Abstract:
The University of Washington TBI Model System provides a comprehensive, integrated continuum of services to persons with acute and chronic TBI to a five-state area through its facilities at Harborview Medical Center and the University of Washington Medical Center. Three research proposals were included in the 2002 Model System proposal. The first project, The Effect of Community-Based Exercise on Symptoms of Depression in Persons with TBI, is a randomized, controlled trial to demonstrate the effects of aerobic exercise on depressive symptoms and community participation in persons with mild to moderate traumatic brain injury (PI: Kathleen Bell, MD). The second study, Understanding the Participant's Intervention Needs in Traumatic Brain Injury Vocational Rehabilitation, will document the risk of unemployment following TBI as compared to the general population and the natural history of job stability following TBI and will describe the demands of jobs held and how they relate to the abilities of individual injured (PI: Sureyya Dikmen, PhD). The final project, A Change in the Payment Environment: Evaluation of Medicare's Prospective Payment System on Access to Inpatient Rehabilitation for Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury, will investigate how the Medicare Prospective Payment System (PPS) for inpatient rehabilitation has altered care for patients with Traumatic Brain Injury (PI: Jeanne Hoffman, PhD). Dissemination efforts for this grant cycle will include an electronic newsletter, expansion of our website, a TBI Community Workshop, and presentations and papers in professional venues.

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