SCI and TBI Research Outcomes Group

January Grand Rounds

2012-01-26T05:57:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, January 24, 2012, we hosted our quarterly SCI Grand Rounds for the RRTC grant. Dr. Sara Kraft, PT, DPT, NCS, ATP of MUSC's Division of Physical Therapy spoke on “The Seating Interface for the Individual with SCI: Minimizing Risk and Maximizing Function." The four learning objectives were:

1. Identify three reasons to use a wheelchair cushion
2. Identify when a client is at high risk for pressure ulcers
3. Understand the mechanisms of pressure ulcers from the seated position
4. Select which type of cushion interface would be most appropriate for specific clients

In the presentation, Dr. Kraft discussed intrinsic and extrinsic factors related to pressure ulcers, as well as the most common sites for the ulcers. She described the types of patients that are low, moderate, and high risk for pressure ulcers and then presented guidelines to prevent pressure and friction in a wheel chair, in order to prevent pressure ulcers. Dr. Kraft had sample wheelchair support devices and cushions for the audience to visualize and test out and she demonstrated the proper cushioning techniques.

The presentation was very well received by the audience. Sixty four attendees came to the Grand Rounds which included physicians, nurses, PT's, OT's, and PhD research faculty from MUSC, VA Hospital, and Roper Hospital. All attendees were eligible to receive one credit hour of CME credit or CEU nursing credit. Our next Grand Rounds will be in April 2012 at MUSC.

SCI Research Team Retreat

2012-01-17T10:06:00.001-08:00

Dr. James Krause at MUSC held an SCI team retreat last week to discuss current research studies, updates, and plans for the future. The entire team met for two days and went over data collection, data findings, training opportunities, educational opportunities, publications, presentations, and consumer dissemination. Visitors from SCSCIA attended the retreat to give valuable insight and information. The team was able to construct many plans and guidelines for successful future research and dissemination. We are looking forward to a successful 2012!

Courage Award News

2011-12-06T08:02:00.000-08:00

As previously reported, Dr. James Krause was awarded the Courage Award in September 2011. The Medical University of South Carolina newsletter, The Catalyst, posted an exceptional article about this news which can be viewed at the following link:

http://www.musc.edu/catalyst/archive/2011/co11-25courage.html

In addition, MUSC also conducted an interview with Dr. Krause talking about this award. You can view this interview at the following link:

http://etl2.library.musc.edu/krause/

Fall Newsletters

2011-11-30T08:12:00.000-08:00

Please view the links below to check out our Fall Newsletters!

SCIORG:

http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/chp-new/sciorg/pdfs/Newsletters/SCIORG%20NEWSLETTER_FALL%202011_10-20-11_.pdf

CHORCUP:

http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/chp-new/CHORCUP/PDFs/Newsletters/CHORCUP%20NEWSLETTER%20FALL%202011_10-19-11.pdf

RRTC:

http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/chp/rrtc/PDFs/RRTC%20NEWSLETTER_FALL%202011_10-19-11.pdf

Fall Conference Presentations-DRRP and RRTC

2011-11-29T08:34:00.000-08:00

Our team has presented at numerous conferences throughout the fall for the DRRP and RRTC grants. Below is a list of recent presentations.

On September 17, 2011, Dr. Sligh Conway presented “Race-ethnicity, health behaviors, and secondary conditions in SCI” at the Summit 2011 annual conference of the Paralyzed Veterans of American in Orlando, FL. Dr. Sligh Conway is a collaborator from South Carolina State University on our DRRP grant.

On September 30, 2011, Dr. Krause presented “Considerations in Applying for NIDRR Grants” at the 2011 South Carolina State University Research Forum in Orangeburg, SC. This was also part of our DRRP grant as a means of capacity building.

On October 13, 2011, Karla Reed presented the poster “Natural course of life changes after spinal cord injury: A 35-year longitudinal study” and Dr. Yue Cao presented the poster “Trends in suicide mortality after spinal cord injury 1973-2009” at the annual conference of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine in Atlanta, GA.

On October 14, 2011, Karla Reed, Dr. Yue Cao, and Dr. Mike DeVivo took part as presenters for the symposium “Disparities in health outcomes after TBI and SCI” at the annual conference of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine in Atlanta, GA.

October Grand Rounds

2011-11-28T08:09:00.000-08:00

Please click the link below to view the presentation for the October Grand Rounds, "Current Trends in Venous Thromboembolism among Persons Hospitalized with Acute Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury: Does Early Access to Rehabilitation Matter?" presented by Dr. Anbesaw Selassie, DrPH, FACE.

https://tegr.it/y/6mol

RRTC October Grand Rounds

2011-11-16T05:20:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, October 25, we hosted our quarterly Grand Rounds for the RRTC grant featuring Anbesaw Selassie, DrPH, FACE who is a co-investigator for Study 2 of the grant. Dr. Selassie spoke on "Current Trends in Venous Thromboembolism among Persons Hospitalized with Acute Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury: Does Early Access to Rehabilitation Matter?" and highlighted four learning objectives:

Identify at least three major risk factors of venous thromboembolism (VTE) among persons with traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) attributable to inpatient care
Enumerate at least four reasons that are barriers to receipt of post-acute rehabilitation.
Identify at least two reasons why failure to remove implicit or explicit barriers to receipt of post-acute rehabilitation are violations of WHO’s Almata Declaration of Health care delivery.
Identify at least three measures to reduce/prevent VTE among persons with TSCI.

In his presentation, Dr. Selassie discussed how insurance status determines the standard and quality of care provided for acutely injured TSCI patients, which influences the risk of VTE. He explained that ensuring health care access to all Americans is indirectly linked with the risk of VTE and citizens can contribute to the reduction of such events by being vocal for fair and equitable healthcare delivery and active engagement in the healthcare debate.

Sixteen attendees came to the presentation which included occupational therapists, physical therapists, PhD researchers and students from MUSC and surrounding local hospitals. All attendees were eligible to receive one hour of CME or CEU credit. The next quarterly Grand Rounds will take place in January 2012 at MUSC.

RRTC/DRRP In-service

2011-10-04T10:46:00.000-07:00

On September 13, 2011, our consumer advocate, Richard Aust, conducted an RRTC/DRRP in-service presentation for the Trident Spinal Cord Injury Association Peer Group which serves Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester counties. The presentation included an overview of the RRTC and DRRP, as well as their individual studies. In addition, Mr. Aust discussed the potential collaboration of the South Carolina Spinal Cord Injury Association (SCSCIA) and the South Carolina Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund (SCSCIRF). The goal of the potential collaboration is for SCSCIA to assist the SCSCIRF with disseminating SCI research results, promoting the SCSCIRF in the community, recruiting potential SCI research participants, and providing initial contact/support to people who have an SCI and are in inpatient rehabilitation. The group used the in-service presentation to have a lively discussion about the need to improve overall support for people with SCI.

CAP outing to RiverDogs game

2011-09-14T07:14:00.001-07:00

On Thursday, August 25, 2011, our team sponsored the last of three outings to a Charleston RiverDogs baseball game for the RRTC and DRRP consumer advisory panels (CAP). Team and CAP participants braved the weather before Hurricane Irene to watch the low scoring baseball game and entertainment between innings. The RiverDogs made it interesting but came up short losing to the Greenville Drive 5-2.

The outings continue to serve as another excellent opportunity for CAP participants and RRTC/DRRP staff and faculty to interact and socialize with each other. We very much appreciate the generosity of the RiverDogs Corporate Care Program for donating tickets for our three CAP outings this year.

Dr. Krause Wins Courage Award

2011-08-16T07:32:00.000-07:00

Leading Spinal Cord Injury Researcher, James S. Krause, Ph.D., to Receive 2011 Medtronic National Courage Award
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MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- James S. Krause, Ph.D., a Wadena Minnesota native, is the 2011 recipient of the Medtronic National Courage Award presented by Courage Center. Dr. Krause, a professor and associate dean for Research in the College of Health Professions at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston, is a leading national expert and researcher who specializes in health and longevity following a spinal cord injury.

The award is especially meaningful to Dr. Krause, who has a spinal cord injury at the C4-5 level. From 1976-79, he was a patient at Courage Center's Transitional Rehabilitation Program (TRP), known then as Courage Residence. A three-year inpatient stay at Courage Center was common during in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, the average length of stay for someone with a spinal cord injury is 99 days.

"With numerous medical rehabilitation and assistive technological advancements in the past 25 years, our client's length of stay in the TRP has been dramatically reduced," said Martha Swenson, senior director, Transitional Rehabilitation Program. "Our program continues to be based on a holistic approach to rehabilitation with the belief that our clients can realize their full potential in every aspect of life."

After leaving Courage Center, Dr. Krause received his B.A. degree in 1980 and his Ph.D. in 1990 from the Dept. of Psychology at the University of Minnesota. He worked at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, a nationally known rehabilitation facility, for 13 years. His career includes numerous published articles in professional journals, as well as numerous awards. In 2008, Dr. Krause was inducted into the Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Hall of Fame by the National SCI Association for his research in quality of life.

"I am truly honored beyond anything that can easily be put into words," said Dr. Krause upon learning of his award. "I was a Courage Center inpatient for more than three years and certainly would not have been able to accomplish nearly as much as I have without the benefit of the services I received there. It gave me a foundation from which to build. The friendships I developed there have lasted. Receiving this award will help me continue my work and to positively impact the lives of people with disabilities."

The Medtronic National Courage Award, presented annually by Courage Center and the Medtronic Foundation, recognizes an individual's outstanding contributions to the health, welfare and rehabilitation of people with disabilities. This year's award will be presented during the annual Celebration of Courage on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011, at Earle Brown Heritage Center in Brooklyn Center, Minn. Click here for a list of former National Courage Award recipients.

About Courage Center

Courage Center is a nonprofit rehabilitation and resource center that advances the lives of children and adults experiencing barriers to health and independence. At Courage Center, we specialize in treating brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke, chronic pain, autism, and disabilities experienced since birth. Founded in 1928, Minneapolis-based Courage Center offers advanced technologies and innovation provided in part through the efforts of thousands of volunteers and donors. For more information, visit www.CourageCenter.org.

Contact:
Jacob Johnson, 763-520-0365, jacob.johnson@couragecenter.org

Sue Warner, Courage Center, 763-520-0263; sue.warner@couragecenter.org

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/leading-spinal-cord-injury-researcher-james-s-krause-phd-to-receive-2011-medtronic-national-courage-award-127737073.html

Summer Student Projects-DRRP and RRTC

2011-08-09T09:48:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, August 3, our two undergraduate students for the DRRP and RRTC grants presented their final research projects to the MUSC Office of Graduate Studies.

Allysan Scatterday, a rising senior at the College of Charleston, presented her research titled, "In-home exercise program produces functional outcomes for individual with incomplete spinal cord injury." In her presentation, she discussed a definition and description of spinal cord injury (SCI)including common secondary conditions related to SCI. She also discussed benefits of exercise to individuals with SCI and the personal and environmental barriers experienced that deter exercise. Allysan wanted to describe how to eliminate these barriers to exercise in order to allow individuals with SCI to participate with higher rates in this beneficial activity. She described a case study to explore the effectiveness of an in home physical activity program to reduce environmental barriers to exercise. The nine month home exercise program in the study was found to decrease barriers to exercise while improving the functional outcomes of range of motion, cardiorespiratory fitness, locomotion, and manual muscle testing. Future research can be completed on effectiveness of home exercise programs in order to increase activity levels in this population and decrease the prevalence of secondary conditions.

