By forming a partnership that prioritizes patient outcomes over competition, VCU and VCU Health, Sheltering Arms, and Central Virginia VA Health Care System (CVHCS, the local Veterans Affairs medical center) formed a facility which now serves the entire East Coast and beyond, matching or surpassing most of its peers across the country in patient outcomes and expertise.  A partnership among central Virginia’s titans of rehabilitation care continues to make patient success a priority through Sheltering Arms Institute. 

The clinical research consortium allows teams across all three entities to provide the highest level of comprehensive specialty services, from the point of injury through rehabilitation and re-entry into community life. 

We are proud to be one of only 16 federally designated TBI Model System Centers in the U.S. Additionally, we are one of only four centers in the nation to have a dual designation as a spinal cord injury (SCI) and TBI model systems center. The TBI and SCI clinical care systems include emergency medical services; early intensive and acute medical care; comprehensive rehabilitation services; and long-term follow up. 

Both federal model systems center designations support research and education efforts to improve the lives of all who have sustained such injuries. 

Traumatic Brain Injury Model System 

The Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Model System of care for traumatic brain injury (TBI) provides comprehensive, coordinated inpatient and outpatient care for persons with TBI through two complimentary and linked programs. The longest-running VCU TBI Model System program is centered at VCU Health Care, now in collaboration with Sheltering Arms Institute. The other one is centered at the Richmond Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in the Central Virginia VA Health Care System (CVHCS).  

The VCU TBI Model System grant supports our scientific research that focuses on improving care and quality of life for people with brain injury and their families. The benefits of couple’s support and education, the effectiveness of teaching resilience for survivors, understanding caregiver’s resilience, and researching the long-term outcomes after brain injury are important focal points of study.  

Each TBIMS program contributes to the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems National Data and Statistical Center (TBINDSC), participates in independent and collaborative research, and provides information and resources to individuals with TBI, their families, caregivers, and friends, health care professionals, and the general public.

The Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems National Data and Statistical Center (TBINDSC) located at Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colorado, is a central resource for researchers and data collectors within the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems (TBIMS) program. The primary purpose of the TBINDSC is to advance medical rehabilitation by increasing the rigor and efficiency of scientific efforts to longitudinally assess the experience of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI). The TBINDSC provides technical assistance, training, and methodological consultation to 16 TBIMS centers as they collect and analyze longitudinal data from people with TBI in their communities, and as they conduct research toward evidence-based TBI rehabilitation interventions. 

https://www.tbindsc.org/ 

Spinal Cord Injury Model System 

A new designation for a regional consortium led by Virginia Commonwealth University will expand research efforts to improve patients’ quality of life and offer opportunities for patients to get some of the best available care for spinal cord injury in the country. 

The new Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems Center designation includes a grant award from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research, totaling $2.2 million over five years. 

As a model systems center, the consortium across the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at VCU School of Medicine, Sheltering Arms Institute and CVHCS can contribute new findings to the national spinal cord injury database and conduct intensive research studies on spinal cord injury, both in collaboration with other model systems centers and independently, to enhance quality of life for spinal cord injury survivors. 

Our programs emphasize the enhancement of quality of life by improving functional independence, increasing participation in social activities, preventing further injury and by education in health maintenance. 

https://msktc.org/sci 

News 

VCU Health, CVHCS and Sheltering Arms bring collaborative approach to care 

https://www.vcuhealth.org/news/vcu-health-cvhcs-and-sheltering-arms-bring-collaborative-approach-to-care 

KT 

People living with TBI can continue to improve their health and wellbeing during these unprecedented times using a variety of MSKTC’s free, online resources. For example, MSKTC TBI resources ranging from alcohol use to managing depression and emotions to fall prevention, please visit https://msktc.org/tbi. In addition to TBI resources, MSKTC has resources on spinal cord injury (https://msktc.org/sci) and burn injury (https://msktc.org/burn). The MSKTC is funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, Administration for Community Living, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.