What is a Spinal Cord Injury Model System Center?

There are 18 Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Model System Centers across the country and each is sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) which supports innovative projects and research in the delivery, demonstration, and evaluation of medical, rehabilitation, vocational and other services to meet the needs of individuals with SCI. NIDILRR awards SCI Model Systems Center grants to institutions that are national leaders in medical research and patient care and provide the highest level of comprehensive specialty services, from the point of injury through rehabilitation and re-entry into the community. Each SCI Model Systems Center contributes to the SCI Model Systems Data Center, participates in independent and collaborative research, and provides information and resources to individuals with SCI, their family and care givers, health care professionals and the general public. SNERSCIC contributes data to the National Spinal Cord Injury Database, which includes more than 32,000 individuals with SCI. Information is gathered from individuals, with their consent, during hospitalization and through follow up at one and five years after injury, and every five years thereafter. Data from the SCIMS National Database provides information about the course of recovery, trends in cause and severity of SCI, health service delivery and costs, treatment, and rehabilitation outcomes. This longitudinal study has created a dense patient database that serves as a rich source of data for research and analysis of outcomes.