Leah Snipe, a rising sophomore at Wofford College, presented on, "The prevalence of cardiopathy, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity in persons with acute TSCI." Leah began her presentation with an introduction to traumatic spinal cord injury, cardiopathy, hypertension, and diabetes. She described that previous reearch has illustrated that individuals with TSCI have higher prevalence of cardiopathy, hypertension, and diabetes, several years post injury. The goal of her research was to determine if those individuals hopsitalized from TSCI already have a higher incidence of cardiopathy, hypertension, and diabetes or are at greater risk of developing these conditions. Leah used data from the SC TSCI Registry and database and controlled for injury severity. She found that risk for cardiopathy, hypertension, and diabetes does increase with TSCI, as soon as injury occurs. Obesity is also a risk factor in developing these conditions. Leah recommended addressing obesity in persons with acute TSCI in order to help prevent these secondary conditions. This research also looked at SES and race and found that persons with low SES and minorities are generally less healthy, at higher risk for early mortality, and less likely to receive adequate care. The clinical implications of this research are largely preventive, in that screening needs to be increased in individuals with TSCI that are obese and have already existing cardiopathy, hypertension, and diabetes. Early screening can help prevent the conditions from worsening.

Team Riverdogs Game

2011-08-04T05:24:00.000-07:00

On Friday July 8, 2011, our team sponsored the second of three outings to a Charleston River Dogs baseball game for the RRTC and DRRP consumer advisory panel (CAP). Team and CAP members braved the heat to watch the high scoring baseball game, entertaining between inning festivities, and enjoy the spectacular post game fireworks show. Riverdogs made it interesting in the 9th inning but came up short losing to the Delmarva Shorebirds 6-5.The outings continue to serve as another excellent opportunity for CAP participants and RRTC/DDRP staff and faculty to interact and socialize with each other. We will sponsor one more Riverdogs game on August 25th for our CAP members.

Webcast Link-DRRP and RRTC

2011-07-28T09:48:00.000-07:00

Webcast-RRTC and DRRP

2011-07-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, July 26, Dr. Krause, PI of the RRTC and DRRP grants, presented our first webcast, titled, “Racial Disparities in Outcomes after Spinal Cord Injury (SCI): Twenty Years of Research.” The webcast was 90 minutes and was published through the Baylor College of Medicine Center for Interactive and Collaborative Technology. As part of our DRRP and RRTC grants, our team will be conducting webcasts related to our research findings to provide technical assistance to professionals wishing to develop similar research programs or prevention strategies based on the study results. Our webcasts will also serve to provide recommendations to broader audiences including consumers and their families, service providers, and policymakers.

The purpose of the first webcast presentation was to:
• Describe multiple studies we have conducted related to outcomes after SCI
• Highlight comparisons as a function of race/ethnicity
• Discuss the practical implications of these findings for underrepresented populations
• Discuss needs for future research.

In the presentation, Dr. Krause discussed the data from the SCI Model Systems, longitudinal study from inpatient rehabilitation, and the Minnesota/Georgia Aging Study. He described previous research findings on employment, education, income, and vocational interests as they relate to gender and race. Dr. Krause discussed that education is key to return to work after SCI and it has been found that minorities experience lower employment rates than Caucasians. In addition, it was found that women and minorities that do work after SCI earn lower incomes than non-minorities and males. Dr. Krause also discussed changes in interest over time in vocational interests and stated that research has found that black men and women reported more decrease in interests over time and non- minorities illustrate more stability in interests over time. We had sixty participants view the first webcast online and look forward to presenting our next webcast in late winter or early spring 2012.

Questions from audience:
Can you speak about age less than 50 and its affect please?
In both studies, being over the age of 50 at the time of the study was associated with a decreased likelihood of being employed. It was not associated with different conditional earnings, but was associated with lower unconditional earnings. What this means is that those over the age of 50 are less likely to be employed. However, if employed, their earnings are not significantly different than those of younger age groups. As a group, their unconditional earnings will be lower, but this is due to the lower employment rate and not the earnings among those who were employed.

Do these data take into consideration *when* education was acquired? In other words, was education obtained before, during or after injury? And what was the rationale for excluding students?
There was no differentiation between pre-injury and post-injury education in this study. However, in other studies, having completed their education prior to injury is associated with a faster return to work. Completing educational milestones after injury is associated with higher employment rates.

Summer student update-DRRP and RRTC

2011-07-20T06:29:00.000-07:00

Our three summer students have been working diligently thus far! They have all chosen research topics and titles for their individual research project and have begun the literature reviews for this. They are also working on learning end- note in order to help with their bibliography and references. Each day, the two undergraduate students attend MUSC sponsored presentations on topics such as translational research, human subjects research, and ethics. They can also attend specialty neurologically focused presentations on spinal cord injury, neurologic injuries, and rehabilitation. All students have been participating in team activities including data entry and analysis and learning the steps of our research process.

Allysan Scatterday, a rising senior at the College of Charleston is going to do her research project on "In-home exercise program produces functional outcomes in individuals with incomplete SCI." Leah Snipe, a rising sophmore at Wofford College chose "The Incidence of Myocardial Infarction, Hypertension, and Diabetes as Comorbid Conditions in Person with SCI" for her research.

Our graduate student, Jamar Booth, is going to be doing his research on "Occupational Interests after Spinal Cord Injury." He has revised and narrowed his topic and began the literature review for his research. During his time at MUSC, he has also been working on finding contact information for historically black colleges and universities in the south. We will use this contact information to disseminate our research findings to interested departments within the colleges and universities. Jamar has also met with our data collection coordinator to learn the specifics of data collection and data entry. He has assisted in data entry for a few of our studies.

Our two undergraduate students will have the opportunity to present their research project findings at the end of July to the MUSC Office of Graduate Studies. Our graduate student is looking into opportunities to travel to national conferences with our collaborators at SCSU for a presentation.

RRTC Spinal Cord Injury Grand Rounds Link

2011-07-13T10:42:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to the full video our Grand Rounds presentation that took place on July 12 for the RRTC grant. The presentation was given by Dr. Jim Krause of the Medical University of South Carolina, "Preventing secondary health conditions and promoting longevity after spinal cord injury (SCI)."

http://chpondemand.musc.edu/rehab_int/Grand_Rounds_07_12_11.mp4

Spinal Cord Injury Grand Rounds-RRTC

2011-07-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, July 12, 2011 we hosted our quarterly Grand Rounds presentation for the RRTC grant. Dr. Jim Krause of the Medical University of South Carolina, PI of the grant, presented, "Preventing secondary health conditions and promoting longevity after spinal cord injury (SCI)." The objectives of the presentation included to identify a minimum of three health behaviors that affect the development of secondary conditions or early mortality, identify a minimum of two psychological factors that lead to an elevated risk of secondary health conditions or early mortality, and identify optimal predictors of mortality which should be assessed to identify high-risk cases and implement prevention strategies for elevated risk of secondary health conditions or early mortality after SCI.

In the presentation, Dr. Krause gave an overview of SCI and secondary health conditions related to SCI. He discussed previous team research completed on secondary health conditions utilizing the risk model that is used to classify the types of factors related to maintaining health and longevity after SCI. This risk model has found that biographic and injury factors, as well as behavioral factors and socioeconomic factors are important in determining secondary conditions and mortality after SCI, even after controlling for health status. In addition, it was concluded that life expectancy needs to become a greater priority in SCI care, every clinician has the opportunity to become an educator, and diminished life expectancy is a consequence of SCI that should be discussed with the individual and his/her family. Acute and scheduled follow-ups in individuals with SCI should include screening for risk factors for mortality, including signs of clinical depression. Lastly, prevention strategies are needed prior to the development of secondary conditions that threaten long term survival with SCI.

One hundred and eighteen attendees came to the presentation which included physical therapists, occupational therapists, students of physical therapy and occupational therapy, and researchers. Attendees were from MUSC and neighboring Roper Rehabilitation Hospital, and the VA Hospital. All attendees were eligible for one hour of CME or CEU credit. The next Grand Rounds will be in October at MUSC.

Shepherd Center Consumer Advisory Panel

2011-07-06T10:42:00.001-07:00

On June 30, 2001, our consumer advocate, Richard Aust, from MUSC conducted a meeting of the consumer advisory panel (CAP) at Shepherd Center in Atlanta, with our collaborator, Sarah Lottes. Five attendees came to the meeting and a handout was given to each individual that asked them to list five common causes of death from spinal cord injury (SCI). Most individuals did well in their choices, probably because the attendees are all active in care for others with disabilities, as well as their own care.

All participants agreed that an on-line survey of basic SCI facts including most common cause of death would be very beneficial for the general SCI population, especially if instant feedback for incorrect answers is provided.

The main discussion for the meeting focused on encouragement to return to work after SCI. Much discussion ensued on educating both employers and potential employees on benefits of hiring people with disabilities, including tax breaks for companies.

There was a conversation on the BOND Project for helping disabled get back to work. Although approved in 1999, the earliest possible date for implementation of BOND would be 2024. The important point of this program is that it would scale down SSDI benefits if person goes over SGA (Substantial Gainful Activity) limit. Currently a person loses their entire SSDI benefits if they go over SGA after their trial work period is done. Some people feel that risking their SSDI benefits for a job which will not compensate them enough is not worth it.

There was also much discussion in the CAP regarding educating people with disabilities, as well as employers, of benefits and opportunities available. A Fact Sheet was discussed that would work to dispel myths:
• Standard document showing statistics
• Tax breaks and other employer benefits
• Could be “blasted” to potential employers, perhaps via various websites
• Could be given to those exiting rehab
• Print out could be available for handout to potential employer at time of job interview

There was a discussion for feasibility of credit card sized fact sheet foldout for one to carry on person. The CAP felt that this would be beneficial to individuals with SCI and all felt that it is a must that people with SCI take responsibility for own health and learn to be an advocate. This card could provide some people with basic advocacy points.

• Possible information to be listed on card would be medical alerts and general information aimed at health care providers for treating one with SCI or other disability.
• Would be especially helpful for one not skilled at articulating needs. Make sure there is a comment to encourage people to write down their questions for the doctor before their appointment.
• It was suggested that perhaps this info could be carried on a flash drive, as well.
• Helpful to have empty space for prescriptions or other personal info

There were many valuable points and tips brought up in the CAP and we can utilize this information for dissemination of our research findings to clinicians and consumers.

New You Tube Video

2011-06-14T08:05:00.001-07:00

Check out our new You Tube Video: Community Perspectives: An Interview with Charlie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfXIzPWU1Uo

Charleston Riverdogs Outings

2011-06-13T07:19:00.000-07:00

For the second year, our team will sponsor outings to Charleston River Dogs baseball games for the RRTC and DRRP consumer advisory panel (CAP). On May 19, 2011, team members and CAP members attended and enjoyed the baseball game, festivities, and a 12th inning 4-3 home team victory! We will sponsor two more River Dogs games for our CAP members throughout the summer.

Consumer advisory group meeting

2011-06-09T05:12:00.000-07:00

Our Consumer Advisory Panel (CAP) gathered for a meeting on Tuesday May 31, 2011. Our CAP is made up of a diverse group (injury level, gender, age) of 8 individuals with spinal cord injuries (6 males, 2 females, 4 T level, 4 C level, 6 Caucasians, 2 African Americans; average age is 43.8). We had an emotionally charged discussion surrounding the following topics:

We provided a brief overview of all of our current studies: MN35, DRRP 1, DRRP 2, RRTC 1, RRTC 2, and Ambulation.

