Craig Hospital has a long history of conducting research designed to improve the lives of people with spinal cord injury. Beginning in 1973, Craig Hospital,funded by the US Department of Education's National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), and in collaboration with Swedish HealthONE Medical Center and St. Anthony Central Hospital, became the federally designated Rocky Mountain Regional Spinal Injury System. Since that time it has been charged with demonstrating the effectiveness of a comprehensive model SCI system from the point of injury throughout an individual's lifetime. Currently, Craig Hospital is the largest of 16 designated regional SCI centers, contributing more cases to the national SCI database and more annual longitudinal follow-up of cases than any other facility. Utilizing developmental funding over the years from the SCI Model System Program, Craig Hospital designed and tested many programmatic components which now constitute critical elements of the current treatment regime. These include the community re-entry program, the rehabilitation engineering program, the driver's training program and many aspects of the vocational rehabilitation program.

For the current 2000-2005 funding cycle, the RMRSIS at Craig Hospital is conducting these research projects:

• A randomized controlled clinical trial of manual therapy for shoulder pain
• Increasing the efficiency of recovery from pressure sore surgery
• Evaluation of longitudinal outcomes of surgery for spinal cord myelopathies
• Understanding the signs, symptoms, and treatment for peri-menopause in women with SCI
• A Collaborative Study: "Lifetime Outcomes and Needs: Refining the Understanding of Aging with Spinal Cord Injury"