In 1994 NIDRR established the Burn Injury Rehabilitation Model Systems of Care (Burn Model Systems) by awarding three 36-month projects. In 1997 NIDRR reestablished the Burn Model Systems with the award of four 60-month projects and again reestablished four 60-month projects in 2002. These projects develop and demonstrate a comprehensive, multidisciplinary model system of rehabilitative services for individuals with severe burns, and evaluate the efficacy of that system through the collection and analysis of uniform data on system benefits, costs, and outcomes. The projects study the course of recovery and outcomes following the delivery of a coordinated system of care including emergency care, acute care management, comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation, and long-term interdisciplinary follow-up services.

The Burn Model Systems projects serve a substantial number of patients, allowing the projects to conduct clinical research and program evaluation. In addition, the Burn Model Systems projects utilize a complex data collection and retrieval program with the capability to analyze the different system components and provide information on project effectiveness and benefits. The projects are intended to establish appropriate, uniform descriptors of rehabilitation care. Information is collected throughout the rehabilitation process. Systematic burn injury care permits long-term follow-up on the course of injury and the identification of continuing needs and results in areas such as functional outcome, health and rehabilitation services, procedures for cost-reimbursement and billing and community integration. The Burn Model Systems projects serve as regional and national models for program development and as information centers for consumers, families, and professionals.

In order to take full advantage of the data collected by individual Burn Model System projects, there is a need for a project to assist the projects in their research efforts and establish and maintain a combined database for short-and long-term outcome evaluations (functional, health, psycho-social and vocational status measures) and financial assessments (rehabilitation, professional and hospital charges) for various burn care and injury rehabilitation strategies.