Craig Hospital, a world-renowned neurorehabilitation and research hospital for people who have sustained spinal cord and/or brain injuries, has been awarded a five-year grant to serve as a Traumatic Brain Injury Model System Center.

Since 1998, Craig Hospital has earned continuous funding as a TBI Model System Center from the Administration for Community Living’s National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research. Craig is one of 16 Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems (TBIMS) Centers that will generate new knowledge through site-specific research projects, collaborative projects and contributions of data to the TBIMS national longitudinal database. 

In addition to earning a TBIMS Center designation for the past 24 years, Craig has served as a Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems (SCIMS) Center since 1973. Craig also manages the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems National Data and Statistical Center (TBIMS NDSC), which serves as the central resource for researchers and data collectors within the TBIMS program. TBIMS NDSC supports the TBIMS longitudinal data collection and has been awarded to Craig Hospital since 2006.

“Being a part of the TBIMS community is incredibly important to Craig from both the clinical and research perspective,” said Candy Tefertiller, executive director of research and evaluation at Craig Hospital. “We’re excited to continue participating in this innovative network of centers moving TBI rehabilitation and research forward, and we are looking forward to contributing meaningful data to the field through our research efforts in the 2022-2027 cycle.”  

TBIMS Centers provide comprehensive, multidisciplinary services to people with TBI as a prerequisite for conducting research that contributes to the development of and access to evidence-based TBI rehabilitation with the ultimate goal of improving the health and function, community living, and participation and employment outcomes of people with TBI. 

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.

[Source(s): Craig Hospital, PR Newswire]