New Grants and Research for Rehabilitation Faculty

July 29, 2019 Faculty members from the University of Pittsburgh Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the UPMC Rehabilitation Institute have secured several new grants and awards in July that will expand upon the depth and innovative nature of both programs. 

Amery Treble-Barna, PhD was awarded an Outcomes Studies Grant from the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology Foundation (AACNF). The program funds investigations that evaluate outcomes of clinical neuropsychological services and works to increase the availability of empirical data addressing the value of neuropsychological services. 

Dr. Treble-Barna’s research project will examine whether having a neuropsychological evaluation following a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in pediatric patients reduces unmet needs and increases service utilization.

Krestin Radonovich, PhD will serve as the site primary investigator for a new multi-center, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) investigation that will begin in December 2019.

The study is called “Widespread Implementation on a Patient-Centered Online Therapy for Adolescent Traumatic Brain Injury,” and it has a number of objectives and aims that include:

• Implementing a family choice family problem-solving therapy (F-PST) into clinical practice at 10 children’s hospitals and rehabilitation centers and measure its impact on patient/parent-reported adolescent behavior problems and quality-of-life
• Identify patient, therapist, health system, and community factors that facilitate or impede implementation or efficacy of family choice F-PST
• Evaluate the maintenance of family choice F-PST by sites after 18 months.