The Cerebral Palsy Institute knowledge translation team aims to implement discoveries and advancements in the care of cerebral palsy, informing clinical practice, program development, and public health policy.

With the addition of Alyssa Spomer, PhD, the Gillette research team now has a dedicated clinical scientist for each of its seven distinct programs. Dr. Spomer joins Gillette from the University of Washington, where she earned her PhD in Mechanical Engineering after defending her dissertation, “Evaluating adaptation to multimodal biofeedback in cerebral palsy.”

A limb lengthening study out of Gillette Children’s reports an innovative technology for the limb lengthening of femurs in small children.

The American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AACPDM) awarded a grant to several Gillette Children’s staff to begin investigating muscle quality and function in people who have cerebral palsy (CP) before spasticity treatment to the gastrocnemius.

Researchers at Gillette Children’s, in partnership with the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW) at the University of Minnesota, aim to determine the prevalence of social determinants of health (SDoH) within a sample of Gillette’s pediatric population, and assess for relationships between SDoH and healthcare outcomes.  

We sat down to discuss Gillette’s research “Is Nighttime Bracing Effective in the Treatment of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS)? A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review Based on Scoliosis Research Society Guidelines” with Sara Morgan, PhD, Clinical Scientist.  

Like most research at Gillette Children’s, the latest meta-analysis published by our spine team focuses on finding the best treatment options for our patients. The team asked, “Is nighttime bracing effective in the treatment of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS)?”  

The method we designed involves using a minor outpatient surgery to “guide growth” of a deformed tibia, gradually straightening the tibia, allowing it to develop more normally, and preventing early fractures that inevitably lead to pseudoarthrosis.