Study Aims
In order to better understand and optimize the quality of life and health of persons with SCI SwiSCI strives for three special aims:
- the development of comprehensive knowledge on functioning, disability, health and aging with SCI in Switzerland;
- the identification of approaches centering in optimizing care, for example the use of devices, or decisions by law influencing the SCI population;
- the development of an epidemiologic database containing broad information on the characteristics of spinal cord injuries for health professionals, researchers and stakeholders in social and health care policy;
- provide a research platform for nested and joint projects and develop research capacity.
As a multi-purpose research platform, SwiSCI will provide valid research data to stakeholders at the different levels including people living with SCI themselves, policy makers and program planners, providers and benefactors of health services, and professionals of SCI rehabilitation and long-term care.
In nested and joint projects researchers will gain access to a comprehensive and representative dataset. The platform will facilitate the coordination of the increasing number of studies involving people with SCI and thus reducing the burden of research on individual participants.
SwiSCI will offer methods and models that will be applicable to the investigation of other potentially disabling health conditions, thereby developing research capacity in human functioning and rehabilitation. Given the growing number of people living with various disabilities in Switzerland and worldwide, SwiSCI meets an urgent need.
SwiSCI welcomes the interest and proposals of outside investigators. Collaboration is encouraged as it helps to maximize the scientific value of the wealth of epidemiologic data made possible by the participation of many individuals in the Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Study.
Access to the data for a wide range of investigations will enable research discoveries related to other diseases such as infections, bedsore, osteoporosis, arthritis, obesity and cancer.
In order to facilitate a coordinated process and ensure high quality scientific outcomes, SwiSCI provides study guidelines and procedures as well as proposal application forms. Please contact SwiSCI study center: swisci.research@paraplegie.ch