CDC Visits Gillette for Cerebral Palsy Surveillance Project

Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) visited Gillette Children’s as part of a nationwide initiative to enhance public health surveillance of cerebral palsy through the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring
(ADDM) Network. Gillette’s partnership with the University of Minnesota’s ADDM site reflects our deep commitment to advancing care for children with cerebral palsy. Gillette’s collaboration with the University of Minnesota’s ADDM site is
helping drive this important initiative. Gillette research team members Chantel Burkitt, PhD, senior clinical scientist, and Meghan Munger, PhD, MPH, director of Outcomes, co-lead this project.
 

The CDC is coordinating cerebral palsy surveillance efforts across five ADDM sites: Utah, Minnesota, Missouri, Tennessee, and its CDC-managed site in Georgia. This project is a significant step toward understanding the prevalence of cerebral palsy across diverse communities.

Gillette’s partnership with the UMN ADDM site reflects our strong commitment to improving care for children who have cerebral palsy. The Gillette Cerebral Palsy Institute is one of the largest centers for cerebral palsy care globally, serving over 4,000 children annually.

While Minnesota has long been an ADDM site for autism research, this year marks the pilot effort for cerebral palsy surveillance within the ADDM Network. The CDC will use this pilot year to refine methods for tracking cerebral palsy across all five sites. A key goal of this project is to gather critical information on cerebral palsy prevalence to better serve affected communities.

Gillette and UMN have completed uploading all patient surveillance data for CDC review. The CDC will summarize findings across participating sites and work to streamline data collection processes for future years.

“Many discussions will take place over the next few months regarding best practices for classifying and summarizing these complex data,” says Dr. Burkitt. “Our aim is to ensure the highest quality information is available moving forward.”