Systematic study of methods to prevent, treat, and recover patients with stroke is essential to reduce the societal burden of this significant disease. Multi-center trials are essential to accrue significant numbers of patients to practically complete such research. Using a consortia model whereby multiple centers are continually initiating multicenter trials and enrolling patients allows for more efficient use of resources and higher enrollment rates in shorter time. The NIH StrokeNet has made this model a reality with UCSF (NorCal- RCC; RCC-13) as one of 25 Regional Coordinating Centers (RCCs). NorCal-RCC was created by UCSF pairing with Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) to access brain-trusts of stroke researchers and the existing infrastructure for multi-center clinical trials. NorCal-RCC now includes 14 sites including 5 KPNC sites across the region, with a combination of academic and community sites across a range of diverse patient populations. In addition, our Stroke Fellowship continues to train leaders in stroke research with the majority continuing in academic stroke related endeavors. This RCC brings stroke research to a diverse population where non-Hispanic whites now comprise only a simple majority at 50% and with Latino and Asian Pacific Islander populations that are growing. We recently added Queen's Medical Center in Oahu, Hawaii to access a key population Asian Pacific Islander community. NorCal-RCC will continue to serve as a top enrolling site with excellent data quality, to provide new important study ideas and contributions to the network as a whole, and to provide top level fellowship training to the next generation of stroke academicians.
NorCal-RCC is one of 25 Regional Coordinating Centers (RCC-13) study of prevention, treatment, and recovery of human stroke with NIH StrokeNet. Continued funding of this important infrastructure will allow another 5 years of high enrollment rates and high quality data for clinical trials performed in the network. NorCal-RCC has the potential to bring stroke research to a large section of diverse and underserved people who are specifically at risk for stroke.
