Duration of post-traumatic amnesia (PTA) has emerged as a strong measure of injury severity following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Despite the growing international adoption of this measure, there remains a lack of consistency in the way in which PTA duration is used to classify severity of injury. This study aimed to establish the classification of PTA that would best predict functional or productivity outcomes. We conducted a cohort study of 1041 individuals recruited from inpatient admissions to a TBI rehabilitation centre between 1985 and 2013. Participants had a primary diagnosis of TBI, emerged from PTA prior to discharge from inpatient hospital, and engaged in productive activities prior to injury. Eight models that classify duration of PTA were evaluated, six that were based on the literature and two that were statistically-driven. Models were assessed using area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) as well as model-based Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) statistics. All categorisation models showed longer PTA to be associated with a greater likelihood of being non-productive at one year following TBI. Classification systems with a greater number of categories performed better than two-category systems. The dimensional (continuous) form of PTA resulted in the greatest AUC, and lowest AIC as well as BIC, of the classification systems examined. This finding indicates that the greatest accuracy in prognosis is likely to be achieved using PTA as a continuous variable. This enables the probability of productive outcomes to be estimated with far greater precision than that possible using a classification system. Categorising PTA to classify severity of injury may be reducing the precision with which clinicians can plan the management of patients following TBI.

Objective: Rehabilitation of memory after stroke remains an unmet need. Telehealth delivery may overcome barriers to accessing rehabilitation services.Method: We conducted a non-randomized intervention trial to investigate feasibility and effectiveness of individual telehealth (internet videoconferencing) and face-to-face delivery methods for a six-week compensatory memory rehabilitation program. Supplementary analyses investigated non-inferiority to an existing group-based intervention, and the role of booster sessions in maintaining functional gains. The primary outcome measure was functional attainment of participants’ goals. Secondary measures included subjective reports of lapses in everyday memory and prospective memory, reported use of internal and external memory strategies, and objective measures of memory functioning.Results: Forty-six stroke survivors were allocated to telehealth and face-to-face intervention delivery conditions. Feasibility of delivery methods was supported, and participants in both conditions demonstrated treatment-related improvements in goal attainment, and key subjective outcomes of everyday memory, and prospective memory. Gains on these measures were maintained at six-week follow-up. Short-term gains in use of internal strategies were also seen. Non-inferiority to group-based delivery was established only on the primary measure for the telehealth delivery condition. Booster sessions were associated with greater maintenance of gains on subjective measures of everyday memory and prospective memory.Conclusions: This exploratory study supports the feasibility and potential effectiveness of telehealth options for remote delivery of compensatory memory skills training after a stroke. These results are also encouraging of a role for booster sessions in prolonging functional gains over time.