Letter From the Director
Happy 2023! I hope you and your families enjoyed a wonderful holiday season and a healthy start to this new year. The International Center for Spinal Cord Injury appreciates your support, which has allowed us to expand our services to better serve our patients.
I am humbled by the continual support of this amazing community, and am extremely proud of our team members who show up every day to provide the highest level of care to our patients and their families during these unusual and challenging times.
In this issue of the newsletter, we share some exciting news about a new location that will open this summer! And be sure to check out the latest from our Adaptive Sports Program!
Please feel free to reach out to us at SCIInformation@KennedyKrieger.org if you would like more information about how you can get involved with our programs and services.
Best wishes for a healthy 2023!
Cristina Sadowsky, MD
Clinical Director, International Center for Spinal Cord Injury
New Location
Thanks to the generous support of the Robert I. Schattner Foundation, Inc., we are expanding again! It has only been three years since the opening of our Maple Lawn location, and the ICSCI is already opening a third location. Our newest location will be north of Baltimore along the I-95 corridor in White Marsh, Maryland. We have leased approximately 13,000 square feet of space that will include:
- Open-area gym
- ADA-compliant restrooms and showers
- Four private clinic rooms
- Adjacent parking, ground-level entrance
- Lots of natural light
- Adjacent hotel providing lodging for out-of-town patients
- Space for future expansion
Renovations on the building are underway, and we hope to see patients in this location in July. The Robert I. Schattner Foundation has graciously agreed to match all donations received for this initiative through the end of February. Visit KennedyKrieger.org/ICSCIFund if you’d like to make a gift. You will be hearing more about this exciting initiative in the coming months.
New Spasticity Management Clinic
The ICSCI is opening a new clinic at its Baltimore location to treat upper-extremity spasticity in individuals with spinal cord injuries and paralysis. The clinic is a collaborative, interdisciplinary program with The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Its staff includes a spinal cord injury physiatrist, a plastic surgeon and occupational therapists to provide advanced surgical, medical and rehabilitation interventions to decrease spasticity resistant to standard treatment and improve upper-extremity functioning of individuals living with spinal cord injuries.
The clinic will provide evaluations and recommend a wide range of therapies and treatments, including surgical and non-surgical options, to treat spasticity, individualized for each patient’s needs, and all designed to improve upper-extremity functioning, including improved grasping.
The clinic is appropriate for anyone age 5 and older with an acute or chronic spinal cord injury and who has spasticity in their arms.
For more information or to make an appointment, call the ICSCI at 888-923-9222.
Trends in Spinal Cord Rehabilitation Symposium
Monday, March 13, 2023, 3–6 p.m.
Join us (in person or virtually) at our annual premier educational event focusing on the latest treatments, groundbreaking research and emerging trends across the continuum of care for individuals with spinal cord injuries and spinal cord-related dysfunction. The event is FREE of charge.
Featured speakers and presentations include:
- “SCI Pain: A Medical Perspective,” by Thomas N. Bryce, MD, Inaugural Kristjan T. Ragnarssson, MD Professor of rehabilitation medicine and human performance at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- “Talking SCI Pain: Therapeutic Perspectives,” by Isa McClure, PT, MAPT, clinical project manager at DP Clinical, Inc.
Adaptive Sports
The last few months of 2022 were exciting ones for our Adaptive Sports Program!
In October, Team Kennedy Krieger celebrated its 11th anniversary with the Baltimore Running Festival by returning to the festival in person! Approximately 120 team members and volunteers took to the streets of Baltimore to represent our team and programs. They raised more than $80,000 to support adaptive sports and recreation opportunities. Thank you to all who participated, cheered us on, donated or volunteered. Save the date for 2023—October 14!
Handcyclists Ryan Wills and Jim Morrison and their journey to the Baltimore marathon was featured on WBAL TV.
Also in October, Team Kennedy Krieger sponsored the Maryland Thunder Wheelchair Lacrosse team as they took on the NCAA champion, the University of Maryland men’s lacrosse team, in a friendly exhibition game. The Terps put up a great fight but fell to The Thunder,19-9.
In November, we partnered with Patapsco Valley State Park for several hiking and mountain-biking events for individuals with disabilities and their families.
Team Kennedy Krieger sponsored one of our athletes, Shane Horn, in the WheelWOD Games in mid-November. WheelWOD Games is the pinnacle event for adaptive fitness for some of the best athletes in the world. Each division is qualified through WheelWOD open and sanctioned events. These athletes are from all over the world and battle for the title of the fittest adaptive athlete in the world. Congratulations to Shane, who placed fifth in the seated division! In January 2023, Shane participated in the TYR Wodapalooza Fitness Festival where he placed second! Congratulations to Shane.
