Craig Hospital Awarded Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems National Data and Statistical Center Grant

Five-year, $3.3 million grant is the third for Colorado-based rehabilitation hospital

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Aug. 22, 2016 – The National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) has awarded Craig Hospital a $3.3 million, five-year grant to serve as the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems (TBIMS) National Data and Statistical Center (NDSC) for the third time since 2006.

The primary purpose of the NDSC is to advance medical rehabilitation by increasing the rigor and efficiency of scientific efforts to longitudinally assess the experience of individuals with TBI. The NDSC provides technical assistance, training, and methodological consultation to 16 TBIMS centers and three follow-up centers as they collect and analyze longitudinal data from people with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in their communities, and as they conduct research toward evidence-based TBI rehabilitation interventions.

The TBIMS Program is the first and largest prospective, longitudinal multi-center study ever conducted which examines the course of recovery and outcomes following the delivery of a coordinated system of acute neurotrauma and inpatient rehabilitation for TBI. It includes information on over 15,000 individuals with TBI and over 50,000 follow-up interviews now up to 25 years post-injury. The 16 TBIMS Centers conduct research that contributes to evidence-based rehabilitation interventions and clinical and practice guidelines which improve the lives of individuals with TBI. Craig Hospital is also one of the 16 TBIMS Centers, and has been since 1998.

Serving as the NDSC over the course of the last ten years has given Craig the opportunity to collaborate with various federal agencies (e.g., Centers for Disease Control, Department of Veterans Affairs, and Department of Defense) to conduct advanced studies that use the data managed at the NDSC to characterize the long-term outcomes and impacts of TBI in new ways.

As the NDSC, Craig will support the collection of high quality, reliable data; ensure data security, validity, retrieval, and storage; provide expertise in advanced analytics; create a sustainable data preservation program; provide ready access to TBIMS data; and enhance the TBIMS support infrastructure.

“It’s an honor to receive this competitive grant for the third straight time,” said Cindy Harrison-Felix, PhD, FACRM, Director of Research at Craig, and the Project Director for the NDSC. “Serving as the NDSC allows us to deepen our expertise in TBI treatment and serve a central role in the continued advancement of TBI research around the world.”

The success of the NDSC will be measured in several ways, including: improving data quality metrics, closing the racial/ethnic gap in the TBIMS National Database (NDB) recruitment and retention and maintaining exceptional customer satisfaction in regular surveys. Success will also be measured by the increased use of the NDB by TBIMS and outside researchers, increased number and methodological rigor of peer reviewed articles using the NDB, and successful completion of TBIMS collaborative studies using NDSC data management and statistical services.

Craig, located in Englewood, Colo., is a world-renowned hospital and research center for people who have sustained a spinal cord injury and/or traumatic brain injury. Founded in 1956, 31,000 people have been treated at Craig.