Congratulations to Tolu Oyesanya, associate professor, who has received an award for her Duke Center for Research to Advance Health Equity (REACH) proposal entitled: “Inclusion of Spanish-speaking Patients & Families in TBI Transitional Care Intervention." This award is for a one-year period, awarded July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022.

Hospitalization rates for adults (age 18-64 years) with traumatic brain injury (TBI) are higher for people from Latino communities across the nation, and the consequences are disproportionately worse. Compared to white patients, Latino patients with moderate-to-severe TBI discharged home from acute hospital care are more likely to have cognitive, physical, behavioral and emotional impairments that affect their abilities to independently manage their health, wellness and activities of daily living. Activity limitations often result in increased family involvement for managing the person’s care. The complexity of needs — combined with the fragmentation of health care services and language barriers of Latino TBI patients and families with limited English proficiency — creates the perfect storm for mismanaged symptoms, adverse health events, and a lower likelihood of return to work and school. Transitional care management for patients with acute events such as stroke and myocardial infarction leads to improved patient and family outcomes. However, few TBI transitional care interventions exist, and these have not been adapted to allow for inclusion of Spanish-speaking TBI patients and families. To overcome limitations of existing interventions, we developed a culturally-sensitive, TBI transitional care intervention called BETTER (Brain Injury, Education, Training, and Therapy to Enhance Recovery), funded by Oyesanya’s REACH Equity CDA and NIH R03. The purpose of this study is to linguistically and culturally adapt our transitional care intervention to be suitable for Spanish-speaking participants and to build the capacity to enroll Spanish-speaking participants. The proposed study aligns with the REACH Equity’s theme to reduce racial/ethnic disparities in the clinical encounter and will inform the design of a future R01 implementation-effectiveness clinical trial of a patient- and family-centered TBI transitional care intervention that reduces outcome disparities.