The Epidemiology Data Center at the University of Pittsburgh will host the CP Research Network registries.

The Cerebral Palsy (CP) Research Network signed a strategic five-year research agreement with the University of Pittsburgh to provide the Data Coordinating Center (DCC) services for its growing research enterprise. Stephen Wisniewski, PhD, Professor, Co-Director of their Epidemiology Data Center, and Vice Provost for Budget and Analytics at the University of Pittsburgh, will become the DCC principal investigator for the CP Research Network effective October 1, 2022. The DCC provides essential research services for hosting our registries, designing our studies, and safeguarding our data. The partnership with the University of Pittsburgh will help the CP Research Network accelerate its mission to improve the lifelong health and wellness of people with CP and their families through high quality research.

Dr. Stephen Wisniewski will lead Data Coordinating Center team at the University of Pittsburgh for the CP Research Network

“We are excited to be partners in research with the CP Research Network,” said Dr. Wisniewski. “Between their track record for engaging the extended CP community in research and our experience with multi-center trials, we believe we can help accelerate studies to improve outcomes in CP. We look forward to working closely with the CP Research Network to develop studies for the research questions that are most important to the CP community.”

The CP Research Network selected the University of Pittsburgh and Dr. Wisniewski as its new DCC partner to support its anticipated growth in research projects. Dr. Wisniewski’s track record with the ADAPT observational trial for traumatic brain injury and other successful publicly funded trials make him, his team and the University of Pittsburgh an ideal partner for the next phase of the CP Research Network’s research agenda. As the network nears the end of its second year of its five-year strategic plan, the number of studies under development to address its Research CP community-driven agenda has grown significantly. The CP Research Network’s registries, both central longitudinal research repositories capturing data about people with CP over multiple years, were recently highlighted during a workshop sponsored by the National Institutes of Health to report on and advance its strategic plan for cerebral palsy. The CP Research Network strategy calls for more publicly funded studies of CP for which Dr. Wisniewski and his DCC’s track record with NIH and other funders should increase the network’s success rate for grants and ultimately improving care for people with CP.