Summer 2016 Edition

As the scientific world became more interconnected through the Internet, we saw a dramatic increase in international collaboration. According to data gathered through the Global Science and Technology Project, by 2009 more than 35% of science research articles were the result of international collaborations among researchers from different countries – a 40% increase during a 15-year period. By 2010, the number of internationally coauthored papers was more than double the number published 20 years earlier.

“This was my favorite season in many ways,” says junior Hotwheels head coach, Trice Ham. “We came in as underdogs, made it to the national championship and then lost it by three points at the buzzer. We’d lost two All-American players and one All-Southwest Conference player when they graduated from high school last season – and did a very impressive job even after that loss of talent. We’ve won the Southwest Conference Championship and have been in the Final Four every year for the last six, and we kept that streak alive 2016.”

“Strength Unlimited provides something for almost everyone,” says Tiffany Bollmeyer, coordinator of the program. “Many of our clients come to us during the gap between outpatient therapy sessions so that they don’t lose the skills they’ve worked so hard to gain. If they have a plan of care from formal therapy, we’ll meet with them to discuss their rehabilitation goals and then consult with their therapy team to map out a strategy for progress toward those goals. Others use Strength Unlimited programs as an addition to traditional therapy sessions or as a continuation of therapy for long-term health benefits.”

“By paying close attention to whether patients actually need a Foley catheter and by removing them when they don’t, hospitals and other care facilities have lowered their CAUTI rates,” says Matthew Davis, MD, clinical director of the Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Program at TIRR Memorial Hermann and a clinical professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth. “But health care professionals outside the field of rehabilitation are often unaware that many SCI patients suffer from neurogenic bladder. Premature catheter removal combined with poorly implemented intermittent catheterization can have disastrous consequences for these pati...

The website grew out of a research project funded by the 2010 Rehabilitation Research and Training Center grant on Developing Strategies to Foster Community Integration and Participation for Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury. The $4.2 million grant awarded to researchers at TIRR Memorial Hermann by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research funded three research projects and five training projects. Among them was Dr. Sherer’s study, “Development and Validation of a Classification System of Symptoms and Characteristics to Guide Treatment Assignments for Persons with TBI Living in the Community.”

Fifteen years ago, the approach to treating concussion was almost laissez-faire: a few days of bed rest, then back to the normal level of activity. Today, the alarming increase in concussion – 4 to 5 million concussions occur annually, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – has led to heightened public awareness, new knowledge about mild traumatic brain injury and a search for alternative methods to treat it.

Sbrusch joined the staff at Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation Hospital-Katy in 2015. “During my last five years at TIRR in the medical center I served as center coordinator for clinical education for physical therapy, which was challenging and a lot of fun, but eventually I was ready for a different kind of challenge,” she says. “I also wanted to try to get closer to home if possible. The creation and expansion of the Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation Network has allowed therapists and others to move out to facilities in the suburbs and connect staff members with the resources available at TIRR."

In a ceremony held last April at the 2016 National Wheelchair Basketball Association’s championship tournament in Louisville, Kentucky, Trice Ham, volunteer coach of the TIRR Memorial Hermann Junior Hotwheels, was named Coach of the Year for the association’s junior division. Ham has been working with the hospital’s wheelchair basketball team since 2010, when he was introduced to the game while working as the manager of Texas Land and Cattle Company in Houston.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) impacts family caregivers as well as the person with injury. Research has documented caregiver emotional distress, including depression and anxiety, as early as three months after injury and as long as seven years. The importance of interventions to reduce caregiver distress and burden after TBI has been emphasized, but research documenting the effectiveness of caregiver interventions has been minimal.

They had known each other for 15 years but it took a life-changing accident to bring Brandon Johnson and Angela Vanek together at The Woodlands Courthouse, where they exchanged wedding vows before family and friends on Feb. 26, 2016. Following a motorcycle accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down – and rehabilitation at TIRR Memorial Hermann and TIRR Memorial Hermann-The Woodlands – Johnson is on a mission to help others living with spinal cord injury take control of their lives.

Gerard Francisco, MD, chief medical officer of TIRR Memorial Hermann and chair of the department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, was selected to deliver the prestigious Sidney Licht Lecture at the closing ceremony of the 10th International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM) World Congress.

From beginning to end, this issue of our journal is filled with examples of rehabilitation in action. We’re grateful to three former patients – Tato Stanley, Jacob Smith and Brandon Johnson – for sharing their stories of hard-won success. After sustaining life-changing injuries, all three young men have moved forward with determination to live their lives to the fullest.