Tuesday, February 19, 2019

SCI Model System Researchers and MSKTC Contribute to SCI 2020

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke’s SCI 2020: Launching a Decade for Disruption in Spinal Cord Injury Research conference was held February 12-13, 2019, in Bethesda, Maryland. The goal of SCI 2020 is to initiate discussion across the SCI research community to launch a new decade of research that disrupts traditional barriers and brings about collaborative efforts to address the key research questions in spinal cord injury research. SCI Model System Program and MSKTC are partners of the conference.

Michael Boninger, MD, co-director of University of Pittsburgh Model Center on Spinal Cord Injury, was the Keynote Speaker. Session chair and facilitators included researchers from Southeastern Regional Spinal Cord Injury Model System (Edelle Field-Fote, PT, PhD; James Krause, PhD). Researchers from the following currently-funded SCI Model System centers led the conference dissemination efforts: Rocky Mountain Regional SCI System (Leslie Morse, DO) and Northern New Jersey Spinal Cord Injury System (Jeanne Zanca, PhD, MPT). National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center presented a poster to promote the awareness and public utilization of the National Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems Database for collaborative research in improving the lives of people with SCI. Model System researchers from University of Alabama at Birmingham Spinal Cord Injury Model System (Ceren Yarar-Fisher, PhD), National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center (Yu-Ying Chen, MD), Northern New Jersey Spinal Cord Injury System (Jeanne Zanca, PhD), Southern California Spinal Cord Injury Model System (Sara Mulroy, PhD), Rocky Mountain Regional SCI System (Leslie Morse, DO; Jennifer Coker, MPH), Regional SCI Center of the Delaware Valley (Mary Schmidt Read, PhD), Spaulding New England Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center (Ross Zafonte, DO; Chloe Slocum, MD), and Southeastern Regional Spinal Cord Injury Model System (Casey Kandilakis, DPT) contributed as note-takers during the conference. The Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center presented a poster to promote the SCI Model System Program, the National SCI Model System Database, and free research-based resources to support individuals living with SCI. The full conference webcast for Day 1, which features a panel of individuals with SCI discussing their perspectives on care and research, and Day 2 is available online.Learn more here, and view the speaker list here.