Traumatic Brain Injury Study Seeks Best Rehabilitation Techniques
A five-year traumatic brain injury study at 11 health-care facilities in the United States and Canada financed by a $4.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health seeks to identify the most effective rehabilitation therapies in current use. This research differs from other similar studies in that it will not test experimental treatments. Instead researchers will keep a daily log of the type of care patients receive including speech, physical and occupational therapy. The study will collect detailed records on the type of rehabilitation techniques used on more than 2,300 patients. Dr. James Young of the Rush University Medical Center said, “This is the single-largest and most important study ever done on brain injury and could determine what we're going to do for the next 10 to 20 years. We would love to be able to say objectively that a particular therapy is what makes a difference.” Researchers will analyze the data to determine which components of the therapies were most effective in improving outcomes for patients with different types and severity of injuries. Patients will be followed for a year after discharge to assess their quality of life, including whether they were able to live independently. “What this study allows us to do is get good data and research on a patient population that is incredibly heterogenous and therefore hard to research,” said Emily Poole, a speech and language pathologist at Rush. "Medical fields are moving toward being more evidence-based care. But it's really hard to do with the traumatic brain injuries population, because we haven't had good research to back up our treatment.”
