Summary of the First Meeting of the IOM’s Committee on Spinal Cord Injury, February 23 and 24

The first meeting of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Spinal Cord Injury: Strategies in a Search for a Cure took place on February 23-24, 2004 in Washington, DC.

The first day of the meeting was closed with the exception of the sponsor briefing (described below). The first portion of the meeting consisted of introductions made by committee and staff. IOM Executive Director Susanne Stoiber gave some background on the study and questioned each committee member during a committee discussion of bias and conflict.  The bias discussion ensures that the committee is qualified, balanced, and independent to deal with the charge. It also allowed the committee members to become acquainted with one another.

The committee reviewed its charge, or statement of task.  The committee discussed the issue of cure and Ms. Susanne Stoiber answered additional questions.

Dr. Martin Sorin, who represents the study sponsor, the Spinal Cord Injury Research Board (SCIRB) of the New York Department of Health, gave a brief presentation that outlined the SCIRB’s reasons for employing the IOM committee. He noted that the SCIRB would like to have the IOM committee: (1) assess progress made and potential areas of research; (2) explore and identify research areas in an evidence-based manner; (3) translate basic research to the clinical setting; (4) improve communication between spinal cord injury researchers; and (5) increase research capacity in New York State institutions. Dr. Sorin also mentioned that the SCIRB was interested in learning more about embryonic stem cells research, the development of a spinal cord injured registry, and revision of their grant applications to fund high quality research.

Committee members described symposia on spinal cord injuries that they had recently attended. They discussed the report outline.

Finally, the committee also discussed plans for its May workshop.

The second day of the meeting consisted of an information-gathering, brainstorming workshop that was open to the public, and was followed by a closed session discussion between committee and staff. The workshop focused on basic and clinical research needs, clinical trials in industry, and translational research. Moses V. Chao of New York University described the role and needs of basic scientists while John Jane of the University of Virginia presented information on what clinicians need to improve treatment of spinal cord injuries. With respect to clinical trials in injury, Dennis Choi of Merck & Company, Inc provided an overview of current industry models while Andrew Blight of Acorda Therapeutics described challenges to developing a treatment for spinal cord injury.  Finally, Oswald Steward of the University of California-Irvine provided an overview of the Reeve-Irvine Research Center and Jeffrey Rothstein of Johns Hopkins University described his efforts at the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research.

To register for the open microphone session, to see the agenda for this first workshop, or to read the meeting summary and view the agenda for the 2nd meeting and workshop, please follow the links below and contact Lora Taylor (email: lktaylor@nas.edu or phone: 202-334-1498) if you have any questions.

Link to open microphone session registration

Link to workshop 1 agenda

Link to workshop 2 summary and agenda