The Indiana University Center for Aging Research is using a $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to advance the development and evaluation of a mobile Critical Care Recovery Program.

The goal is to provide post-ICU patients the rehabilitation they need after being discharged from intensive care units.

Two million of the five million Americans admitted to intensive care units annually have or develop acute respiratory failure, predisposing them to long-term cognitive, functional and psychological impairments collectively known as post-intensive care syndrome.

"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 IU Center for Aging Research and Regenstrief Institute investigator Dr. Babar Khan, in a statement. "m-CCRP, our patient-centric mobile Critical Care Recovery Program, brings post-ICU care right to the ARF, acute respiratory failure, patient in their home and works together with patients and caregivers to improve both quality of life and brain health, decreasing the likelihood of re-hospitalization,” he added.

Khan, a critical care medicine physician and an implementation scientist with the IU Center for Health Innovation and Implementation Science, is the principal investigator on the five-year study.

As he sees it, decreasing the likelihood of re-hospitalization is not just about healthcare costs. “It's about people and their lives. When we talk about re-hospitalization, we shouldn't forget how the patient and how the family feel about it.”

Khan envisions outcomes of the work will lead to the implementation of m-CCRP across the US healthcare system.

m-CCRP builds upon Khan's experience in developing the Eskenazi Health Critical Care Recovery Center with support from the National Institute on Aging and Eskenazi Health. The prototype outpatient clinic was the nation's first collaborative care concept focusing on the extensive cognitive, physical and psychological recovery needs of intensive care unit survivors who are seen in the center after hospital or rehabilitation facility discharge.