Project Director: Mark Peterson, PhD

The MI-SCIMS is working to analyze data from electronic health records (EHR) to develop a Spinal Cord Injury Hospitalization Risk Index, which could serve as a tool to help clinicians make care decisions for people with SCI and organize appropriate referrals.

This index will be developed and tested over multiple stages, including:  

• Developing and refining algorithms to help predict the likelihood of hospitalization for adults with chronic SCI using machine learning and analyses of Medicare / Medicaid insurance claims. 
• The researchers will include individual characteristics (e.g., level of injury, race, social determinants of health) and risk factors (e.g., chronic and secondary conditions) when developing and refining the index. 
• Evaluating the reliability and predictive validity of the index using data extracted from EHR 
  Implementing a survey to determine the index’s utility, convenience, and effectiveness in a real-world clinical setting 
• The ultimate goal of this research study is to help patients with SCI receive efficient and targeted care. This will help reduce rates of readmission to the hospital, preventable conditions, and early mortality for patients with SCI. It could also potentially decrease health care costs. 

If you are interested in participated in any of the Michigan SCIMS collaborative projects or studies, please reach out to the Michigan SCIMS team at [email protected].

This study aims to learn about the oral health practices and problems experienced by people with SCI and how these problems affect their overall physical and emotional wellbeing. Any participant in the SCIMS program who has recently completed a follow-up interview and is interested can participate in this study. Participation entails completing one additional survey. This information will be used along with information collected from the inpatient and outpatient already collected for the SCIMS project to answer this study’s questions.

This study is evaluating how easy it is to conduct a new clinical measure of Autonomic Function in people with SCI and how reliable this new measure is.  Participants join the study while they are still participating in inpatient rehabilitation, at which time a doctor will complete the ISAFSCI examination and they will also complete an associated interview.  They will then complete a similar interview one year later. The autonomic nervous system controls involuntary physiological processes such as digestion, heart rate and respiration. If this study determines that the ISAFSCI is feasible to conduct and reliable it would provide an important new tool to help assess issues with the autonomic nervous system.

Financial strain often occurs with the experience of SCI due to healthcare expenses, assistance needs, and lost income. The main objective of this project is to better understand what types of government programs and other types of financial assistance are used by people with SCI to cope with the cost of injury. These issues will be addressed in two steps. First, focus groups will be used to determine the key issues to be addressed in a survey about financial needs and financial assistance used by people with SCI. Based on the findings from these focus groups, a survey will be developed and used with a large sample of people who have been living in the community with SCI about their financial needs, the assistance that they receive, and the effectiveness of this assistance.

The aim of this study is to collect information related to aging with a spinal cord injury (SCI) and to determine which factors are associated with happier and healthier lives throughout the aging process. Participants must be at least 36 years old when they join the study and at least one year after the onset of SCI. They complete annual interviews for this study for up to four years which take approximately 40 minutes to complete.

This study is evaluating the impact of SCI on people’s social network and social wellbeing. Participants complete an interview around the end of their inpatient rehabilitation and approximately one year later. Some participants will then be invited to take part in an open-ended interview. Anyone who participates in the MI-SCIMS program at U-M is eligible to participate.

This study evaluates the type of assistive technology that people with SCI or other impairments that affect their spine use and their satisfaction with it.  Participants will complete an on-line survey that take 30-60 minutes. This study is being primarily conducted by the Model System at the University of Pittsburgh. Currently, U-M is only assisting with study recruitment though are faculty and staff may assist with analyses and dissemination once the data has been collected.

The National Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems (SCIMS) Database was established in 1973 as a repository of data collected through the collaborative efforts of federally funded SCI Model System Centers. There are 18 SCI Model System Centers currently contributing data to the Database, with a total of 32 Centers contributing data since the Database’s inception. Through the June of 2022, there were more than 51,000 persons who have sustained traumatic SCI registered in the National SCIMS Database and more than 30,000 persons had follow-up data. This makes it the world’s largest and longest active SCI research database and the world’s most extensive source of available information about the characteristics and life course of individuals with SCI. There are individuals enrolled into the National SCIMS Database who have now been followed for 45 years after injury.

Data from the National SCIMS Database is intended to:

1. identify demographics and the use of services by individuals with SCI
2. examine specific rehabilitation, health and life course outcomes of SCI
3. establish expected rehabilitation treatment outcomes for SCI
4. identify and evaluate trends over time associated with SCI
5. serve as a resource for conducting historical, prospective, and longitudinal SCI related research.
    

The National SCIMS Database captures data on an estimated 6% of new SCI cases that occur each year in the United States. To assure comparability of data acquired by personnel in various centers, rigid scientific criteria have been established for the collection, management and analysis of information entered into the database. The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center staff has also developed quality control procedures that further enhance the reliability and validity of the database along with efforts to collect data that reflect sufficient knowledge about diverse, racial and ethnic cultural backgrounds.

• Demographic information - age, gender, race/ethnicity, marital status, education level, etc.
• Injury characteristics - causes of injury, neurological level and extent of injury.
• Functional outcomes - independence with daily activities, needs for caregiver and/or personal care attendant, mobility, and use of assistive technologies, adaptive devices, mobile device, etc.
• Medical outcomes - hospitalization, rehospitalization, health insurance, physical health status, mental health status, and occurrences and management of secondary medical complications.
• Psychosocial outcomes - satisfaction with life, resiliency, social participation, and alcohol/drug use.
• Employment outcomes - employment status, income, and job responsibilities.
• Survival outcomes - life expectancy, causes of death, and mortality.