ROCS Tool Helps Confirm Optimal Care in Cerebral Palsy
Research By: Alexis Mitelpunkt | Amy Bailes, PT, PhD
Post Date: February 2, 2024 | Publish Date: February 2024
Rehabilitation Medicine | Top Scientific Achievement
Cerebral palsy is the most common motor disability in childhood, occurring in about 1 in 345 children in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Now, a team spanning Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine, Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy, and Bioinformatics at Cincinnati Children’s has developed a novel method of tracking whether children with cerebral palsy (CP) are consistently receiving optimal care.
A study led by corresponding author Alexis Mitelpunkt, MD, BSc, and senior author Amy Bailes, PT, PhD, used automated data extraction to analyze electronic health record data from more than 8,000 children with CP who received care at Cincinnati Children’s. Optimal care was codified as a cluster of four components including specific evidence-supported services in physical medicine and rehabilitation (PMR) care, spasticity management, physical therapy (PT), and occupational therapy (OT). Then the team developed a Receipt of Care Score (ROCS) to quantify the degree of adherence to recommendations.
To validate scoring, the team compared experiences of two children who had nearly identical PMR and spasticity component scores, finding that their PT and OT scores were more divergent. Functional outcomes were higher for the child who had higher adjusted ROCS.
“These findings show that big data approaches can contribute to the understanding of current care and inform approaches for improved care,” Bailes says. “The ROCS methods developed are novel, robust and scalable. We plan to further test the methods in a larger sample.”
Cincinnati Children’s co-authors included Jilda Vargus-Adams, MD. Brad Kurowski, MD, MS, Kelly Greve, PhD, Janet Zahner, Surbhi Bhatnagar, PhD, and Bruce Aronow, PhD. Co-author Megan Stodola was a medical student at St. Louis University when this work was performed.
Findings from this pilot study helped secure a 5-year NINDS grant titled “Leveraging the electronic health record to characterize and optimize care delivery for children with cerebral palsy.” (R01-HD103654)
Explore the 2024 Research Annual Report
| Original title: | A big data approach to evaluate receipt of optimal care in childhood cerebral palsy |
| Published in: | Disability and Rehabilitation |
| Publish date: | February 2024 |
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The Research Horizons blog features news and insights about the latest discoveries and innovations developed by the scientists of Cincinnati Children's. This blog does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
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