We discussed the CORE survey to identify areas which could be added to a future survey:
• Add peer support question to new Family History/Community Support section since many people with SCI network and learn how to deal with life from other people with SCI.
• Add a section on dental services since they felt that oral hygiene is important to overall health.
• Add involvement in accessing fitness centers in the Health section
• Add involvement in accessing a nutritionist to control weight and promote proper diet
• Add question of being provided too many supplies by DME companies to people with insurance: Medicare, Medicaid. Some participants expressed that they are provided too many supplies which adds up to a lot of financial waste to the insurance system
• Add question to ask about access to durable medical equipment: shower chairs, shower benches, modified fitness equipment, power and manual wheelchairs
• Add question about the type of matrices used in the Sleep section

We discussed possible strategies to disseminate research results of our studies including the recently completed MN35 study:
• TV ads on public or cable stations including PBS and Comcast channel 2
• Network with HASCI service coordinators throughout the state
• Post information at for profit SCI clinics such as South Eastern Spinal Clinic and Atlantic Spinal Clinic as well as public clinics
• Network with the Independent Living Centers throughout the state: DRC and DAC
• Promote Insurance phones provided to people on SSI and SSDI
• Given the involvement of some CAP participants in the Allostatic Load Study, several CAP participants would highly recommend promoting the need to address the loss of bone density in people after an SCI
• Promote use of fitness centers and post information at fitness centers
• Network with National Associations and publications- Spinal Column to make sure people in other states have access to information in SC
• Use facebook and twitter
• Identify the many newsletters for people with disabilities and submit SCI research information since these newsletters are always looking for content
• Identify and provide SCI research information to medical professionals specifically Neurologists, Urologists
• Take advantage of using SCI Awareness Month- September as a strategy to promote SCI research
• Advertise or submit research information to the Disabled Dealer Magazine, similar to Auto Trader Magazine

We discussed ways for the SCSCIA to become more involved in SCI research:
• Promote the development of a assistive technology initiative in the rural areas through SCSCIA to provide computer technology to people with SCI to encourage their involvement in Internet based support
• Promote the development of a statewide medical and health professional data base to provide information to people with SCI in need of providers
• Use SCSCIA to promote the many recreation opportunities for people in SC since many opportunities are not known until they have passed: South Easter wheelchair Games, Splash Bashes-adaptive sports days, disabled hunting opportunities, etc. This can be done through SCSCIA newsletters and website links
• Use SCSCIA to promote SCIO research and an strategy for potential SCI research participants to participate in the research studies
• Develop an Attendant Care registry to identify people who are properly trained to provide this crucial service. Providers on the registry must show proof of training. SCSCIA may be needed to facilitate this training.

DRRP and RRTC Summer Students

2011-05-29T10:35:00.000-07:00

This summer, Dr. Krause and Dr. Saunders will mentor one undergraduate and one graduate student for a ten week period as part of the DRRP project. They will also mentor one undergraduate student for the RRTC project for the ten week period. Each student will take part in team activities as well as work on their own individual project throughout the summer. The students will also take classes through the MUSC Graduate School which will focus on research, neurologic, rehabilitation, and medical topics. At the end of the summer, each student will have the opportunity to present their reserach project findings to the MUSC Graduate School mentors, as well as our team.

The graduate student, Jamar Booth, is currently pursuing a master's of rehabilitation counseling at South Carolina State with an intended graduation date of May 2012. He has a bachelor of science degree in physical education/activity management from South Carolina State.

Leah Snipe is a rising sophomore at Wofford College with an undeclared degree interest of biology and pre medicine. She is interested in gaining knowledge and skills over the summer on professional research.

Allysan Scatterday is a rising senior at the College of Charleston with a major in biology and pre medicine. She is interested in dermatology and environmental issues in medical care.

Spring 2011 newsletters

2011-05-26T07:42:00.001-07:00

We published our Spring 2011 newsletters. Please see the links below to read them:

SCIORG: http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/chp/sciorg/newsletter.htm

CHORCUP: http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/chp/CHORCUP/newsletter.htm

RRTC: http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/chp/rrtc/Newsletters.htm

New You Tube Video

2011-05-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

Check out our new You Tube video in which Dr. James Krause gives an overview of the SCI and TBI research completed by the SCI Research Team.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoG4EP1w2nE

Center for Rehabilitation Research in Neurological Conditions

2011-05-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, May 4, MUSC celebrated the Grand Opening of the Center for Rehabilitation Research in Neurological Conditions. This center encompasses state of the art research by various MUSC faculty members on spinal cord injury, stroke, cerebral palsy, and other neurological conditions. The Grand Opening focused on the neuromuscular assessment lab, voice and swallowing lab, locomotor energetics and assessment lab, locomotor rehabilitation lab, upper extremity motor function lab, and Dr. Krause's neurological conditions research.

Over a hundred attendees came to this event, including the president and provost of the university, deans of MUSC colleges, director of the VA medical center, and clincians and researchers from around MUSC and the local medical community. Dr. Jim Krause was able to showcase recent research on spinal cord injury as well as share future research endeavors and goals, while the other neuroscience faculty in the center conducted lab tours and demonstrations of their research.

New You Tube Video, DRRP

2011-05-03T10:38:00.000-07:00

Please check out our new You Tube video:

Spinal Cord Injury Community Perspectives, Vol 3: An interview with William

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rinUntWuQVs

RRTC Grand Rounds Video Link

2011-04-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

Please see the link to the Grand Rounds presentation from April 26, 2011. Joycelyn Craig, BSN, RN, CRRN from the Shepherd Center spoke on " Every Patient with SCI Deserves a Turn: How, When, and Why."

http://chpondemand.musc.edu/rehab_int/Grand_Rounds_Craig_04_26_11.mp4

RRTC April Grand Rounds

2011-04-26T11:18:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, April 26 we hosted our quarterly Grand Rounds for the RRTC grant at the College of Health Professions Complex on MUSC's campus. Joycelyn Craig, BSN, RN, CRRN from the Shepherd Center and collaborator on the RRTC grant, spoke on "Every Patient with SCI Deserves a "Turn:" How, When, and Why." The three learning objectives of the presentation were to list at least three ways that turning benefits the patient, recognize proper padding and positioning, and defend turns, padding and positioning despite the use of specialty mattresses or beds.

In her presentation, Ms. Craig included times that patients are at risk for pressure ulcers, detailed definitions of pressure ulcers, as well as risk factors and mechanical and biochemical factors for pressure ulcers. She described different types of patient turns and the importance for routine turns, padding, positioning, and skin checks, as well as the reasons that specialty mattresses and beds alone are not sufficient to avoid pressure ulcers.

Thirty eight attendees came to the presentation which included occupational therapists, physical therapists, PhD researchers and students from MUSC and surrounding local hospitals. All attendees were eligible to receive one hour of CME or CEU credit. The next quarterly Grand Rounds will take place in July 2011 at MUSC.

New You Tube video

2011-04-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

We published a new You Tube video: Spinal Cord Injury Community Perspectives: An Interview with Maria" which presents a candid interview with Maria's experiences with SCI. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoyrZz1JCvg

Trauma Center Workshop-Columbia

2011-03-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, March 26, the Shepherd Center hosted the third trauma center conference at Palmetto Health Richland Hospital in Columbia, South Carolina. As the previous two trauma center workshops, this event was titled “Translating Evidence to Prevent Secondary Complications after Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)” with the overall purpose of the workshop to train area clinicians and researchers on the secondary conditions related to SCI and provide education to reduce secondary complications and increase longevity after SCI.

There were 28 attendees in Columbia which included physicians, nurses, occupational therapists and physical therapists and all attendees were eligible for CME credit. The anonymous feedback received on the workshop objective contents, relevance, and presentation techniques from the participants in Columbia was very complimentary and positive with encouragement to do additional workshops and educational events in the future.

Each half day workshop in the series of three total conferences statewide consisted of three presentations by Dr. David Apple, M.D., Dr. Deborah Backus, Ph.D., P.T., and Joycelyn Craig, RN, BSN, CRRN all from the Shepherd Center. Now that the conferences are concluded, the presenters are working on additional educational materials that can be utilized to continue dissemination of information around the area.

RRTC Shepherd Trauma Center Conference

2011-03-15T06:28:00.000-07:00

The Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia hosted the second trauma center conference on Saturday, February 26, 2011, at Spartanburg Regional Hospital. There were 80 registrants and the information was very well received by the participatory audience. Participants included physicians, nurses, occupational therapists and physical therapists.

This conference is part of the series of trauma center half day workshops that MUSC and Shepherd are hosting for the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Secondary Conditions in Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury (RRTC) grant. Each event is titled “Translating Evidence to Prevent Secondary Complications after Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)” with the overall purpose of the workshop to train area clinicians and researchers on the secondary conditions related to SCI and provide education to reduce secondary complications and increase longevity after SCI.

Each workshop consists of three presentations by Dr. David Apple, MD, Dr. Deborah Backus, PhD, PT, and Joycelyn Craig, RN, BSN, CRRN all from the Shepherd Center.

After this conference ended, the presenters from the Shepherd Center have identified several additional training products to provide to trauma centers and will be sending those materials out over the next few months in order to continue education and dissemination of information.

The next conference is scheduled for March 26 in Columbia at Palmetto Health Richland Hospital.

Save the Date-RRTC April Grand Rounds

2011-03-08T10:36:00.000-08:00

Our next Grand Rounds for the RRTC grant will take place on Tuesday, April 26 at noon. The presentation will be at MUSC in the College of Health Professions Complex, A-204. Joycelyn Craig, BSN, RN, CRRN from the Shepherd Center in Atlanta Georgia will present on "Every Patient with SCI Deserves a “Turn”: How, When, and Why!"

The learning objectives are:

1. List at least 3 ways that turning benefits the patient.
2. Recognize proper padding and positioning. 
3. Defend turns, padding and positioning despite the use of specialty mattresses or beds.

Please feel free to bring your lunch! All attendees will be eligible for one hour of CME or CEU continuing education credit.

New You Tube Video

2011-03-02T07:26:00.000-08:00

Check out our new You Tube video titled "Consumer Advisory Panel on Stressful Events." This video discusses a recent consumer advisory panel meeting and the benefits to our research of the input received at these meetings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU_yaE9warY

New You Tube Video

2011-02-16T11:25:00.000-08:00

Check out our new You Tube video, published on the SCI Research Team You Tube site

SCI Research Byte, Vol 9: Familial Income and Life Expectancy after Spinal Cord Injury

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEgfm78qgfo

DRRP Updates-SCSU

2011-02-01T09:52:00.000-08:00

October 2010 marked the start of third year of the DRRP grant and we have been busy with the DRRP grant activities in the new year. We recently had a phone conference with Dr Sligh-Conway and Dr Staten at South Carolina State University (SCSU) to discuss ongoing activities. We discussed the summer graduate student that we will host in summer 2011. The summer program will be structured similar to the past years, with a ten week internship period that will entail mentoring from Dr Krause and Dr Saunders at MUSC and Dr Conway and Dr Staten at SCSU. This summer, the student will focus more on literature reviews in their paper writing stages.

Dr Conway is going to be travelling to two conferences in the next few months with our summer student from 2010. They will be going to the North Carolina Counseling Association (NCCA) Conference in Concord, NC in February where they will present "Life Care Planning for Persons with Disabilities with focus on Individuals with Spinal Cord Injuries/Traumatic Brain Injuries." Dr Conway also just submitted an abstract to the Rehabilitation of Racial & Ethnic Minorities with Behavioral Addictions (REMBA) conference which will take place in Greensboro, North Carolina in April.

Dr Conway and Dr Staten are planning to visit MUSC in early May to finalize plans for the summer graduate student and go over existing data from the DRRP studies. We are going to continue regular meetings over the next few months with these collaborators in order to continue to share new data findings.

RRTC January Grand Rounds

2011-01-27T06:09:00.001-08:00

Below is the link for the video of the January Grand Rounds, Locomotor Recovery after Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury: Balancing Innovation and Expectation, presented by Dr Mark Bowden, PhD, PT.

http://chpondemand.musc.edu/rehab_int/grand_rounds_int/grand_rounds_bowden_01_25_11.mp4

RRTC January Grand Rounds

2011-01-25T11:15:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, January 25, 2011, Dr Mark Bowden, PhD, PT from the MUSC Department of Health Science and Research presented at our RRTC Quarterly Grand Rounds. The presentation took place on the MUSC campus in the College of Health Professions Complex. The title of the presentation, Locomotor Recovery after Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury: Balancing Innovation and Expectation, included the objectives below:

1) Differentiate compensatory versus recovery-based approaches to locomotor rehabilitation
2) Describe components to successful walking rehabilitation programs
3) Understand the factors by which specific motor control deficits may be targeted in future interventions

In his presentation, Dr Bowden discussed the current state of locomotor rehabilitation, including current compensation strategies. He emphasized recovery based approaches and guidelines for maximizing recovery and independence in patients. Dr Bowden also discussed the role of sensory feedback, strength and power capacity, and cardiorespiratory fitness in treatment practice.

Forty four attendees came to the presentation, which included physical therapists, occupational therapists, students, PhD researchers, and recreational therapists. All attendees were eligible to receive one hour of CME credit.

The next SCI Quarterly Grand Rounds will take place in April at MUSC.

