"Today, most researchers agree that a cure for spinal cord injury will not happen overnight, or in one lab. Instead, the solution will come as a continuation of what’s been taking place in the past three decades—steady, incremental progress, with sometimes only small improvements. It’s the sum of all this that is important. That’s where the power of a registry shines. You can only confirm you’ve made progress when you can precisely and carefully measure results in a large population sample. And, while finding the answers needed to be able to repair an injured spinal cord will take many years, the Registry offers the opportunity to meet many other goals in the short-term—measuring how well current treatments work, developing better treatments and therapies, planning directions for future research, and generally improving the health care system for people with SCI.”

— Dr. Marcel Dvorak, Medical Director, Rick Hansen Spinal Cord Injury Registry