We closed out 2022 with a second successful Bowling Night.
We kicked off 2023 as Team Kennedy Krieger partnered with Blue Ridge Adaptive Snow Sports (BRASS) to provide a ski day at Liberty Mountain Resorts. It was a fun and successful day on the slopes for all who participated.
All of the above listed events were made possible with funds raised from the proceeds from the Baltimore Running Festival.
Upcoming Events—Save the Date!
Saturday, March 25
Adaptive Sports and Recreation Resource Fair
Join Team Kennedy Krieger for our first annual Adaptive Sports and Recreation Fair. Our goal is to introduce adaptive sports and recreation opportunities to the greater Baltimore community. Attendees will have an opportunity to connect with local programs and observe demonstrations. The event is FREE of charge. Registration will open in early March.
Saturday, March 25
Adaptive Hike
Join Team Kennedy Krieger and our partners at Patapsco Valley State Park for our second adaptive hiking event of 2023. We will be in the Avalon Area of the park. Registration will open two weeks before the event.
Saturday, April 15
Rods and Reels Adaptive Fishing
Join Team Kennedy Krieger and our partners at Patapsco Valley State Park for the first annual adaptive fishing event at the park. Rain date: Sunday, April 16.
Saturday, April 22
Adaptive Playground
Join Team Kennedy Krieger and our partners at Patapsco Valley State Park for a day of fun at their fully accessible playground!
Contact Us: Please email AdaptiveSports@KennedyKrieger.org with any questions or for more information on a specific program or opportunity.
Follow Us! Join our Adaptive Sports Facebook Group. To join, simply search for “Team Kennedy Krieger Adaptive Sports” on Facebook. Request to join the group by answering the questions and acknowledging the group’s rules.
NEW: Follow us on Instagram! Find us @teamkennedykrieger. We are a private page, so you will need to request to follow us.
Not interested in competitive adaptive sports? Join anyway! We offer noncompetitive adapted recreational activities such as the ones above, plus you can learn about what Team Kennedy Krieger is up to and how to get involved.
Recent Publications
Cristina Sadowsky and Travis Edmiston – Chronic Spinal Cord Injury (Jan 2023) British Medical Journal Best Practices. Online publication. https://bestpractice.bmj.com/topics/en-us/1176
Alaena McCool - Some Kids Need A Mobility Boost (Nov-Dec 2022) Rehab Management Magazine. 35(6):6-11. https://rehabpub.com/gait-balance/assistive-devices/assistive-devices-give-kids-a-mobility-boost
Rebecca Martin and her colleagues - Transcutaneous Spinal Stimulation From Adults to Children: A Review (Dec 2022) Topics in Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation. https://meridian.allenpress.com/tscir/article-abstract/doi/10.46292/sci21-00084/489146/Transcutaneous-Spinal-Stimulation-From-Adults-to?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Cristina Sadowsky - Editorial: Women in Science - Disability, Rehabilitation, Inclusion Research (Nov 2022) Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36474594
Albert Recio and Shannon Inches and their fellow Kennedy Kriege colleagues - Pandemic intake questionnaire to improve quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of outpatient neurologic and developmental care at the Kennedy Krieger institute during the COVID-19 pandemic (Oct 2022) Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences. 3:934558. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36275920/
Rebecca Martin and her colleagues - Development of the International Spinal Cord Injury Basic Data Set for informal caregivers (Oct 2022) Spinal Cord. 60(10):888-894. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35581401/
Janet Dean and Cristina Sadowsky and their colleagues - Challenges in the clinical recognition of acute flaccid myelitis and its implications (Sep 2022) Journal of Pediatrics. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36115622/
Brooke Reeves and Rebecca Martin - Exploring problems for school reintegration following spinal cord injury: Perspectives on the kindergarten through fifth-grade population (Aug 2022) Frontiers in Rehabilitations Sciences. 3:962682. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36188981/
Xu AL, Dean JM, Margalit A, Sponseller PD, Sadowsky CL. Bilateral Dega and Varus Derotational Osteotomies for Painful Hip Subluxation in Acute Flaccid Myelitis: A Case Report, JOCR. November 2022
Your Support
Thank you to all who have participated in our fundraising efforts this year! We are incredibly grateful for your support. Your gifts help us maintain the best equipment and technology possible, conduct groundbreaking research, expand our services to new locations and support our patients and their families with items not covered by insurance. Visit KennedyKrieger.org/ICSCIFund to make a tax-deductible gift. If you would like to learn more about how you can support ICSCI, contact Jen Doyle in the Office of Philanthropy at DoyleJ@KennedyKrieger.org or 443-923-4324. Thank you!