RRTC Consumer Advisory Panel

2010-12-14T07:14:00.000-08:00

Our consumer specialist hosted a meeting of our RRTC consumer advisory panel (CAP) on Thursday,December 9, 2010 at MUSC. The purpose of this CAP was to discuss format revisions of the RRTC Core survey instrument. The attendees completed a sample survey and gave valuable insight and suggested format revisions for the survey. These revisions included identifying skip patterns more clearly and bolding key words in a variety of questions to make them easier to understand. We will make appropriate revisions and be able to print the survey instrument in the near future.

In addition, the participants reviewed the Health Services Received Questionnaire. They made suggestions to add questions:
• what type of insurance did the participant have at the time of injury?
• how much recreational therapy did participant receive during treatment at inpatient rehabilitation?
• did participant receive any social worker services (information about community resources) during treatment at inpatient rehabilitation?

RRTC January Grand Rounds-Save the Date

2010-12-07T09:48:00.000-08:00

Dr Mark Bowden, PhD, PT from the MUSC Department of Health Science and Research will be presenting at our next RRTC Grand Rounds on January 25, 2011. The title will be:
Locomotor Recovery after Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury: Balancing Innovation and Expectation

The objectives of the presentation will include:

1) Differentiate compensatory versus recovery-based approaches to locomotor rehabilitation
2) Describe components to successful walking rehabilitation programs
3) Understand the factors by which specific motor control deficits may be targeted in future interventions

The presentation will take place on the MUSC campus in the College of Health Professions Complex.

RRTC upcoming trauma center conferences

2010-11-11T05:07:00.000-08:00

In October 2010, we successfully completed the first trauma center conference, in collaboration with the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The first conference was held at MUSC and included 25 attendees. Since the first conference, the Shepherd training team has been going over conference feedback and working to refine and perfect the training for the next three conferences that will be held in the next year.

At each upcoming conference, our collaborators have the plan to provide a checklist for each site. This would be provided in hard copy, and could be either modified and printed off to use in their clinics, or, if they have an electronic data collection/documentation tool, they could use this to modify it so that they are tracking the best parameters for reducing/preventing key secondary complications, and finally, they can use it to build their data collection/documentation tool if they are so inclined. They will have a useful tool that should help reduce the secondary complications.

Sheperd is also very interested in tracking outcomes to determine if this effort/the mechanisms being used to translate the evidence related to the prevention of secondary complications is actually being utilized, and if it makes a difference. Dr Debbie Backus, Shepherd training director, will be following up with the key contact people from each site over the next few weeks, attempting to identify outcomes they would like to track in this endeavor.

The upcoming conferences:

January 15, 2011
Carolinas Rehabilitation Hospital
Florence, SC 29506

February 26, 2011
Regional Rehabilitation Services
101 East Wood St.
Spartanburg, SC 29303

March 26, 2011
Palmetto Health Richland
Outpatient Physical Therapy
14 Medical Park, Suite 100
Columbia, SC 29203

Study Updates-DRRP and RRTC

2010-11-09T06:56:00.000-08:00

DRRP
The first of our two studies within the Center for underrepresented populations has been ongoing and we now are ready to start the second study for the Center, as we have the final instrument approved by the IRB and thoroughly edited.

RRTC
We also have instrumentation final or very near final for the first two of the studies that are beginning for RRTC, the access to care studies.

Our team is going to get extremely busy starting at the beginning of the year with these new studies! We will start our survey mail-outs and, after that, we will have ongoing activities with updating addresses, resends, calls to nonparticipants, data entry, data verification, etc. Currently, we have been working a lot to get updated addresses so that we can hit the ground running.

In addition, MUSC student research day took place on Friday, November 5. All of our summer students had posters to showcase their research and one of the undergraduate students gave a presentation. They all did a great job and received outstanding feedback on their summer work.

Brown Bag Lecture at SCSU

2010-10-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, October 27, Dr Jim Krause presented a Brown Bag Lecture to faculty at South Carolina State University as part of the Center for Health Outcomes and Capacity Building among Underserved Populations with Neurologic Injuries. The purpose of the presentation was to describe research opportunities that are available through the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) of the United States Department of Education and to help build capacity in applying for research grants. Dr Krause desribed team experiences in applying for NIDRR funds and provided a historical building block approach that includes population identification, collaboration building, and proposal development. He also included a brief overview of the summer students that have been part of the team mentor program in order to highlight the success of this endeavor.

Dr Krause's presentation, "Funded Research of Studies Relevant to Disability: Funding Opportunities through the Department of Education” was very well received by the junior and senior faculty members that attended the lecture. We plan to host additional presentations targeted toward research professionals over the life of the grant.

October Grand Rounds

2010-10-26T11:42:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, October 26, 2010, we hosted our quarterly Spinal Cord Injury Grand Rounds presentation. Dr. Susan Newman, PhD, RN, CRRN, presented on "Beyond the hospital walls: The community through the eyes of people with spinal cord injury." The objectives of the presentation included to recognize the issues encountered by people with SCI in the community setting, to consider an ecological view of SCI rehabilitation that addresses both the individual and the environment, and to identify potential barriers and supports to optimal independence, health, and community participation after SCI.

In the presentation, Dr Newman gave an introduction to SCI and community integration and participation including environmental barriers in every day life. Dr Newman gave an overview of her research of environmental barriers and facilitators to community participation in the Charleston, SC area as perceived by individuals with SCI. Dr Newman has utilized photovoice in her research in order to capture the perspective of individuals in the community, promote knowledge through discussion of photographs, and reach policy makers. Her research has found that individuals with SCI were able to pinpoint environmental factors in the community that deter their participation. These factors can include products and technology, natural environment, support and relationships, attitudes, and services, systems and policies.

Thirty five attendees came to the presentation which included nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and researchers from MUSC and surrounding area health care organizations. All attendees received one hour of CME credit for participation.

The presentation can be viewed at the following link:

http://tegr.it/y/1z1f

RRTC Consumer Advisory Panel

2010-10-19T11:29:00.001-07:00

Our consumer specialist hosted a meeting of our consumer advisory panel (CAP) on Thursday, October 14, 2010 at MUSC. The purpose of this CAP was to discuss revisions of the RRTC survey instrument. The attendees gave valuable insight and suggested revisions for the survey. These revisions included maximizing skip patterns and making revisions to questions regarding access to care, ability to take medications, spasticity and quality of life questions. We will make appropriate revisions and be able to finalize the survey instrument in the near future.

Developing Scholar Award

2010-10-13T07:15:00.000-07:00

Congratuations to Dr Lee Saunders who was awarded the MUSC College of Health Professions Developing Scholar Award on October 8, 2010. This prestigious accomplishment is awarded annually to a promising researcher within the college and is based on publications and grants awareded in the past year. Congratulations Lee!

Ambulation Consumer Advisory Panel

2010-10-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

m The Ambulation Consumer Advisory Panel (CAP) gathered for a meeting on Thursday October 7, 2010. Our CAP is made up of a diverse group (injury level, gender, age) of six people with spinal cord injuries who are able to walk to some degree. The group received an overview of all studies, reviewed the ambulation survey instrument, and then had an emotionally charged discussion surrounding the negative consequences, as well as both the positive and negative psychological aspects of ambulating after SCI.

First, the group reviewed the "Ambulation and Secondary Complications: Participants with Chronic Spinal Cord Injury" survey and had the following recommendations:

-They suggested that the survey should be more specific as to whether you are able to walk distances independently, without any support of another person and without breaks

-Clarifications for walking support and assistance for walking in the home and in the community

-Add questions for complications experienced as a result of walking

The group also identified all potential negative negative consequences of walking, some of which included: pain in joints, hands, hips, legs, back, and shoulders, dealing with weather conditions (rain, ice, snow), environmental obstacles – no sidewalks, curb cuts, aisles in stores too narrow, etc., falls, stigma of using braces, walker or cane, muscle spasms, lack of concentration in everyday life, sleeping issues, over use of pain medication

Lastly, the CAP discussed the positive or negative psychological aspects of walking after an SCI which included such items as:

• Walking helps maintain muscle tone and bone density
• Helps with constipation and empties bladder
• Walking even 20 feet provides hope of what is possible
• Improves self esteem and confidence
• People treat you like you are stupid when they see the assistive devices
• People ignore you if you use assistive devices
• Standing helps blood flow
• People maybe too helpful when they see the assistive devices
• Walking can tire you out so much that it affects you functioning for the rest of the day
• May have to take too much pain medication as result of walking
• Get frustrated/depressed if you’re walking progress plateaus or regresses
• Experience guilt or depression because walking has not improved
• Walking makes you “feel” more complete
• Standing allows you to maintain better eye contact during conversations
• Standing allows you to more easily initiate conversations

Trauma Center Conference Video

2010-10-07T06:46:00.000-07:00

Please check out the link to our trauma center conference that was held on October 2, 2010, titled "Translating Evidence to Prevent Secondary Complications after Spinal Cord Injury."

http://chpondemand.musc.edu/chp_admin_int/Shepherd_10_02_10.mp4

Fall Newsletters

2010-10-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

Please check out our Fall 2010 Newsletters

CHORCUP

http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/chp/CHORCUP/PDFs/CHORCUP%20NEWSLETTER%20_%20FALL%202010.pdf

SCIORG

http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/chp/sciorg/pdfs/SCIORG%20NEWSLETTER_FALL%202010.pdf

RRTC

http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/chp/rrtc/PDFs/RRTC%20NEWSLETTER_FALL%202010.pdf

Trauma Center Conference

2010-10-02T09:40:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, October 2, 2010, MUSC, in collaboration with the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia hosted a half day workshop for the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Secondary Conditions in Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury (RRTC) grant. Twenty five individuals registered for the “Translating Evidence to Prevent Secondary Complications after Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)” conference. Attendees included physicians, physical therapists, occupational therapists, physician assistants, nurses, researchers, and lawyers from the Charleston and Beaufort areas. The overall purpose of the workshop was to train area clinicians and researchers on the secondary conditions related to SCI and provide education to reduce secondary complications and increase longevity after SCI.

The workshop consisted of three presentations by Dr. David Apple, MD, Dr. Deborah Backus, PhD, PT, and Joycelyn Craig, RN, BSN, CRRN all from the Shepherd Center. Dr. Apple spoke on ‘Epidemiology and Importance of Secondary Conditions after SCI.’ In his presentation, he outlined the epidemiology of SCI, described common secondary complications related to SCI, and encouraged discussions about secondary complications when coordinating treatments for individuals with SCI. He also discussed types of treatment plans related to different systems of the body. Ms. Craig spoke on ‘Medical and Rehabilitation Strategies for Preventing/Reducing Secondary Complications in Individuals with SCI.’ She discussed the rehabilitation priorities, especially within the first 72 hours of SCI. She described the American Spinal Cord Injury Classification system and discussed its importance in treatment plans. Lastly, she described important preventive measures for secondary complications in individuals with SCI, including pressure sores, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, autonomic dysreflexia, spasticity, pain and pneumonia. Dr. Backus presented ‘Translation and Implementation of Evidence into Practice’ and discussed how to translate evidence related to complications associated with SCI into clinical practice. She identified methods to remain current, with issues related to medical care of individuals with SCI and also resources for the individual with SCI to utilize in order to prevent secondary complications.

Throughout the next year, there will be three additional conferences in Florence, Columbia, and Spartanburg, South Carolina. The additional workshops will present the same information to clinicians throughout the state in order to disseminate knowledge of prevention of secondary conditions related to SCI.

DRRP Consumer Advisory Board Meeting

2010-09-07T09:58:00.001-07:00

Our consumer advocate, Richard Aust, hosted a consumer advisory panel (CAP) meeting for our DRRP grant on Thursday, September 3. In the meeting, Mr Aust gave an overview of the DRRP and RRTC grant activities and asked attendees to evaluate our survey instrument for the DRRP 2 project. CAP participants provided valuable feedback for our survey particularly in the following areas:

*defining 'complete' recovery after a spinal cord injury

*question on type of wheelchair used

*defining options of retirement and reasons for retirement

*more clearly defining times in employment gaps

*adding activity of daily living charts

*adding skip patterns for alcohol and tobacco use

*defining race and ethnicity more clearly

Overall, the CAP participants were able to provide very useful assistance so our DRRP Study 2 survey can be finalized and the research can begin.

