I have a long and profound experience in the field of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), both clinically and scientifically. Patients with TBI of different severities have been my main clinical interest since early 1990’s, and during the years I have treated about 6 000 patients with TBI. Since 1996 I have led a multidisciplinary research group on TBIs, which has expanded steadily. Currently our group includes > 40 researchers, 21 of which are PhD students and 7 are post docs. They represent widely different disciplines, such as neurosurgery, neurology, neuroanaesthesiology, neuroradiology, neuropsychology, clinical neurophysiology, psychiatry etc. I have conducted also large international research projects and am currently in a leading position in several trials. I have also experience on RCTs on the field. My group has a wide collaborative network both nationally and internationally, both in experimental and clinical research. Currently we have active research collaboration with ten national and 22 international (from 13 countries) research groups.

The research of our TBI has included topics from various disciplines, from psychiatry and neuropsychology to epidemiology, neurosurgery, and biochemistry. During the recent years we have mainly focused in three areas: 1) blood-based brain injury biomarkers, 2) novel brain imaging methodologies, and 3) multifaceted approach to diagnostic and prognostic modeling of TBI. We aim at solving clinical problems and conducting research which is easily transferred to clinical practice. We also collaborate with basic science in order to reveal brain injury mechanisms, since these help in understanding clinical phenomena and in developing new interventions. International collaboration and co-work are an essential part of our research policy.

Teaching about TBI has been a major part of my work for almost 20 years, both for medical students at the Turku University as well as nationally and internationally. Annually I have about 160 hrs of teaching for medical students.