As Director of the Victorian Spinal Cord Service, Associate Professor Brown has 30 years experience in the management of spinal cord injury patients. During that time he has been involved in a wide range of research projects and has contributed to significant advances in management in a number of areas, in particular, the introduction of tendon transfers and functional electrical stimulation for the restoration of grasp in quadriplegic patients and of a transitional team from rehabilitation to the community. Other major contributions have been in psycho-social aspects of SCI, the problems of male infertility, early management of the acutely injured person, sleep disorder breathing in acute quadriplegia as well as a number of drug evaluations of antibiotics, drugs to treat chronic neuropathic pain and sexual dysfunction. Continuing research interests include the impact of psycho-social evaluation on improving the rehabilitation of sub-acute SCI patients, new insights into hypertension in SCI patients, FES treatments to prevent the development of osteoporosis and muscle wasting in chronic SCI patients, employment post injury, the value of intensive exercise in rehabilitation and the management of sleep-disordered breathing in SCI.

He has recently become the founding Director of the Spinal Research Institute.

He has been an author or co-author in 84 papers published in various journals and 4 book chapters.

Below is a list of some of the publications in the past 5 years:

  1. 1

    Rosenfeld JV, Bandopadhayar P, Goldschlager T, Brown DJ. The ethics of the treatment of spinal cord injury: stem cell transplants, motor neuroprosthetics and social equity. Top Spinal Cord Injury Rehabil 2008; 14: 76–88.

  2. 2

    Spong J, Riley D, Ross J, Pierce RJ, Brown DJ, Berlowitz DJ. Sleep health in tetraplegia – a Victorian population survey. Respirology 2008; 13: A73.

  3. 3

    Cameron TS, McKinstry A, Burt SK, Howard ME, Bellomo R, Brown DJ, Ross JM, Sweeney JM, O’Donoghue FJ. Outcomes of patients with spinal cord injury before and after introduction of an interdisciplinary tracheostomy team. Crit Care Resuscit 2009; 11: 14–19.

  4. 4

    Brown JB. Obituary: Ashok Hans: breaking barriers. Spinal Cord 2009; 47: 581.

  5. 5

    Berlowitz DJ, Spong J, Pierce RJ, Ross J, Barnes M and Brown DJ. The feasibility of using auto-titrating continuous positive airway pressure to treat obstructive sleep apnoea after acute tetraplegia. Spinal Cord 2009; 47: 868–873.

  6. 6

    Brewer S, Desneves K, Pearce L, Mills K, Dunn K, Dunn L, Brown D, Crowe T. Effect of an arginine-containing nutritional supplement on pressure ulcer healing in community spinal patients. J Wound Care 2010; 19: 311–316.

  7. 7

    Tamplin J, Brazzale DJ, Pretto JJ, Ruehland WR, Buttifant M, Brown DJ and Berlowitz DJ. Assessment of breathing patterns and respiratory muscle recruitment during singing and speech in quadriplegia. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2011; 92: 250–256.

  8. 8

    Berlowitz DJ, Spong J, O’Donoghue FJ, Pierce RJ, Brown DJ, Campbell DA, Catcheside PG, Gordon I and Rochford PD. Transcutaneous measurement of carbon dioxide tension during extended monitoring: evaluation of accuracy and stability, and an algorithm for correcting calibration drift. Respir Care 2011; 56: 442–448.

  9. 9

    Cripps RA, Lee BB, Wing P, Weerts E, Mackay J and Brown D. A global map for traumatic spinal cord injury epidemiology: towards a living data repository for injury prevention. Spinal Cord 2011; 49: 493–501.

  10. 10

    Ferens DM, Habgood MD, Saunders NR, Tan YH, Brown DJ, Brock JA and Furness JB. Stimulation of defecation in spinal cord-injured rats by a centrally acting ghrelin receptor agonist. Spinal Cord 2011; 49: 1036–1041.

  11. 11

    Brown DJ. The management of the patient with an acute spinal cord injury. In: Saunders N (ed.). Neurotrauma. The Biomedical & Life Sciences Collection, Henry Stewart Talks Ltd: London, 2011. Online at: http://hstalks.com/?t=BL1313060-Brown

  12. 12

    Berlowitz D, Spong J, Gordon I, Howard ME and Brown DJ. Relationships between objective sleep indices and symptoms in a community sample of people with tetraplegia. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2012; 93: 1246–1252.

  13. 13

    Leigh B, Desneves K, Rafferty J, Pearce L, King S, Woodward MC, Brown D, Martin E, Crowe TC. The effect of different doses of an arginine-containing supplement on the healing of pressure ulcers. J Wound Care 2012; 21: 150–156.

  14. 14

    Tamplin J, Baker F, Grocke D, Pretto JJ, Reuhland WR, Buttifant M, Brown DJ, Berlowitz DJ. The effect of singing on respiratory function, voice, and mood following quadriplegia: A randomized controlled trial. Arch Phys Med Rehabil (In Press).