Save the date-October 2 conference

2010-08-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

As part of the RRTC grant, MUSC will be collaborating with the Shepherd Center to host three to five conferences around the state of South Carolina over the next two years. These half day workshops are geared toward trauma centers with the goal to educate clinicians on secondary conditions related to spinal cord injury. The first workshop will be October 2, 2010 at MUSC in Charleston, SC from 9:00-1:00 PM. It will be titled, "Translating Evidence to Prevent Secondary Complications after Spinal Cord Injury," and will include speakers Dr David Apple, MD, Dr Deborah Backus, PT, PhD, and Joycelyn Craig, RN, BSN, CRRN, all from the Shepherd Center.

Three hours of CME/CEU hours will be awarded for participation in this conference. There is a fee of $25.00 that includes lunch and the CME/CEU credit hours. Brochure and Registration Forms are available upon request from the contact number below.

For additional information, please contact:

Any Questions? Please call Kathy Kreger at 404-350-7397

Summer undergraduate students present projects

2010-08-12T09:25:00.000-07:00

Our two summer undergraduate students presented their final projects on Tuesday, August 10 to our team and the MUSC office of graduate studies.

Dana Westercam, a rising junior from Davidson College, has been working with Dr Krause's team on the RRTC grant this summer. She presented her project, "Association of Spasticity and Life Satisfaction in Spinal Cord Injured Individuals." In her project, Dana wanted to identify the relationship in spasticity and life satisfection in SCI. She used data from a mail-out survey of over 1,500 respondents and found a negative association between spasticity and multiple indicators of life satisfaction (home life, global, vocational, overall satisfaction). She discussed the implications in treating negative outcomes of spasticity in SCI individuals and concluded that future research in this area could be longitudinal, use other life satisfaction/spasticity measures, and could expand the subscales used.

Dana will be returning to Davidson in a few weeks where she is currently in the pre-med program and hopes to attend medical school upon graduation in 2012.

Kate Measom, an undergraduate student at Vanderbilt University, has been working with Dr Krause's team on the DRRP grant this summer. She presented her project, "Patterns of Alcohol Consumption and Prescription Medication Use Among Persons with SCI." The purpose of her project was to determine alcohol consumption and prescription medication use in relation to depression among persons with SCI. Her analysis included data from Dr Krause's 10 year longitudinal study and found that most participants who are taking prescription medications are not drinking alcohol. In addition, CAGE positive responses (alcohol use) were associated with greater odds of probable major depression and prescription medication use for sleep and pain were associated with greater odds of depressive symptomatology. The more frequent the use, the higher the odds. Kate concluded that future research can look at alcohol consumption and abuse, prescription medication misuse, and prevention.

Both students will have the opportunity to present their projects at MUSC's student research day in November.

RRTC Training Presentations

2010-08-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

As discussed below, we hosted a Grand Rounds presentation on July 27 by Dr Debbie Backus of the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, GA. Her entire presentation, "Translating Evidence into Practice to Empower the Person with SCI to Achieve Greater Health", can be viewed at the link below.

http://chpondemand.musc.edu/chp_admin_int/Grand_Rounds_07_27_10.mp4

In addition, Dr Jim Krause gave a presentation to MUSC Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy summer students, titled, "Secondary Conditions: Spinal Cord Injury." The entire presentation can be viewed at the link below.

http://chpondemand.musc.edu/chp_admin_int/Dr_Krause_07_08_10.mp4

CAP Riverdogs

2010-08-03T17:56:00.000-07:00

Our team sponsored the third outing to a Charleston River Dogs baseball game for the RRTC and DRRP consumer advisory panel (CAP). Team and CAP members braved the heat to watch the high scoring baseball game, between inning festivities, and enjoy the large variety of ballpark food. Multiple home runs powered a home team victory of 10-6 over the Greenville Growl! The outing served as another excellent opportunity for CAP participants and RRTC/DDRP staff to interact and socialize with each other. We will sponsor one more River Dogs game in August for our CAP members.

Neuroscience RRTC Grand Rounds

2010-07-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

Dr Anbesaw Selassie, MPH, DrPH, a collaborator on our RRTC grant, presented at the MUSC Neuroscience Grand Rounds on Thursday, July 29. The title of his presentation was “Population-based Analyses of Common Comorbidities among Epilepsy Patients in South Carolina, 2002-2007.” Learning objectives of the presentation included:

•To inform evidence-based clinical practice regarding the common comorbidities noted among patients with epilepsy and seizure disorders.
•Findings based on population-based epidemiological studies in South Carolina conducted from 2002 through 2007.
•Case ascertainment criteria relied on the CDC surveillance standards for identifying comorbidities with epilepsy.
•Comorbid conditions of epilepsy are the co-occurrence of two or more supposedly separate medical conditions observed beyond chance in a person with epilepsy and seizure disorder.

Thirty eight attendees came to the presentation, including clinicians and researchers from MUSC. Dr Selassie gave a review of existing epilepsy comorbidity studies. He also spoke of his current research. His research has utilized the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), Statewide Hospital Discharge Dataset, Statewide Emergency Department Dataset, and the South Carolina Epilepsy Surveillance and Followup Dataset. All research has found that there is an increased risk of comorbidities in individuals with epilepsy. These comorbidities include asthma, heart attack, stroke, diabetes and psychological effects. In addition, research with the South Carolina Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Followup Registry illustrated an increased risk of epilepsy in patients with TBI.

RRTC-SCI Grand Rounds

2010-07-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

We hosted our third RRTC Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Grand Rounds on Tuesday, July 27 at MUSC. Dr Debbie Backus, PT, PhD, from the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia, spoke on "Translating Evidence into Practice to Empower the Person with SCI to Achieve Greater Health." The objectives of the presentation were:

1. State considerations for translating evidence into clinical practice
2. Identify key health related issues for persons with chronic SCI
3. Identify interventions that may be useful for the person with SCI to attain greater health and well being
4. Discuss and apply strategies for integrating interventions into clinical practice that will promote greater health after SCI
5. Discuss strategies to assist persons with SCI to identify resources and interventions for improving health and wellness after SCI.

135 attendees came to the presentation which included physical therapists, nurses, occupational therapists, physicians, PT and OT students, faculty researchers, and two SCI patients. All attendees were able to receive 1 CME credit hour.

In the presentation, Dr Backus spoke of barriers to translating evidence among clinicians, stakeholders and the media and listed ways to overcome these barriers. She also discussed methods of translation that have been researched and utilized at Shepherd Center that have been successful. Audience members were surveyed after the presentation and the majority agreed that as a result of attending this session, they would plan to routinely screen patients with SCI for associated conditions that might negatively impact their health and wellness.

Native American Pow-wow

2010-07-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

In mid July, our Consumer Facilitator, Richard Aust, attended the 20th Echoes of a Proud Nation pow-wow at the Kahnawake Reservation in Quebec, Canada. During our last Consumer Advisory Panel meeting (January 26, 2010) at Craig Hospital in Denver Colorado, participants suggested that pow-wows were an ideal forum for disseminating research results to the Native American Communities. Our Consumer Facilitator attended this weekend’s pow-wow to better understand the structure of pow-wows and to make contact with local Kahnawake Disability Community Services, Paul Robinson.

Over 20 tribes from across North America came to Kahnawake to participate in the weekend’s activity including dancing, drumming, and singing as well as selling their artwork and foods. The annual pow wow gives Kahnawake the opportunity to showcase Onkwehón:we (Original people) culture. In the words of the pow-wow committee, “There is one common thread among all people who attend the pow-wow, they all come to share. Sitting among the crowd during opening ceremonies can best be described as an emotional, spiritual moment and this is the way it is meant to be.” Our consumer facilitator, Richard, agreed with the Committee’s words and found the pow-wow to be inspiration and full of powerful images and emotional charged moments, given that his wife is of Native American heritage.

Take me out to the ballgame

2010-07-13T06:33:00.000-07:00

Our team sponsored an outing to a Charleston River Dogs baseball game for the RRTC and DRRP consumer advisory panel (CAP). Team members and CAP members attended and enjoyed the baseball game,festivities, and a home team victory! We will sponsor a few more River Dogs games for our CAP members througout the summer.

Neuroscience Grand Rounds

2010-07-07T12:05:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, July 8, Dr Allan Levi, MD, PhD, FACS from the University of Miami, Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, gave a presentation for the MUSC Neuroscience Grand Rounds. Approximately 95 attendees came to the presentation, including neurosurgeons, clinicians, and researchers from MUSC, Clemson, USC and the South Carolina area.

Dr. Allan Levi is a Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery, Orthopedics, and Rehabilitation at the University of Miami and serves as Chief of Neurospinal Services at Jackson Memorial Hospital.Through his work with The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, he has conducted research on developing cellular transplantation strategies to repair injuries within both the human central and peripheral nervous system.

In his presentation, “The Clinical Application of Modest Hypothermia in the Treatment of Acute Spinal Cord Injury”, Dr Levi concluded that early treatment of TBI and SCI (within first 24 hours after injury), especially treatment with hypothermia, can yield the most positive benefits to patients. Dr Levi spoke about methods of hypothermia treatment using the Coolgard 3000 catheter that is an endovascular method used to treat stroke, SCI and TBI. Dr Levi concluded that effectively delivered hypothermia treatment after acute SCI can be very beneficial and additional research is needed in this area to expand on current research knowledge.

July Grand Rounds

2010-06-22T09:04:00.000-07:00

The next RRTC Spinal Cord Injury Grand Rounds will take place on Tuesday, July 27 at MUSC. The speaker will be Dr Deborah Backus, associate director of the Spinal Cord Injury Crawford Research Institute at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The title of her one hour presentation is: Translating Evidence into Practice to Empower the Person with SCI to Achieve Greater Health.

Learning Objectives for the presentation include:
1. State considerations for translating evidence into clinical practice
2. Identify key health related issues for persons with chronic SCI
3. Identify interventions that may be useful for the person with SCI to attain greater health and well being
4. Discuss strategies for integrating interventions into clinical practice that will promote greater health after SCI
5. Discuss strategies to assist persons with SCI to identify resources and interventions for improving health and wellness after SCI.

As with our previous Grand Rounds presentations, all attendees will be able to receive nursing or medical CME/CEU credit for the presentation.

DRRP Summer Students

2010-05-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

This summer, Dr Krause and Dr Saunders will mentor one undergraduate student and one graduate student for a ten week period for the DRRP grant. Each student will participate in our daily team meetings and activities and will also complete their own individual project. This project will be on a topic of their choice and they will have the opportunity to present their research at MUSC Research Day in the Fall 2010.

Our graduate student, Randy Gooden, has a bachelor of science degree in physical education from South Carolina State University and is currently pursuing a master of science degree in transportation management from SC State. During his graduate degree career, he has served as a graduate assistant for one of our SC State collaborators, Dr Sligh-Conway. During the ten week summer internship period, we will be working with our two collaborators at SC State, Dr Sligh-Conway and Dr Staten to ensure that Randy receives the highest level of mentoring and research experience from both institutions.

Our undergraduate student, Kate Measom, is currently pursuing a bachelor of arts degree in psychology and French from Vanderbilt University on a pre-med track. She hopes to go to medical school after graduation from Vanderbilt and is interested in neuroscience research and psychiatry.

Both students will begin work on June 7 and we look forward to a productive summer with them!

RRTC Summer Students

2010-05-10T07:36:00.000-07:00

This summer, Dr Krause and Dr Saunders will be mentoring three medical students and one undergraduate student for the RRTC grant over a ten week period. These students will take part in our daily team meetings and activities and will have their own individual project to complete. This individual project will be on a topic of their choice and they will have the opportunity to present their research at MUSC Research Day in the fall 2010.

