisions about care can have an economic impact for the nation." The Neurology Project endorses and re-evaluates performance measures that specifically address neurological conditions including stroke. Under its endorsement maintenance process, the Project will evaluate 26 neurology consensus standards endorsed by NQF prior to 2010. These standards relate to stroke rehabilitation & education, dysphagia screening, assessment of functional communication measures, use of antithrombotic agents, statin drugs, and tissue plasminogen activator, and management of transient ischemic attacks and migraine, and other related topics.

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About National Quality Forum

National Quality Forum (NQF) is a nonprofit organization that operates to improve the quality of American healthcare by building consensus on national priorities and goals for performance improvement and working in partnership to achieve them; endorsing national consensus standards for measuring and publicly reporting on performance; and promoting the attainment of national goals through education and outreach programs. NQF's unique structure enables private- and public-sector stakeholders to work together to craft and implement cross-cutting solutions to drive continuous quality improvement in the American healthcare system.

About A.M. Barrett, MD

A.M. Barrett, MD (Anna Barrett), a cognitive neurologist and clinical researcher, is director of Stroke Rehabilitation Research at Kessler Foundation, as well as chief of Neurorehabilitation Program Innovation at Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation. Her focus is brain-behavior relationships from the perspectives of cognitive neurology, cognitive neuroscience, and cognitive neurorehabilitation. Dr. Barrett is an expert in hidden cognitive disabilities after stroke, which contribute to safety problems & rehospitalization, increased caregiver burden, & poor hospital-to-home transition. She is a founder of the Network for Spatial Neglect, which promotes multidisciplinary research for this underdiagnosed hidden disability. Dr. Barrett is also professor of physical medicine & rehabilitation at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School and adjunct professor of neurology Columbia University School of Medicine.

About Kessler Foundation

Kessler Foundation is one of the largest public charities in the field of disability. Kessler Foundation Research Center advances care through rehabilitation research in six specialized laboratories under the leadership of noted research directors. Research focuses on improving function and quality of life for persons with injuries of the spinal cord and brain, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and other chronic neurological conditions. Kessler Foundation Program Center fosters new approaches to the persistently high rates of unemployment among people disabled by injury or disease. Targeted grant-making funds promising programs across the nation. Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, people recovering from catastrophic injuries and stroke, and young adults striving for independence are among the thousands of people finding jobs and training for careers as a result of the commitment of Kessler Foundation.

Find us at http://www.KesslerFoundation.org

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Carolann Murphy, PA 973-324-8382; Cmurphy@KesslerFoundation.org

Lauren Scrivo; 973-324-8384; LScrivo@KesslerFoundation.org


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