Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital of Hollywood, Florida has joined the Cerebral Palsy Research Network (CPRN). Heather Spader, MD, a pediatric neurosurgeon and Monica Arroyo, MD, a pediatric neurologist, will be the site principal investigators (PIs) representing Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in the network. Adding this hospital gives representation of Southern Florida in the network and adds to the diversity of patient population in our cerebral palsy registry.
Dr. Spader’s research and publication of “Risk factors for baclofen pump infection in children: a multivariate analysis” in the Journal of Neurosurgery in 2016 was developed in conjunction with the PI of our quality improvement initiative, Dr. Robert Bollo, to reduce intrathecal baclofen pump infections. Dr. Spader is the sixth neurosurgeon to join CPRN as a principal investigator and will contribute to the CPRN clinical registry’s capture of neurosurgical interventions for children with cerebral palsy. Dr. Arroyo joins a growing segment of pediatric neurologists to join the network as CPRN expands its research into epilepsy, dystonia and neonatal brain development issues in CP.
CPRN welcomes Doctors Spader and Arroyo and Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital as the 25th center to engage in our collaborative research efforts. The research interests of these PIs, their patient population and the location will be great assets to the network’s diversity and efficacy to better serve all of those who live with cerebral palsy.