The National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research awarded Columbus-based The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center a $2.2 million grant to participate in the Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems program.
Here are six highlights:
1. The Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems, a federally-funded program, includes 14 institutions focused on SCI rehabilitation.
2. Ohio State will use the five-year, $2.2 million grant to construct the Ohio Regional Spinal Cord Injury Model System.
3. Wexner will open a specialized spinal cord injury unit in its Brain and Spine Hospital on Sept. 30.
4. Neurologist Jan Schwab, MD, PhD, will lead Ohio Sate's project, with a research emphasis on immune deficiency following SCI.
5. Ohio State received the grant because of its comprehensive specialty services. Wexner Medical Center includes a Level 1 Trauma Center associated with a SCI rehabilitative program.
6. Every Spinal Cord Injury Model System Center provides data to the Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems National Database.
"With this grant, we'll integrate the newly formed Spinal Cord Injury Unit to bridge acute surgical and chronic rehabilitative spinal cord injury care so that we can better understand why some patients are more susceptible to infections such as pneumonia," said Dr. Schwab. "Identifying patients at risk will allow us to treat these patients earlier and more aggressively so that they will have improved outcomes."