Neurocritical Care Society Releases an Updated Brain Death Toolkit Based on New Practice Guidelines
The Neurocritical Care Society (NCS) has released an updated Brain Death Toolkit to incorporate principles from the new practice guidelines for determining brain death/death by neurologic criteria (BD/DNC), which were published in Neurology in October of 2023.
The updated Brain Death Toolkit is intended to provide anyone involved in BD/DNC determination with educational resources for conceptual and practical understandings of the condition. Additionally, it is designed to be accessible in enabling health care providers to accurately diagnose and declare cases of BD/DNC. Among the resources included in the toolkit are:
- A sample BD/DNC policy checklist
- Frequently asked questions by health care providers and the public regarding BD/DNC determination
- An educational webinar
- Hyperlinks to guideline eTables, video demonstrations, and criteria from the World Brain Death Project
The updated toolkit was developed by product author David Greer, Chair of the Boston University School of Medicine Department of Neurology, along with members of the NCS Brain Death Toolkit Task Force, including:
- Matthew Kirschen, MD, PhD, FNCS, Pediatric Clinical Care Attending Physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
- Ariane Lewis, MD, FNCS, Director of New York University (NYU) Langone’s Division of Neurocritical Care
- Panayiotis Varelas, MD, PhD, FNCS, Chair of the Department of Neurology of the Albany Medical Center
The updated Brain Death Toolkit is available to anyone for free at learn.neurocriticalcare.org/courses/1223.