2023: A Year In Review & Looking Forward in 2024

We are delighted to highlight many achievements at Pacific Neuroscience Institute®(PNI) in our 2023 Year In Review Report.

Brain health

• A special callout for brain health this year. The culmination of many years of research and collaboration resulted in the release of a body of knowledge that will have tremendous impact on the practice of medicine related to staving off cognitive decline.
• 2023 saw world-renowned researcher Dale Bredesen, MD, join David Merrill, MD, in the creation of a new Precision Brain Health program. This precision medicine service is being combined with our existent Brain Wellness & Lifestyle program, led by Karen Miller, PhD. Through this novel “precision holistic” care model, we are correcting the root causes of cognitive decline while changing lifestyle behaviors to improve outcomes. We are reporting our findings in research articles and presentations.
• Celebrating its one-year anniversary, the Brain Wellness & Lifestyle Program grew. With comprehensive educational courses (in-person and online) to improve brain wellness and help stave off cognitive decline, adult participants of all ages can address issues related to memory, sleep, nutrition, and stress.
• The Treatment & Research In Psychedelics (TRIP) program became its own center of excellence providing ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for multiple mental health issues. TRIP recruited and completed a psychedelic-assisted clinical trial for generalized anxiety disorder with MindMed, and had two publications.
• Our new optometry service embedded at the brain health center is poised to detect signs of cognitive decline by measuring minute changes in the thickness of the eye’s retina.

PNI: An established neurological center of excellence

• Our specialty clinics continue to grow and thrive at Providence Saint John’s Health Center (Santa Monica), Little Company of Mary Medical Center (Torrance), and Saint Joseph Medical Center (Burbank). We provide a wide array of services for patients with complex neurological conditions.
• PNI’s brain and pituitary surgeries at Providence Saint John’s Health Center and Little Company of Mary have the shortest length of hospital stay in all of Providence, allowing patients to get home sooner and recover more quickly.
• With five neuro-oncologists across seven clinics, our neuro-oncology network is one of the largest in the country.
• PNI stroke teams across Southern California lead in thrombectomy times in the Providence system. Our stroke experts and partner hospitals earned the Get With The Guidelines® – Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award, Target: Stroke Elite Plus Honor Roll, and Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus, Target: Advanced Therapy.
• ENT services expanded. Cochlear implant surgery for hearing restoration grew exponentially for both adult and pediatric populations. A new surgically implanted device for sleep apnea was introduced. Facial paralysis treatment continued to dramatically improve the quality of life for patients. New Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) experts work across many disease types.

Clinical trials, research, and publications

Clinical trials offered treatment options to patients in several disease areas including brain tumor, hydrocephalus, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and anxiety. Our brain health and brain tumor teams’ prolific research resulted in multiple important publications accounting for 31 of our 42 total papers. The neuro-oncology team published results for the first ever phase 1 chordoma clinical trial.

PNI Foundation

The PNI Foundation (PNIF) welcomed Chris Cosgrove as chief operating officer. We facilitated patient and physician educational events, as well as community outreach activities including a successful Go Gray In May month-long series of offerings for brain tumor awareness, patient and care partner support. PNIF sponsored many patient support organizations including those for brain tumors, pituitary disorders, multiple sclerosis, acoustic neuroma, deafness, and Parkinson’s disease.

With gratitude

Your philanthropy enables us to develop more high-quality programs to prevent, diagnose and treat disorders of the brain and nervous system. In partnership with Saint John’s Health Center Foundation, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to all those who support us through their generous philanthropy. We thank each member of our dedicated medical, professional, and support teams who ceaselessly go above and beyond in the service of PNI and our patients.

Looking ahead

In 2024, more than ever we are committed to improving the brain health of all who come to Pacific Neuroscience Institute. We’re taking on 2024. Come and join us!

Think Neuro. Think PNI.

Sincerely,
Daniel F. Kelly, MD, Chester F. Griffiths, MD, Howard R. Krauss, MD & Santosh Kesari, MD, PhD