The three medical students are all from MUSC and have completed their first year of medical school. Simon Brown has a bachelor of arts in biology from Brown University and has previous research experience from the University of South Carolina and Brown. Trey Bingham was a biology major at Wofford College and served as a research intern at the University of South Carolina and NASA. Ryan Kohout has a bachelor of science in Chemistry from the University of Florida and spent much of his undergraduate career doing chemistry research at the university. Our medical students will begin work on May 24, 2010.

Our undergraduate student, Dana Westercam, is currently pursuing a bachelor of science in biology from Davidson College with an expected graduation date of May 2012. She is a pre-med major with special interest in pursuing a medical degree from MUSC and learning more about neuroscience research. Dana will begin work on June 7, 2010.

We look forward to having all of the summer RRTC students with us!

New You Tube Video

2010-05-05T10:39:00.000-07:00

Please check out our new You Tube video:

"Research Byte, Vol 6: A Theoretical Risk Model for Mortality After Spinal Cord Injury"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seHyaJPxUco

Newsletters

2010-04-28T12:10:00.000-07:00

Our Spring 2010 Newsletters have been published. Please check them out below:

SCIORG:
http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/chp/sciorg/pdfs/2010-SPRING_SCI%20RESEARCH%20TEAM.pdf

CHORCUP:
http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/chp/CHORCUP/PDFs/2010-SPRING_CHORCUP.pdf

RRTC:
http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/chp/rrtc/PDFs/2010-SPRING_RRTC.pdf

Facebook Us

2010-04-19T07:23:00.001-07:00

We created a new facebook page for our CHORCUP and RRTC research. Please check it out!

Spinal Cord Injury: CHORCUP
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Spinal-Cord-Injury-CHORCUP/115412575151534?ref=search&sid=3330897.155388372..1&v=wall

Spinal Cord Injury: Rehabilitation Research and Training Center
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Spinal-Cord-Injury-Rehabilitation-Research-and-Training-Center/112948575401149?ref=ts&v=wall

You can still become facebook friends with Dr Jim Krause, PI of the projects as well.

http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Krause/100000103684876

Watch our Grand Rounds

2010-04-14T08:04:00.000-07:00

Please check out the link below and you can view the April Grand Rounds presentation by Dr Rod Adkins: Metabolic Syndrome and Spinal Cord Injury.

**Please note that this is best viewed in Mozilla Firefox

http://chpondemand.musc.edu/chp_admin_int/Grand_Rounds_SpinalCord_04_06_10.mp4

RRTC Spinal Cord Injury Grand Rounds

2010-04-12T05:49:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, April 6, 2010 we hosted our second Spinal Cord Injury Grand Rounds for the RRTC grant. In this grant, we promised to host quarterly Grand Rounds on various topics related to spinal cord injury with a target audience of MUSC and other local hospital and health care clinicians and researchers. For this presentation, Dr Rod Adkins, principal investigator of Study 3 from Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey, California spoke on SCI and Metabolic Syndrome. The learning objectives of the presentation included identification of the five major components of metabolic syndrome, identification of three components of metabolic syndrome for which measurement of and application to SCI are problematic, and appreciation of the primary physiologic factor which may interfere with a clear recognition of metabolic syndrome in people with SCI. Thirty five attendees came to the presentation, including physicians, researchers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and nurses. All attendees are able to receive either CME or ANCC credit for the presentation. The next Grand Rounds will be in July at MUSC.

You Tube

2010-03-29T07:30:00.000-07:00

Our You Tube site for SCIResearchTeam has been recently updated. All of our You Tube videos for DRRP and RRTC can be viewed at the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/user/SCIResearchTeam

Our You Tube videos for our grant research follow three different tracks: CHORCUP, RRTC, and professional directed audience. The professional track videos, or 'bytes' as they are titled, summarize our research data and findings from the projects for the clinical and research based professional population. The CHORCUP track focuses on videos that directly relate to the Center on Health Outcomes Research and Capacity Building for Underserved Populations with SCI and TBI. The RRTC videos will focus on activities and research directly related to the Rehabilitation and Research Training Center projects and findings.

The following videos are currently available for viewing:
CHORCUP Volume 1: Introduction to our You Tube
CHORCUP Volume 2: Summer Undergraduate Research
SCI Research Byte Volume 1: Earnings and SCI
SCI Ressearch Byte Volume 2: Depression in Terms of Race
SCI Research Byte Volume 3: Injury, Severity, and Education
SCI Research Byte Volume 4: Ambulation and Depression

Spring 2010 CAP Meeting

2010-03-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

We hosted the spring meeting of our Consumer Advisory Panel (CAP) on Thursday, March 6, 2010. Our CAP is made up of a diverse group (injury level, gender, age) of eight African Americans with spinal cord injuries and/or traumatic brain injuries.

Meeting topics included:
(1) A brief overview of The Center on Health Outcomes Research and Capacity for Underserved Populations with SCI and TBI ( CHORCUP) and updates of study 1 and 2.
(2) A discussion of the degree to which stress affects people with SCI and TBI. More specifically we compiled a list of specific stressful events which occurred as a direct result of their SCI or TBI:
•School - accessibility was a central theme to create stress.
•Dates – lack of transportation or public transportation which is not reliable, accessibility of restaurant, increased blood pressure.
•Motivation – stress from daily personal hygiene activities affects person’s ability to want to leave house, added stress of having to pre plan all activities to account for accessibility which takes any means of being spontaneous.
•Weather – being caught in rain, weather too cold to want to leave house.
•Doctor’s office – using lift team trained or untrained, no self adjusting exam table.
•Doctor – Finding a doctor with SCI experience, stressful to have to direct your own care while in the hospital since staff have limited knowledge of dealing with SCI.
•Public transportation –lift on bus not working, people on bus appear to blame person trying to use lift rather than bus company, employees who do not know how to use lift, para-transit buses being so unreliable with pick up and drop off times that appointments are missed.
•Airplane travel – not being able to make connection flights due to distance between gates, being assisted onto plane after other passengers have entered plane.
•Parking – no van accessible parking available, having to park in two spots to use side lift and receiving angry letter on windshield.
•Able bodied people’s attitudes – Being ignored in chair or people invading personal space, people cutting in front of you in line, association that people in wheelchairs have learning disability, cashier or waitress talking to other people in the party rather than the person in wheelchair.
•Store access – aisles are blocked with inventory and people will not move after repeated requests to allow access.
•Family – perceived obligation of family to provide support with transfers or personal hygiene, family put under stress to provide support which creates guilt for person with disability.
•Power wheelchair – dead battery while in the community, falling out of chair due to steep ramp, crack in pavement or poorly constructed curb cut.
•Safety – having to use ramp at the back of a building at night with poor lighting.
•Spontaneous activities – Went out with friends to a restaurant or club to find building is inaccessible. There is always stress when you go somewhere new.
•Planning for restroom use – out in community and cannot find an accessible restroom.
•Slowed movement – adjusting to having to wait for elevators rather than stairs.
•Public speaking – speaking when you have problems pronouncing words or speaking to softly, being ignored by cashiers.
•Jobs – knowing you will not be hired for job that you are qualified for by reaction of person to you when you meet for interview, going to apply for job as cahier but see workplace is not accessible for wheelchairs, obvious discrimination of employer due to wheelchair who lays off person saying it is job performance rather than disability which is the issue. Not being able to find a job with health insurance.
•Theme park access – Disney rides are mostly not wheelchair accessible, but almost all rides are accessible at Universal.
•Not being eligible for health insurance due to pre existing condition-SCI
•Playground/park access- accessibility issues.
•Illness related to disability is very stressful or even a cold which takes away a person’s strength and ability to accomplish small tasks around the house which are an afterthought for an able bodied person.

(3)Discussion of positive influences to participants after SCI/TBI, who helped in adjusting to their disability. Several CAP participants felt that their parents or children were the biggest influence to help them keep a positive attitude. Physical therapists, friends, neighbors and others with SCI were also listed as positive influences after SCI.

RRTC Updates

2010-03-01T10:28:00.000-08:00

There have been many activities related to the RRTC grant in the past few weeks.

We are working very diligently on securing summer students for our mentorship program this summer. We will mentor an undergraduate student and also a medical student for a ten week period from June through August. During this ten week period, the students will interact with our team and daily activities and will also choose and complete a project of their individual preference. We are going to be conducting interviews for these students in the next few weeks.

For the training components for the RRTC, we have a few activities coming up in the near future. We are going to host another Grand Rounds seminar in early April for the medical professional community at MUSC and the surrounding Charleston area. Dr Rod Adkins, a collaborator from Rancho Los Amigos Rehabilitation Hospital, will be presenting on metabolic disorders and spinal cord injury. These Grand Rounds seminars take place at MUSC quarterly throughout the five year grant period and provide CME and ANCC credit for attendees.

In addition, our collaborators from the Shepherd Center in Atlanta are planning the first of four trauma center training seminars. These seminars will be one day educational events that will be targeted to medical professionals around South Carolina. The seminars will offer CME credit and will take place in the next two years in Charleston, Greenville, Columbia, and Beaufort. The first seminar will be July 24, 2010 at MUSC in Charleston.

DRRP Updates

2010-03-01T10:19:00.000-08:00

There are a few exciting things to report regarding the DRRP grant.

Our collaborators at SCSU have been working very diligently on grant related projects and activities. Dr Dewalt at SC State is going to attend the American Counseling Association Conference in March 2010. She will take the two graduate students that worked with us in Summer 2009 for them to experience the educational components of the conference. In addition, Dr Dewalt and Dr Staten have begun work on their manuscript, "Vocational Interests after Spinal Cord Injury: Comparisons Related to Gender and Race." Dr Dewalt is going to come to MUSC for an extended two day visit during the first of March to continue work on this. She will look at data and literature with Dr Krause and Dr Saunders and also spend some time in the MUSC library to find recent and past literature for the publication.

Our MUSC team is working on securing an undergraduate and a graduate student to mentor this summer. We will be interviewing undergraduate students from the MUSC summer internship program that the office of graduate studies sponsors. These interviews will take place in the next few weeks. We will also be conducting interviews for a graduate student from South Carolina. Both students will work with our team for a ten week period from June through August. During this time, the students will complete an individual project of their choice and also work with our team on daily activities.

DRRP CAP Meeting-Craig Hospital

2010-02-08T07:21:00.000-08:00

Our team held a meeting of The Consumer Advisory Panel (CAP) at Craig Hospital in Denver, CO on January 26th, 2010. The purpose of the CAP is to assist in interpreting our research and results and identifying implications for persons with SCI. The CAP also assists in targeting additional outlets for consumer audiences.

The CAP consists of 5 people with spinal cord injuries (3 males and 2 females). The breakdown according to race is 60% Native American, 40% African-American, 40% employed. The mean age of the group is 46.2 years old, and 20% have cervical level injuries and 80% non-cervical injuries. Note that one cervical level participant had to cancel their participation at the last moment.

During the meeting, the participants covered an overview/update of current studies, discussion of dissemination methods, access to healthcare issues and viewed and discussed the SCIORG newsletter.

For dissemination of our team research findings, participants suggested Pow Wows (these gatherings are key since they bring most of the tribes together),KATERI Indian Parrish at St. Bernadette’s, Native American Cancer Research, NAMES or Native American Multi Cultural School (teenagers at risk school), Denver Indian Health, Native American Rights—Boulder, AIM or American Indian Movement, Denver Indian Center, commercials or public announcements, and Internet.

Overall, the group felt that the key to preventing secondary conditions is to promote peer support during the post acute phase of recovery from SCI. Several participants in the group volunteer to visit SCI patients while they are still in-patient. Also, it is extremely important to educate primary physicians on how to deal with SCI issues.

In discussing issues with access to health care, the Craig CAP participants listed lack of physician knowledge with SCI, lack of transportation for people outside of urban areas, language barriers (espeically for new immigrants and the first generation), lack of education, lack of Internet access for the older generation, lack of peer support, distrust of government, inability to get medical tests in a timely manner in clinics, and inability to get appropriate medical supplies and equipment.

Lastly, in providing feedback on our team newsletter, CAP participants requested more minority consumer profiles, as well as information on organizations that support and serve minorities. Other attendees also expressed the importance of stressing the long term effects of SCI from using guns in an irresponsible way.

