New England Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center

The lead site of the New England Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center Network is the Boston University Medical Campus (BUMC); As the first civilian spinal cord injury rehabilitation facility in the country, the New England Spinal Cord Injury Center (NERSCIC) at BUMC has nearly 60 years of experience providing comprehensive care, as well as innovative research and educational opportunities for individuals with SCI.  NERSCIC was also one of the first SCI Model System Centers in the nation. NERSCIC has created a unique organizational model among SCI Model System Centers in having forged a regional partnership of a major academic research institution, BUMC in Boston, MA, with three outstanding clinical institutions: Gaylord Hospital in Wallingford, CT; Hospital for Special Care (HSC) in New Britain, CT; and an affiliated partner, Northeast Rehabilitation Network (NRH), based in Salem, NH and surrounding communities in MA.

Each of the NERSCIC sites brings unique strengths to the NERSCIC Network. BUMC serves a socio-economically and racially diverse urban population and, in conjunction with Dr. Alan Jette at the BU School of Public Health (BUSPH), provides extensive research expertise and experience to all of NERSCIC’s activities. Gaylord Hospital is a prominent Long-Term Acute Care Hospital (LTACH) collaborating with Yale-New Haven that serves a higher proportion of patients with medically complex conditions in a suburban/rural locale. HSC is a longstanding LTACH located in Central CT working with Hartford Hospital, and sees an older, primarily urban patient population more likely to be low-income. Our affiliate, NRH, participates in NERSCIC’s clinical capacity building and outreach activities; through its extensive network of outpatient clinics, it provides a rich recruitment base for NERSCIC’s research studies.