The Northern New Jersey Traumatic Brain Injury System at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation

The Northern New Jersey Traumatic Brain Injury System (NNJTBIS) is one of 16 regional partners of the national TBI Model System (TBIMS) project, which is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR). The goal is to research ways to improve the treatment, care, and outcomes of TBI in the US. Each system collects local data on rehabilitation admissions, progress, outcome and long-term recovery for people with traumatic brain injury (TBI). NNJTBIS conducts collaborative projects with other TBI model systems as well as site-specific projects.

NNJTBIS contributes data it collects to the NIDRR-funded national TBI database, which contains almost 8,000 cases. Data collection is initiated during inpatient stays at Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation. Patients with TBI answer a series of questions relating to demographics, history of injuries, and other medical data. Follow-up interviews are conducted by telephone at one year, two years, and five years after the injury . Medical documentation is also collected from the four area hospitals that provide acute care for individuals with TBI: Morristown Memorial Hospital, UMDNJ-University Hospital, Hackensack University Medical Center, and St. Joseph’s Hospital.