TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY - DESIGNING AND IMPLEMENTING A POPULATION-BASED FOLLOW-UP SYSTEM

Craig Hospital and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Enviro nment began designing a population-based followup system for persons w ith traumatic brain injury (TBI) in 1994. With funding from the Center s for Disease Control and Prevention, the Colorado TBI Follow-up Syste m addresses the issue, ''What happens to persons with TBI after they a re dis charged from the hospital?'' Two methods of data collection are used, medical record review and annual telephone surveys to gather lo ng-term outcomes. The design calls for following all persons hospitali zed with severe TBI (defined as any person with inpatient rehabilitati on and/or with an Abbreviated Injury Scale [AIS] score for the head of 3 or greater) and a 20% random sample of persons hospitalized with le ss severe TBI. An expert panel was used to select variables for retros pective abstracting and prospective interviewing. Information obtained from medical records includes data verifying eligibility, diagnoses, radiological results, circumstances of injury, and severity of injury, as well as demographic data. The interview instrument includes questi ons and scales related to health status, disability, handicap, quality of life, and service utilization. Both methods of data collection hav e been pilot-tested and are now used routinely in the Colorado TBI Fol low-up System. (C) 1997 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Med icine.