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The University of Miami Department of PM&R, the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, and Jackson Rehabilitation Hospital are part of the Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems (SCIMS) network.
The Department of PM&R in the Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center for the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at UHealth/Jackson Memorial, in partnership with the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, is home to the South Florida Spinal Cord Injury Model System (SF SCIMS). The SF SCIMS is sponsored through the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) and includes 18 centers in the US. NIDILRR awards SCIMS center grants to institutions that are national leaders specializing in SCI research and patient care, and that provide the highest level of comprehensive specialty services, from the point of injury through rehabilitation and re-entry into full community life.
The SF SCIMS’s research focuses primarily on health and function in persons with SCIs. During the current five-year cycle of the program, we are undertaking studies to examine how the rapid changes in body composition (e.g., percent body fat) that occur after an SCI may impact both systemic inflammation and the development and maintenance of chronic pain in people with SCI. We also conduct a number of other studies, partnering with other SCIMS centers, including one that we are leading to measure the effect of an educational intervention completed just after discharge from inpatient rehabilitation for SCI may help improve cardiovascular health in people with SCI, a population that is at increased risk for cardiovascular disease. All SCIMS centers also contribute information to the national database for SCI. Started in 1973, this collaborative effort among the Model System centers collects information about demographic characteristics and medical, physiological, and psychological outcomes after an SCI, starting from the time a person enters the hospital and continuing life-long follow-up every 5 years thereafter.
In addition to conducting research, the South Florida SCIMS center provides information and resources to individuals with SCI, their family and caregivers, and health care professionals, based on state-of-the-science research and best practices guidelines. We coordinate our efforts with the Miami SCI support group to target topics of high importance to individuals living with an SCI.