Scope

SCOPE is the Spinal Cord Outcomes Partnership Endeavor. Its mission is to enhance the development of clinical trial and clinical practice protocols that will accurately validate therapeutic interventions for spinal cord injury (SCI) leading to the adoption of improved best practices.
Overall Goals

1. To facilitate communication and coordination of effort between basic scientists, clinical researchers, academic institutions, industry, government agencies, and not-for-profit foundations.
2. To foster collaboration among all stakeholders in their common goal to improve functional outcomes and quality of life for people living with SCI so they may more fully participate within society.
3. To identify accurate, sensitive, and reliable outcome tools that measure a clinically meaningful benefit for specific body functions, daily activities, community participation, or quality of life that have been altered by SCI.
4. To foster development of clinical trial protocols that lead to the adoption of the most effective best practices for the treatment and care of individuals living with SCI.
5. Where warranted, to facilitate and establish guidelines for clinical trial protocols and outcomes, clinical practice, and community access and integration.
6. To continually update and integrate new knowledge (e.g. relevant datasets) into SCOPE activities.
7. To widely disseminate the teaching of valid therapeutic interventions for SCI through all available media.

SCOPE History

SCOPE is an academic-industry partnership. In 2006, as the result of funding from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), a conference was held as a pre-course to the combined annual meetings of the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) and the International Spinal Cord Society (ISCoS). This conference, entitled “Measurement of Outcomes in Spinal Cord Injury: A Conference to Define the Current State of the Science and Challenges for Future Development,” was the result of the work of committees established late in 2005. The agenda consisted of presentations that reported the current state of the science in areas such as pain, gait/ambulation, neuroimaging, quality of life, functional potential, motor assessment, autonomic function, and spasticity.

After this meeting, the SCOPE Steering Committee was founded. It consists of representatives from federal agencies (NIDRR, NIH, FDA, VA R&D, DoD); corporate partners (Acorda Therapeutics, Asubio Pharmaceuticals, StemCells, Inc., DP Clinical; foundations (Craig H. Neilsen Foundation), and clinical experts from the American Spinal Injury Association, the International Campaign to Cure Paralysis (ICCP), and the International Spinal Cord Society (ISCoS).
A second conference was executed as the pre-course to the Annual Scientific Meeting of ASIA in May of 2007. Since then, instructional courses have been presented at this meeting annually, as well as at the annual meeting of ISCoS.