The New York Traumatic Brain Injury Model System provides health care services to meet the needs of persons who have experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The NY TBI Model System – coordinated by the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The Mount Sinai Medical Center – is one of 16 in the U.S. and the only one in the New York metropolitan area. The current funding of the NY TBI Model System began in late 2002.
Each Model System across the country is recognized not only as a center of excellence in clinical care of individuals with TBI, but also in conducting research on TBI and in disseminating information about TBI to professionals and consumers. Model Systems are provided funding by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, within the U.S. Department of Education.
The research program of the NY TBI Model System currently includes two research projects: one focuses on alleviation of post-TBI depression and the second on fatigue after traumatic brain injury.
A research activity common to all of the TBI model systems across the U.S. is collecting basic information from individuals with TBI who receive services within the model systems. Each person served is requested to volunteer as a participant in this data collection. Basic data about the patient’s functioning are obtained during the person’s hospital stay and yearly thereafter. This data from people with TBI across the country is then used by researchers to answer basic questions about outcomes of brain injury. The NY TBI Model System is also participating in a major program that disseminates information about TBI to individuals with TBI, their family members and health care professionals.