Shari Wade, PhD, and Brad Kurowski, MD, MS, with Lynne Babcock-Cimpello, MD, Division of Emergency Medicine, obtained Place Outcomes and Ohio Emergency Medical Services grants to develop and test a web-based intervention to facilitate recovery after mild traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Self-Monitoring, Activity restriction and Relaxation Training (SMART) will be the first trial of an interactive psycho-educational program for youth with concussions. Kurowski, in collaboration with Michael Gittelman, MD, Division of Emergency Medicine, obtained an Ohio Emergency Medical Services grant to evaluate the impact of educating athletes on concussion prevention. Additionally, Kurowski collaborated with Catherine Quatman-Yates, PT, DPT, PhD, Division of Sports Medicine, to obtain a University of Cincinnati Research Council grant to evaluate the utility of balance testing in the evaluation of concussion.
Wade collaborated with Lindsay Riegler, speech pathologist at the Cincinnati Veterans Administration (VA) Medical Center, to obtain a VA-sponsored cultural transformation grant to adapt Wade’s web-based treatments for traumatic brain injury (TBI) for veterans. Wade has been writing grant proposals with psychologists in the United Kingdom and New Zealand to obtain funding to adapt and test her interventions for pediatric TBI with populations in those countries. These collaborations provide a rich foundation for future interdisciplinary grant proposals and publications.
Brad Kurowski is working with the Comprehensive Children’s Injury Center (CCIC) to improve the care of children after TBI. The CCIC nominated Kurowski to direct the development of an outpatient Head Injury Clinic. Together, they have mobilized clinical and research efforts among the divisions of Sports Medicine, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Neurology, Emergency Medicine, Trauma Surgery, Neurosurgery and Behavioral Medicine to improve care of children with TBIs. We have tripled our outpatient visits over the last three years, with more than 1200 visits occurring this past year. This collaboration has led to innovative interdisciplinary research work. Through collaboration with Drs. Michael Gittelman, Wendy Pomerantz, Lynn Babcock and Rich Falcone, Kurowski has successfully obtained several Ohio Department of Public Safety grants.
Our community outreach work has also developed significantly. The rapidly increasing clinical capacity, continued development of innovative interdisciplinary research projects and expansion of community outreach services for TBI will put Cincinnati Children’s in an ideal position to transform the care of children after TBIs.
