Overview to
the Rehabilitation Research & Training Center
In December 2003, a five year Rehabilitation Research
and Training Center (RRTC) on Secondary Prevention through Exercise
in Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) was established at
the National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH). This RRTC is funded
by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research
(NIDRR), a division of the U.S. Department of Education. The designation
of the NRH RRTC by NIDRR provides a $4 million grant over a 5year
period and allows NRH to further extend its research and training
efforts.
This collaborative effort will team NRH clinicians
and researchers with other experts in the field from the University
of Miami School of Medicine/Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, the
Independent Living Research Utilization (ILRU) Program at the Institute
for Rehabilitation and Research (TIRR), the National Spinal Cord
Injury Association (NSCIA) and its local Washington, D.C., metropolitan
chapter, the Spinal Cord Injury Network (SCIN).
The focus of this RRTC is on further development
of knowledge about and prevention of selected secondary conditions.
The primary conditions studied will be cardiovascular disease and
osteoporosis, although a wide range of other secondary conditions,
such as respiratory dysfunction, urinary tract infection, depression,
and pain, as well as quality of life, will be examined. We will
also more intensely and specifically examine the effect of exercise
and physical activity as a means to prevent certain secondary conditions
after SCI.
While five of the researchbased projects planned
through the RRTC will focus on knowledge about and/or prevention
of selected secondary conditions that occur throughout the lifetime
of an individual after incurring an SCI, four additional projects
will focus on training. A unique element of the training component
is that consumers with SCI will be involved extensively throughout
the research, including but not necessarily limited to peer mentoring
of individuals with both acute and more chronic SCI, as well as
in the education of health care professionals, legislators, and
others in SCIrelated fields.
National Rehabilitation Hospital's director of
spinal cord injury research, Dr. Suzanne Groah, will be contributing
her expertise as the center director, as well as leading the effort
for several of the research projects. Thilo Kroll, PhD, a senior
research associate at the NRH Center for Health and Disability Research,
will bring his experience in the area of participatory action training
and participatory action research through his leadership of the
training projects and will also serve as coprincipal investigator
for the Center. We are very excited about the potential impact of
knowledge gained from activities in this RRTC directly on individuals
with SCI, as well as for a broad range of others who are involved
in the care and/or lives of individuals with SCI.
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