Ohio Regional TBI Model System - The Ohio Regional Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Model System is located in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Ohio State University (OSU). Jennifer Bogner, PhD, is the Principal Investigator (PI) and John D. Corrigan, PhD is the co-PI. We have been a TBI Model System since 1997. The program operates under the umbrella of the Ohio Valley Center for Brain Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation, which provides a structure for consumer participation via its 35-member Advisory Council, which is composed of persons with brain injury, family members and advocates from multiple states, as well as representatives of the Brain Injury Association of America. The Advisory Council prioritizes needs, reviews funding opportunities, participates in implementation, monitors progress and evaluates program outcomes. The Advisory Council’s “Envisioning” process defined the projects proposed in this application.
We will conduct one local research project and have proposed a module project, both addressing NIDILRR's "Community Living and Participation" priority. Both projects are exploratory and designed to gain new knowledge on environmental facilitators and barriers to outcome following TBI. Brain injury rehabilitation research has focused nearly exclusively on the relationship between characteristics of the individual and long-term outcomes, which has accounted for less than half the variance. Consistent with Social Disability theory and public health research, the local project will examine social determinants of health, their effect on outcomes and sources of actionable intervention. The module project proposes to examine the effect on outcomes of state programs and services in the context of other social supports received. Both projects will use recruitment strategies to assure that the knowledge gained is applicable to persons from under-represented racial/ethnic backgrounds, as well as women and persons living in rural areas. Both projects include experts from the OSU faculty assisting us in applying both quantitative and qualitative research methods.
The Ohio Regional TBI Model System serves 3.5 million people in a 37-county area covering central and southeastern Ohio. All Level I and II trauma centers in the region are participants in the Ohio Regional TBI Model System. Brain injury rehabilitation at OSU is provided in a 24-bed, CARF-accredited, specialized Brain Injury Unit. Post-acute treatment is provided via Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation clinics and outpatient, neurorehabilitation therapies. The TBI Network at OSU is a specialized, outpatient treatment program for persons with TBI and substance use disorders. The Ohio Brain Injury Connection is a newly launched program to provide resource facilitation and education, free of charge, to any Ohioan with a brain injury, or their family. The program is a service of the Ohio Brain Injury Program, the lead agency in the State of Ohio for planning and policy related to living with brain injury. The Ohio Brain Injury Program has been housed within the Ohio Valley Center at Ohio State since 2013.
Over the past 25 years, the Ohio Regional TBI Model System has made valuable contributions to the TBI Model Systems program via high subject recruitment (over 1,350), participation in leadership roles, and studies that have improved the value of the National Dataset. We will recruit at least 35 subjects per year in the next funding cycle. We will continue our successful record of recruitment and follow-up interviewing. Our dissemination activities will focus on persons with brain injury, their families, professionals in the brain injury field, advocates, and policymakers. In addition to our past, close collaboration with the Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center, we will be collaborating with several national consumer and professional organizations dedicated to brain injury to amplify our knowledge dissemination.