Today Rhode Island Hospital announces it has received a $12.1 million federal grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to establish the first Injury Control Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE).
The Injury Control COBRE will investigate all phases of injury control from prevention of injury occurrence to defining optimal treatment of and rehabilitation from injuries.
“I am extremely proud that Rhode Island Hospital will host the first-of-its-kind Injury Control COBRE,” said Saul N. Weingart, MD, president, Rhode Island Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital. “Accidents and injuries correlate directly with other negative health effects like chronic pain, substance use disorder, and adverse mental health outcomes. So, it’s important this grant will support innovation in injury prevention and treatment that provides better outcomes for patients.”
“This Center will identify best practices for injury prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, and will study the impact of injuries at all stages of human development -- from birth to gerontological,” said Lifespan Vice President of Research and Chief Research Officer Michael Henderson. “Ultimately, these grant dollars will produce research that helps prevent deaths and improves the quality of life for many.”
“Nationally, injuries account for 27% of all emergency department visits and in 2020 resulted in 278,345 fatalities,” said Principal Investigator Michael J. Mello, MD, MPH, Director of the Injury Prevention Center at Rhode Island Hospital. “This award will allow us to build research infrastructure that is critically needed to understand and prevent injuries.”
Mello, a national injury control expert, will work with colleagues at both Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University to produce high level, independent investigators equipped to address the burden of injury. The Injury Control COBRE will support studies by early career investigators and will house the Injury Control Digital Innovation Core led by Megan Ranney, MD, MPH, and the Injury Control Research to Practice and Policy Core led by Francesca Beaudoin, MD, PhD.
"Together, these cores provide infrastructure to enhance the rigor and dissemination of injury science,” Dr. Beaudoin said. “We will educate the community of injury prevention experts in topics like cutting-edge methods for analyzing injury data and disseminating research findings for different target audiences, from policy makers to the public.”
“Technology has great potential to reduce injuries, but is underutilized in communities,” says Dr. Ranney. “Under this grant, we will establish a COBRE that will position researchers in Rhode Island to lead the way in innovative injury control research on topics such as childhood abuse, firearm violence, and motor vehicle crashes. Our innovative cores will also ensure that our research is used for good.”
The first research projects the COBRE will fund include: “Derivation of a clinical prediction rule for pediatric abusive fractures” and “A prospective study of posttraumatic stress symptom development and cannabis use among trauma exposed injured emerging adults following Emergency Department discharge”. One additional research project will also be named in the first year of the grant.
Members of Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation supported Rhode Island Hospital’s application for the NIH grant to establish the COBRE.
“This federal funding will help expand work already underway at the hospital’s Injury Prevention Center and take aim at reducing things like firearm and overdose deaths, sport concussions, traffic fatalities, and more. Ultimately the goal of this research is to save lives by ensuring injury prevention best practices and to reduce the injury burden on individuals, taxpayers, and the health care system,” said U.S. Sen. Jack Reed.
“I’m pleased that Rhode Island Hospital will be home to a new federally funded COBRE for injury prevention and research,” said U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. “Better preventing accidents and treating patients who have suffered injuries that can affect long-term health is an important mission.”
“Rhode Island Hospital has always had a top-notch trauma center, and this federal funding will only expand the hospital’s ability to heal Rhode Islanders, as well as prevent injuries from occurring in the first place,” said U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin. “The new, state-of-the-art COBRE gives the team at Rhode Island Hospital the opportunity to conduct groundbreaking research on everything from pediatric injuries to treating trauma survivors, and that benefits everyone.”
“I’m thrilled Rhode Island Hospital received federal funding to establish the first Injury Control COBRE, and I was proud to advocate for the hospital’s application. This initiative will help develop key prevention and treatment strategies for injuries, preventing death, hospitalization, and disabilities. I’m proud of Rhode Island Hospital’s leadership in this area and know that this investment will result in important research findings that can be used by others in the injury control community,” said U.S. Rep. David Ciccilline.
The five-year Phase 1 grant includes $800,000 for a pilot to support 16 additional injury control investigators at the COBRE.