Professional-Focused Training Project T2: Building Clinical Capacity to Help Persons with SCI Manage or Prevent Cardiometabolic Sndrome, Obesity and Pressure Ulcers

Persons with SCI have a significant need for preventive care due to the large number of secondary conditions for which they are at risk. They are, however, less likely than the general population to receive preventive care. Further, screening recommendations appropriate to the general population, when applied to persons with SCI, are less likely to be successful in helping them maintain their health. Project T2 aims to improve the preventive care received by persons with SCI through expanding health professionals’ understanding of how SCI impacts cardiometabolic syndrome, obesity and pressure ulcer risk. T2 reaches out to professionals in rehabilitation and primary care with knowledge that can help them understand and address the differences that SCI implies for management and/or prevention. T2 increases capacity through the training of rising rehabilitation researchers, the development of new knowledge (systematic reviews, sensor technology), and its consideration and application to provide primary preventive care to persons with SCI (best practice instructional course).

This project has three training aims:
Training Aim 1: Synthesize the evidence base in cardiometabolic syndrome, obesity and pressure ulcer (PU) risk in SCI. (Supports Research Projects R1, R2 and R3.)
Training Aim 2: Provide comprehensive training for 2 post-doctoral fellows in rehabilitation research (Supports Research Projects R1, R2 and R3.)
Training Aim 3: Increase awareness in primary care and rehabilitation practitioners of the risk of cardiometabolic syndrome, obesity and PUs in persons with SCI and foster use of screening protocols and interventions (including patient education) appropriate to the variant risk profile of persons with SCI (Supports Projects R1, R2 and R3.)