National Data and Statistical Center

The Ohio Regional TBI Model System

The Ohio Regional TBI Model System (ORTBIMS) is located in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Ohio State University Medical Center. John D. Corrigan, PhD, is the Principal Investigator (PI), Jennifer Bogner, PhD, is the co-PI and Director of Research, and W. Jerry Mysiw, MD, is the Medical Director. The project operates under the umbrella of the Ohio Valley Center for Brain Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation, which provides a means for consumer participation via its 30-member Advisory Council. Composed primarily of consumers from a multi-state region, the Advisory Council prioritizes needs, reviews funding opportunities, participates in grant implementation, monitors progress and evaluates program outcomes.

The ORTBIMS serves a catchment area consisting of 2.5 million people in a 25-county area covering central and southern Ohio. All three Level I trauma centers in the region, and one of two Level II centers, are participants in the Ohio Regional TBI Model System. Brain injury rehabilitation is provided in the 24-bed, CARF-accredited, specialized Brain Injury Unit in the OSU Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Post-acute treatment and follow-up are provided through the department’s Brain Injury Clinic, the outpatient NeuroRehabilitation program, and the TBI Network, a specialized treatment program for persons with TBI and substance use disorders. Over its 10 years of involvement in the TBI Model Systems Program, the Ohio Regional TBI Model System has recruited almost 700 patients into the National Dataset, and more than 300 5-year follow-ups have been completed.

During the current funding cycle, the ORTBIMS will be conducting a local research project addressing NIDRR’s “Health and Function” priority. The study is an extension of two previous randomized clinical trials in which a targeted financial incentive was found efficacious for engaging and retaining persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in substance abuse treatment. The current study will investigate the efficacy of a financial incentive for engendering attendance at work as persons with TBI and substance use disorders initiate employment. As found in the previous two investigations, it is expected that this intervention will be effective in both eliciting short-term treatment compliance and long-term treatment success.

The ORTBIMS is also leading a Collaborative Research Module that replicates and extends an encouraging preliminary study recently completed at OSU. In the preliminary study, geographic identifiers were used to compile data about the social and economic characteristics of a person’s neighborhood. The contribution of these environmental factors to outcomes from TBI were then examined. The collaborative module will contribute to an evaluation of the utility of adding a geographic identifier, based on a person’s residence at follow-up, to the TBI Model Systems National Dataset. With this identifier, future Model Systems researchers could access an ever-growing array of information about the environment and link it to Model Systems data about an individual’s outcome.