The North American Clinical Trials Network for Spinal Cord Injury (NACTN) is a consortium of adult tertiary medical centers across North America that has existed since 2004.  

The mission of NACTN is to continually advance the quality of care and life of people with spinal cord injury (SCI).  This is achieved through clinical trials of new therapies that rigorously assess safety and effectiveness.

 The North American Clinical Trials Network (NACTN), founded by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation in 2004, was inspired by Dr. Robert G. Grossman and informed by his experience in stroke and traumatic brain injury.  The Network’s early focus was on defining the natural history of spinal cord injury (SCI), creating a Registry database of carefully characterized spinal cord patients, refining outcome measures for treatment, and eventually clinical trialing. New insights into recovery after SCI have underscored the importance of integrating acute and chronic SCI research findings and the need for acute care networks like NACTN to closely interact with other clinical and rehabilitative systems.  For example, a critical correlation has been established between acute care for spinal cord patients and their eventual recoveries - see the 2012 NACTN publication, “Incidence and severity of acute complications after SCI” , which elucidated the negative impact on recovery that medical complications after hospital admission can have.  This finding, along with others, translates into better care and treatment in the early days post-injury and a more favorable recovery trajectory.

The Reeve Foundation has generously provided funding for NACTN since its 2004 inception. The Network has also received funding from the Department of Defense and the Bryon Riesch Paralysis Foundation.