Foundation to Advance Brain Rehabilitation
Why FABR?
Access to brain injury rehabilitation services and funding for such services have become more limited in the past few decades. Despite increasing evidence for the benefit of post-acute rehabilitation services to improve independence, return to prior activity and overall quality of life, many individuals never receive the needed treatment or optimal amount of treatment.
The figure below highlights the barriers to healthcare for many survivors of brain injury along with the potential actions that could improve access to care after brain injury.
FABR aims to use aggregate patient outcome data in a high-quality database project with the eventual goal of further demonstrating the value of post-acute rehabilitation. The project will examine not only clinical change data, but ultimately measures of cost and resource utilization incurred in obtaining the level of clinical change.
- Partner with Inventive Software Solutions utilizing OutcomeInfo to create a high-quality database to conduct research on post-acute brain rehabilitation services by pooling data received from FABR member organizations*
- Data are de-identified as to the FABR member’s patients/clients and the FABR member organization
- Conduct research to evaluate both the outcomes associated with models of treatment and the cost-effectiveness of such treatment
- Disseminate research findings for advocacy and policy development for industry and persons served
*Policies for making data available to external researchers to be developed during first year of operation (July 2020 – July 2021).
FABR Goals
Founding Organizations
Aselect group of leading brain injury rehabilitation organizations from across the United States have announced a unique, one-of-a-kind alliance to improve outcomes in the rehabilitation field. Six organizations – Learning Services, A Collage Rehabilitation Partner, On With Life, Pate Rehabilitation, a Rehab Without Walls Affiliate, Progressive Rehabilitation, now part of Rehab Without Walls, ReMed, A Collage Rehabilitation Partner, and Shepherd Center – partnered to create the Foundation to Advance Brain Rehabilitation (FABR). Now joined by Bancroft NeuroRehab.
The partnership allows the organizations to aggregate outcome data to launch the only known collaborative database in the United States that captures the impact of brain injury rehabilitation following acute care.
The FABR organizations represent 12 US states and comprehensively offer a continuum of post-acute brain injury rehabilitation services including inpatient neuro rehabilitation, neurobehavioral rehabilitation, outpatient therapy and evaluations, day treatment, home and community-based services, residential living and long-term care.
FABR will utilize outcome data to research and demonstrate the value of post-acute brain injury rehabilitation within this continuum of services.
OutcomeInfo Database
- Created through NIH grant funding to Inventive Software Solutions, Indiana University, and Oregon Research Institute
- A Web-Enabled Client/Person Served Outcomes Reporting Service for any size provider (HIPAA compliant) Each organization’s data is protected and secured
- Measures outcomes and change over the course of post-acute rehabilitation
- Allows individual organizations to analyze their internal data and compare to national data
- Demographics, injury, medical and treatment data recorded
- MPAI-4 is the core outcome measure Additional measures can be added
- Contact Inventive Software for further information:
FABR Mandatory Data Elements
| DOMAINS | METRIC/VARIABLE | TIME POINTS |
|---|---|---|
| General Functional Abilities | MPAI-4 | Admission, Interval, Program Level Change, Discharge, Follow Up (MPAI Participation Only 3 & 12 months) |
| Supervision Needs | Supervision Rating Scale | Admission, Interval, Program Level Change, Discharge, Follow Up (3 & 12 months) |
| Demographics | Year of birth; Age at injury; Sex; Marital status; Primary language; Ethnicity; Race | Admission & updated as needed |
| Injury Variables | Type of brain injury; Injury severity (LOC, Mayo Classification System); Cause of brain injury; Prior brain injuries; Prior rehabilitation; Imaging findings | Admission |
| Pre-admission | Funder source; Prior setting before admission | Admission and update as needed |
| Vocational & Educational | Pre & post injury education completed; years of pre-injury employment; Occupational category and type (FT/PT) | Admission & Discharge |
| Level of Treatment | FABR categories capturing: Neuro-behavioral residential; Neuro-rehabilitation residential; Day Treatment, Outpatient; Home & Community; Subtypes of Supportive Living | Admission, Interval, Program Level Change, Discharge, Follow Up |
| Admission, Interval, Program Level Change, Discharge, Follow Up | Follow-up | |
| Dose of Treatment | Rating of level received vs. level recommended | Discharge |
| Reason for insufficient duration of recommended treatment if applicable (i.e. funding, medical issues, participation, etc.) |