DRRP CAP Meeting-Rancho Los Amigos

2010-02-02T10:48:00.000-08:00

Our team held a meeting of The Consumer Advisory Panel (CAP) at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Doughty, CA on January 28th, 2010. During the meeting, the participants covered an overview/update of current studies, discussion of dissemination methods, and access to healthcare issues and also viewed and discussed the SCIORG newsletter.

The CAP consists of 5 people with spinal cord injuries (3 males and 2 females). The breakdown according to race is 100% Hispanic, 40% employed. The mean age of the group is 38 years old, and 100% non-cervical injuries. Note that two cervical level participants had to cancel their participation at the last moment.

For dissemination methods, the participants suggested the following means to reach the widest possible Hispanic population: health clinics (Spanish and English materials), commercials or public TV annoucements, word of mouth (sports activities), Internet, Facebook/My Space, Community Health Fairs, Christopher Reeves Foundation, abilities expos, and Independent Living Centers. The group did not feel that individual Hispanic organizations were necessary to target since the Hispanic population is connected to mainstream media.

In discussing issues with access to health care, CAP members listed lack of physician knowledge, lack of transportation for patients outside of urban areas, lack of education (academic and not knowing how to be a self advocate), lack of access to internet for the older generation, lack of peer support, distrust of the government, inability to get medical tests in a timely manner in clinics, inability to get appropriate medical supplies and equipment in a timely manner. There was also agreement about the difficulty of dealing with Medicare and Medicaid and navigating the different Medicare plan options.

Lastly, the CAP participants gave valuable feedback on our team newsletter, including recommendations to add more color, pictures and success stories as well as the importance of stressing the long term effects of SCI as a result of gun abuse and injury.

RRTC Grand Rounds

2010-01-26T11:18:00.001-08:00

We hosted our first Grand Rounds presentation on Tuesday, January 26, 2010 on the campus of MUSC. We have committed to doing a Grand Rounds seminar every four months for the five year cycle of the grant, and will host presenters from MUSC and outside of MUSC.

Dr Jim Krause, PI of the RRTC, was the presenter with a topic titled: Secondary Conditions: Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury. There were three main learning objectives of the presentation which included:

1. Identification of at least three prominent secondary conditions
2. Identification of the three primary types of risk factors for secondary conditions
3. Understand the importance of surveillance and population-based studies of secondary conditions

Over 65 attendees came to hear the presentation, including individuals representing a variety of professions including physician, nurse, physician assistant, physical therapist, occupational therapist, and respiratory therapist. Attendees came from MUSC and neighboring Roper Hospital and could receive one hour of CME or ANCC credit.

We received positive feedback from attendees and also received feedback for ideas for topics for future Grand Rounds presentations including acute care management of SCI, traumatic and anoxic brain injury, functional outcomes, quality of life in early intervention, and interventions. The next Grand Rounds presentation will be hosted on Tuesday, April 27 at MUSC.

RRTC Collaborator Visits

2010-01-21T04:51:00.001-08:00

Our RRTC team has had a very productive few weeks with visits from Dr. Debbie Backus, Dr. Mike Devivo, and Dr. Dave Murday.

Dr Backus, Ph.D., PT, is associate Director of the Spinal Cord Injury Research Crawford Research Institute at Shepherd Center. She met with our RRTC team about possible training and educational opportunities as well as future research.

Dr Devivo, DrPH, Department of Rehabilitation Management, University of Alabama Birmingham met with our team about data sets and potential data collaboration.

Dr Murday, PhD, Research Associate for the Center for Health Services & Policy Research at University of South Carolina also met with Dr Devivo and our MUSC team about our data sets and potential data collaboration.

It has been a very successful few weeks with our collaborators.

DRRP Updates

2010-01-21T04:40:00.001-08:00

We had a conference call this week with our collaborators at South Carolina State. We discussed and shared some of our team data and the faculty there are going to be working on a 'strong interest' publication with Dr Krause and Dr Saunders at MUSC. We also discussed potential opportunities for MUSC to give a lecture series on grant writing to junior faculty at SC State. Plans are in place for this series. Our summer students from SC State are currently working on a theoretical paper from their research with us this summer. It will be submitted to a major publication by April 1.

Our team consumer advocate, Richard Aust, will be travelling to Rancho and Craig facilities next week to host Consumer Advisory Board Panels (CAP). During these CAP meetings, he will be educating consumers on our current research, training and education opportunities and soliciting feedback for our practices. This will be a very beneficial trip for our consumers out west and our team since we can educate the consumers but also receive feedback to make our research more efficient and effective to this population.

Lastly, we are working to gather contact information for African American, Hispanic and Latino colleges and universities around the country. We are going to disseminate our findings to these establishments once we have secured the contacts.

DRRP Update

2010-01-06T11:54:00.000-08:00

Our collaborators at SCSU have been working on learning the program Blackboard to use for our summer students for summer 2010. They have gotten approval to use it and will spend the next few months polishing their skills with the program before our summer students begin in June. This program will allow improved and enhanced communication between MUSC, SCSU, and the summer students and allow us to easily make work schedules, share documents, share presentations, and overall effectively correspond with each other.

We have a conference call scheduled between MUSC and SCSU in mid January to discuss some data sets and next steps for the upcoming summer students, potential publications and dissemination activities.

RRTC Update

2010-01-06T11:47:00.000-08:00

We have been busily working on one of the training components for our RRTC Grant, the presentations to medical professionals, or Grand Rounds presentations. We have our first Grand Rounds presentation on January 26 in which Dr Jim Krause, PI of the project, will give a presentation titled "Secondary Conditions: Individuals with SCI." We have gotten approval to award one contact hour of CME and ANCC credit for all attendees of this presentation. We have also been advertising this presentation through broadcast messages, email listserves, and flyer distribution around the campus of MUSC as well as nearby VA and Roper Hospitals. We are hoping to attract medical professionals from MUSC and the nearby community to all of our Grand Rounds presentations, which will take place quarterly throughout the grant.

Our webmaster has been working on our RRTC website and we expect it to be launched within the next few weeks. The website will have the latest updates and research findings from our projects.

We have set up visits with our collaborators from other institutions in order to spend a few concentrated days looking at available existing data. These visits will take place in mid to end of January when our collaborators visit Charleston and MUSC. Of particular importance, Debbie Backus from the Shepherd Center will come to discuss the plan for the training project of trauma centers in South Carolina.

Facebook Us

2009-12-08T09:25:00.001-08:00

Check out our work on Facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Krause/100000103684876

CHORCUP MUSC and SCSU Meeting

2009-12-07T11:09:00.001-08:00

Members of the Center on Health Outcomes Research and Capacity Building at MUSC and SCSU had a conference call to discuss ideas for upcoming presentations,publications, and student work. We agreed to continue with our regular meeting schedule of one conference call a month and two visits per year. The faculty at SCSU are working on a theoretical paper with the two summer graduate students and this will be submitted by April. We talked about a lecture series that MUSC can host at SCSU. Dr Krause will give presentations on grant writing and research to first year and junior faculty at SCSU. The faculty at SCSU are working out the details for this to occur. Also, Dr Dewalt at SCSU is working out the details for us to be able to use Blackboard with the studnets next summer. This will make it much easier for us to communicate between MUSC and SCSU with the students.

Blog Update

2009-12-07T11:06:00.000-08:00

As noted below, the SCI Research Team at MUSC, under direction of Dr Jim Krause, was awarded the new RRTC, Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Secondary Conditions in Individuals with SCI in October 2009. This blog will now have updates on this RRTC as well as continued updates on the Center for Health Outcomes Research and Capacity Building for Underserved Populations with SCI and TBI.

Work on RRTC Begins

2009-12-07T10:57:00.001-08:00

Work on the RRTC has begun. We are currently awaiting IRB approval in order to begin the interviews for the project. Our website is also currently under construction. A link will be available when it is up and running.

In the meantime, we have begun our training activities for the Center.

Throughout the five year time period of the grant, we will do quarterly 'Grand Rounds' seminars for medical professionals at MUSC and the surrounding area hospitals. The audience for these will include physicians, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and physician assistants. The seminars will spread results of our research and Center and will include internal MUSC speakers, as well as notable external speakers. The first Grand Rounds seminar will be January 26 at MUSC.

National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington DC was also awarded an RRTC for their work on secondary conditions in SCI. We have had a few conference calls with their team already to discuss collaboration on dissemination and training activities. It will be beneficial to be able to share our ideas, data, and research findings to better impact the SCI and medical population.

New RRTC on Secondary Conditions in SCI

2009-12-07T10:54:00.000-08:00

Work on the new RRTC project, Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Secondary Conditions in Individuals with SCI, has begun. The purpose of the RRTC is below:

Purpose
The purpose of this RRTC is to reduce secondary conditions and increase longevity after SCI by:
(a) Conducting an integrated program of research to guide prevention and treatment of secondary conditions with three research studies: (1) a 15-year longitudinal study on the prediction of secondary conditions, (2) a population-based study of access to services and their relationship with secondary conditions, and (3) a 17-year longitudinal study of changes in MetS and their consequences for other secondary conditions.
(b) Conducting a parallel program of education and training, technical assistance, and dissemination, including both traditional educational programs and on-site hospital consultation, as well as programs geared to diverse professionals working in a variety of health professions including physical and occupational therapy, physician assistant, nursing, and medicine.
(c) Utilizing a collaborative network of researchers, academic institutions, community resources, and NIDRR funded programs to ensure broad inclusion of individuals with SCI, including those from populations that have been historically underrepresented in research.
(d) Integrating activities that are inclusive of individuals with disabling conditions in all aspects of the RRTC from the planning, implementation, evaluation, conduct of research, analysis, and dissemination of results, in order to ensure that the activities meet their stated purpose.

Fall Newsletter

2009-11-17T06:08:00.000-08:00

Our fall newsletter is available for viewing. Please see the link below:

http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/chp/CHORCUP/images/SCIORG%20NEWSLETTER_FALL%202009_9-21-09rca_KR.pdf

Undergraduate Student Wins First Prize

2009-11-09T16:19:00.000-08:00

Our undergraduate student from Spelman College, Bridget Peters, presented her summer research project at MUSC's student research day this past Friday, November 6. Out of hundreds of summer student presentations, Bridget won first prize in the health disparities award division for her project, "Prevalence of Pressure Ulcers After Spinal Cord Inujry and Relationship to Socioeconomic Conditions." Bridget received a plaque and monetary award for her success. Great job Bridget!

You Tube Update

2009-11-02T07:24:00.001-08:00

We have published a new You Tube video on injury severity, education and post injury employment after spinal cord injury. This video is a powerpoint presentation by the principal investigator, Dr. Krause, about relationships between level of education and employment outcomes after SCI.

We have also added closed captioning to all of our You Tube videos.

All videos can be viewed at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/chorcupsci

Center PI Awarded New Grant

2009-10-27T17:11:00.000-07:00

The article below was published in the local Charleston, SC newspaper on Tuesday, October 27. Dr Jim Krause was awarded a five year RRTC grant from NIDRR, set to begin this month.

Spinal Cord Injury Research Grant Awarded to MUSC

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/oct/27/spinal-cord-injury-research-grant-awarded-to-musc/

The Medical University of South Carolina's College of Health Professions will receive $3.9 million over five years for research on spinal-cord injuries, specifically on life-threatening secondary health conditions such as pressure ulcers, urinary-tract infections, amputation, fractures and depression.
The U.S. Department of Education's National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research will give funds for a grant requested by MUSC researcher Dr. James Krause. MUSC will collaborate with the Shepherd Center in Atlanta and Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey, Calif.
"The ultimate goal (of the collaboration) is to reduce the incidence of secondary conditions and to enhance longevity after SCI through a combination of research that identifies prominent risk factors for diminished health and by educating health professionals, service providers and individuals with SCI on how to implement appropriate prevention strategies," said Krause.

Study 1 Interviews Continue

2009-10-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

Interviews for Study 1 are continuing and 90 total interviews have been completed (58 SCI and 32 TBI). We are starting to focus more time on our team to this task so hope to increase the rate of interviews in the next few months.

