The Center for Pediatric-Onset Demyelinating Disease is dedicated to the multi-disciplinary evaluation, treatment and follow-up of children and teens with multiple sclerosis (MS), acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) and clinically isolated syndromes such as transverse myelitis (TM) and optic neuritis (ON).
Established in January 2006 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, CPODD is one of six Pediatric MS Centers of Excellence nation-wide funded by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS).
CPODD strives toward the achievement of three important goals:
- Clinical Excellence: To provide comprehensive multi-disciplinary care for children and teens with MS and other CNS demyelinating diseases.
- Education: To provide up-to-date, accurate information about MS and related disorders to patients and families, schools, health care providers, and the public at large.
- Research: To build a multi-ethnic cohort of children and teens from the Southeast with demyelinating disease and carefully characterize this patient population with respect to clinical presentation, neuro-imaging and laboratory findings, treatment regimen, cognitive functioning, quality of life measures and long-term functional outcome.
