The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research Burn Model System Database: a Tool for the Multicenter Study of the Outcome of Burn Injury

Advances in critical care and surgical management have significantly improved survival after burn injury over the past several decades. However, today, survival alone is an insufficient outcome. In 1994, the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) created a burn model system program to evaluate the long-term sequelae of burn injuries. As part of this multicenter program, a comprehensive demographic and outcome database was developed to facilitate the study of a number of functional and psychosocial outcomes after burns. The purpose of this study is to review the database design and structure as well as the data obtained during the last 10 years. This is a descriptive study of the NIDRR database structure as well as the patient data obtained from the four participating burn centers from 1994 to 2004. Data obtained during hospitalization and at 6, 12, and 24 months after discharge were reviewed and descriptive statistics were calculated for select database fields. The database is divided into several subsections, including demographics, injury complications, patient disposition, and functional and psychological surveys. A total of 4600 patients have been entered into the NIDRR database. To date, 3449 (75%) patients were alive at discharged and consented to follow-up data collection. The NIDRR database provides an expansive repository of patient, injury, and outcome data that can be used to analyze the impact of burn injury on physical and psychosocial function and for the design of interventions to enhance the quality of life of burn survivors.