MUSC and SCSU had a conference call last week to discuss the wrap-up of the summer graduate student's projects. The students are continuing work on their projects on TBI and have begun planning their presentations for the AAER conference in November in which they are participating in a round table discussion. MUSC is planning a trip to SCSU for a mock presentation given by the students so they can sharpen and perfect their presentation before the conference.

In the meantime, collaborators at MUSC and SCSU will spend the winter and spring to find ways to make the summer student graduate experience more beneficial. We have decided that we will only have one student participate in the graduate work experience next summer and this student will spend more time with our team at MUSC in Charleston. We will use the next year to develop more structured instruction for this summer graduate student and also identify potential projects and tasks for him/her to become better acquainted with our work.

Graduate Students Accepted for Conference

2009-09-14T07:40:00.000-07:00

Our two graduate students from SCSU have been accepted to participate in a round table discussion at the Association for Advancement of Educational Research Conference which will take place in November 2009 in Stuart, Florida. The students will be traveling with their mentors and our collaborators from SCSU to the conference where they will present their research findings on TBI and SCI from their summer and fall studies. We are very excited that our students will be able to share their work with the conference attendees, and also take part in other conference activities!

The MUSC team will be travelling to SCSU in the next month to meet with the students and our collaborators. The students will be giving a mock presentation to us in preparation for the conference so that we may all provide insight and mentoring to their presentations.

CAP Meeting Held on August 20

2009-08-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

Our team held a meeting of The Consumer Advisory Panel (CAP) at MUSC on August 20. The purpose of the CAP is to assist in interpreting our research and results and identifying implications for persons with SCI. The CAP also assists in targeting additional outlets for consumer audiences. The CAP consists of 10 people (7 regular, 3 alternates) with spinal cord injuries (8 males and 2 females). The breakdown according to race is 50% Caucasian, 40% African-American, and 10% other. The mean age of the group is 43.1 years old, and 50% have cervical level injuries and 50% non-cervical injuries.

In this meeting, there were five attendees including 2 white males, 2 black males and 1 black female (60% T level injury and 40 % C level injury). During the meeting, the participants covered an overview/update of current studies, discussion of dissemination methods, and viewed and discussed both the new employment and depression You Tube videos.

All participants agreed that using You Tube videos is an ideal method of reaching consumers assuming they have internet access. Several in the group expressed that they would have benefitted tremendously early in their recovery process if they had access to some 'how to' videos which covered topics such as transferring, UTI prevention, proper skin maintenance/ pressure sore prevention, and cooking. In addition all participants agreed that sports and recreation videos would also be an excellent way to provide peer support to show what is still possible after SCI. It should be noted that minorities are less likely to have internet access due to lack of financial resources and computer operation knowledge.

All participants agreed with the findings of the employment video and that employer education is also crucial (especially in this economy) in order to break the stereotyping of people with SCI and get employers to focus on benefits of that potential SCI employee as a person and not a money drain for the company due to money needed for accommodations and potential liability. All agreed that it is crucial for minorities to obtain more education in order to provide more opportunities to work.

In watching the depression video, all CAP participants found the relationship of income and education to the amount of depression very interesting. Several folks expressed that the severity of the injury is also a significant factor in depression, as well as relationship status (or the lack of a relationship).

The CAP participants stated that they would like to see 'how to' video topics such as ADLS, preventing secondary conditions, picking the proper wheelchair and hiring/managing a personal care attendant and also videos to cover issues related to SCI such as navigating the benefits system, how to make a house more accessible, sports/recreation, and how to confront a business which is not accessible.

Overall it was a very productive CAP meeting and our research team got some valuable feedback from all the participants at the meeting.

You Tube Videos

2009-08-26T07:17:00.000-07:00

We have posted three new You Tube videos in the past few weeks on the Internet. They can be found at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/chorcupsci

All three videos are presentations by Dr. Jim Krause on research findings, including earnings and SCI, employment and SCI, and depression and SCI. They are very informative and will give consumers and professionals more information on our team's research.

In addition, our team videographer is working on more video ideas for the future, including a summary of our summer student work, individual interviews with CAP participants, 'how to' and informational videos for consumers with SCI, and more presentations by our team about our research findings.

Check the You Tube link above regularly for more videos!

SCSU Graduate Students Complete Summer Internship

2009-08-06T11:29:00.001-07:00

We had a summer wrap up meeting with our collaborators and summer students from SCSU today. We discussed the positive events of the summer internship project and ways to improve the project for next year. Next year, we will probably just have one summer graduate student and have this student spend more time in Charleston at MUSC with our team members to get a better hands-on feel for our work and research. We will also try to utilize a tool such as Blackboard or Webct to easily communicate between SCSU and MUSC.

Our two graduate students are going to continue on working on their projects with the guidance of MUSC and SCSU faculty members. They are going to present their projects at a round table discussion in November at the Association for Advancement of Educational Research Conference. The MUSC team is going to travel to SCSU for a mock round table discussion sometime in October in order to allow the students an opportunity to practice their presentations. We are also going to continue quarterly meetings between MUSC and SCSU to stay in close contact and continue on with our research collaboration.

Undergraduate summer student successfully presents project

2009-08-06T11:24:00.001-07:00

Our undergraduate student from Spelman college successfully presented her summer project to MUSC today. Her project, "Prevalence of Pressure Ulcers after Spinal Cord Injury in Relationship to Socioeconomic Conditions," was the result of 10 weeks of research, background reading, and data analysis. Congratulations Bridget!

Summer students wrap up work

2009-07-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

Interviews for study 1 have continued and 84 total interviews (57 SCI and 28 TBI) have been conducted thus far. We are dedicating more time on our team to the interview process which will increase the rates of interviews and finding lost participants in the study that we need to interview. We expect overall number of interviews completed to multiply steadily in the next few months.

Our three summer students are wrapping up their work with our center. Our undergraduate student is set to give a presentation this week to MUSC on the project she has been working on all summer. Our two graduate students have continued work on their projects and will be completing them throughout the fall semester at SCSU. All three students have made a large contribution to our center capacity building efforts, as they have continued to find contact information for minority organizations and universities. We will utilize this contact information throughout the entire grant time line to send our findings and research to interested parties.

We are having a summer wrap-up meeting with our collaborators at SCSU this week in Charleston. We will discuss all the events of the summer and the progress that the students made while working with our center. We will also discuss changes to be made for the program for next summer.

Our center is continuing work on our You Tube videos. Our videographer has gotten some exciting footage of the summer students and plans to produce and publish a few new videos in the upcoming weeks.

Summer students continue work

2009-06-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

Interviews for study 1 have continued and 49 SCI and 26 TBI (75 total) interviews have been completed. Our two graduate students from SCSU and undergraduate student from Spelman University have continued their work with our Center. The graduate students from SCSU travel to Charleston once a week to interact with Dr. Krause and the team. The rest of their work time is spent on campus at SCSU, either working on their project or interacting with our faculty collaborators in Orangeburg. While in Charleston each week, Dr. Krause gives a short presentation to them on topics related to our Center including employment disparities (related to race/ethnicity and gender), subjective outcomes, and health outcomes as these relate to SCI and TBI. The students are also continuing capacity building tasks, as they are all working on their individual assignments to search for contact information for all African American, Hispanic and Latino organizations and universities across the United States, as well as spinal cord and traumatic brain injury organizations. We will use this contact information to spread knowledge and information of our research findings as it becomes available.

In addition, each student has their own project that they spend time on. Our graduate students are working on research on the general population perception (attitudes) of individuals with SCI. They will begin literature reviews in the next week to guide them in this topic. Our undergraduate student is doing a paper on prevalence of pressure ulcers after spinal cord injury in relationship to socioeconomic conditions. She is also currently working on a literature review to get background information on the topic. All students will eventually look at existing data sets to draw conclusions on their respective topics.

Summer students

2009-06-16T07:55:00.000-07:00

Interviews for Project 1 have continued with completion of 47 SCI and 16 TBI (63 total) interviews thus far.

Our three students have begun work on their summer internship with our team. Our undergraduate student works with us daily. She attends a daily lecture series at MUSC with various topics on research protocol, ethics in research, data management, and grant writing. She has also begun work on our team projects and has been spending a lot of time learning about data management. Our graduate students are splitting their time between MUSC and SCSU. They have become familiar with our projects and are in the process of choosing a topic for their individual project that they will complete over the summer.

All students are going to be assisting in some capacity building and technical assistance activities, as they help find contacts throughout the country that we can send our research findings to.

Our team is working on our second You Tube video and it should be published online within the next few weeks.

Students Set to Begin Work

2009-05-28T11:39:00.001-07:00

Interviews for Study 1 have continued with 37 SCI and 13 TBI (49 total) interviews completed thus far.

Part of our Center research study includes mentorship for students each summer. This summer, our team will have two graduate students from South Carolina State University and one undergraduate student from Spelman College working with us. These students will be participating in our research, daily team activities, and working on their own individualized research project.

Our team held an orientation session this past Tuesday for the two graduate students from SCSU. We discussed the syllabus, student expectations, and potential student project topics. These students will split their time between MUSC and SCSU and will begin work next week. The undergraduate student will be working full time at MUSC for a 10 week period and also begins next week. All three students will have multiple opportunities to interact with each other, as well as all Center team members.

We are excited to have all three students join our team for the summer and know that it will be a beneficial experience for all involved!

Meeting with SCSU

2009-05-15T12:24:00.001-07:00

Interviews for Study 1 have continued and as of May 15, 32 SCI and 13 TBI (45 total) interviews have been completed.

The MUSC team met with SCSU collaborators this week to discuss updates on the project and guidelines for the two SCSU summer graduate students that will be starting work in June. These students will spend some time at both universities and will be assisting in daily project tasks and research in addition to construction and completion of their own individual research project.

During the meeting this week, we carved out some student guidelines and potential project topics. All team members from both MUSC and SCSU will be participating in a student orientation at the end of May to introduce the students to our work. During the day of orientation, team members will give brief presentations of our projects and discuss work expectations with the students.

Also during the meeting this week, SCSU and MUSC team members discussed potential future projects. In addition, we filmed some footage for a You Tube video and our videographer will be formatting and editing the videos so we can publish them online.

Center for Health Outcomes Research

2009-05-04T16:44:00.000-07:00

Interviews for Study 1 have continued over the past month. As of May 1, 25 SCI and 13 TBI interviews (38 total) have been completed for this study.

The MUSC research team will be taking on several students this summer for 10 week student work positions. We will be working with two graduate students from South Carolina State University and one undergraduate student from a regional university near MUSC. These students will help the principal investigator and team members in daily and weekly project tasks. They will also have their own project that they will complete and present by the end of the summer position. The principal investigator will be working closely with these students as a mentor, in order for them to fully engage in and learn our work and get more research experience.

MUSC team members have been working closely with SCSU collaborators over the past few weeks. We had a team conference call in which the summer student position was discussed and position requirements were defined. In addition, SCSU members will be visiting the Charleston MUSC facility next week to view our offices and meet further about the project.

We have been working on dissemination activities in the past month as well. Team members are working on logistics and topics for potential You Tube videos. These videos will allow interested viewers to experience our work online. Also, we are researching national organizations for underrepresented populations. We will be sending our newsletter to these types of organizations to further spread news of our project.

Study 1 Progress

2009-04-13T10:59:00.000-07:00

We have continued interviews for Study 1 and have currently completed 25 total interviews, including 20 SCI and 5 TBI participants. The 2nd Spinal Cord Injury Outcomes Research Group newsletter was completed and published. It can be found on this link:

http://www.musc.edu/chp/sciorg/images/SPRING_2009_SCIORG_NEWSLETTER_4-20-09.pdf

The research team recently participated in a conference call with Project Officer, Shelley Reeves. Ms. Reeves was very enthusiastic and supportive of our project and offered assistance and updates on our project's annual report, project director's annual meeting and other research and project protocol.

We have an upcoming conference call with our collaborators at South Carolina State University to discuss research and project updates. We will also confer about the graduate student from SCSU that will be working with our team this summer. This student, in addition to one undergraduate student from MUSC, will be assisting the team with various tasks in the project.