SCIRehab: a model for rehabilitation research using comprehensive person, process and outcome data

This article aims to present a comprehensive conceptual model of the SCIRehab project, which merges the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) focus on outcomes with the practice-based evidence (PBE) research design, which focuses on process and also quantifies person and outcomes details. The SCIRehab methodology operationalised this conceptual model to implement the most data-intensive study of spinal cord injury to date. We discuss the conceptual and methodological contributions of SCIRehab and how this comprehensive research approach may complement randomised controlled trials.

PBE methodology applied to the SCIRehab study used extensive clinician input to develop taxonomies of each discipline's interventions and an electronic point-of-care documentation system to capture extensive details of the rehabilitation process. Traditional medical record abstracting and follow-up surveys were used to capture details on patient characteristics and outcomes achieved by 12 months post-injury.

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Although data collection is not complete, the SCIRehab project has made major contributions to rehabilitation research, including a comprehensive conceptual model of person, process and outcome domains; discipline-specific taxonomies of rehabilitation interventions; and an electronic documentation system to capture details of the rehabilitation process.