IU Center Scores $3.2M Grant

Babar Khan will lead the study. (photo courtesy Regenstrief Institute)

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute has awarded a $3.2 million grant to the Indiana University Center for Aging Research at the IU School of Medicine in Indianapolis. The grant will fund the development and evaluation of a mobile Critical Care Recovery Program at the institute.

The program aims to provide post-ICU care to patients with acute respiratory failure in their home to improve quality of life and decrease the likelihood of rehospitalization. Principal investigator Babar Khan says the results of the evaluation could lead to the creation of a nationwide model.

"Although there are certainly some community resources and rehabilitation services available to ICU survivors, these are fragmented and difficult for the post-ICU patient and family to access, typically making a meaningful recovery unattainable," said Khan. "When we talk about rehospitalization, we shouldn’t forget how the patient and how the family feel about it. Decreasing the likelihood of rehospitalization is not just about health care costs, it’s about people and their lives."

The five-year study will follow m-CCRP patients and their families for 12 months, during which a mobile care coordinator will visit patients biweekly along with a multidisciplinary team, consisting of an ICU physician, a geriatrician, a neuropsychologist and an ICU symptom management nurse. The team will meet weekly to develop and revise a recovery plan for each patient.

Khan, a critical care medicine physician and implementation scientist with the IU Center for Health Innovation and Implementation Science, is leading study. His team will also work to determine if m-CCRP reduces the future need for health care by ICU survivors.