SCI pharmacovigilance: A drug safety platform to improve neurologic outcomes in spinal cord injury

Individuals with spinal cord injury experience various secondary complications including pain and muscle spasms. These complications are treated simultaneously with various medications resulting in “polypharmacy.”

The goal of my MSFHR work is to apply advanced analytical techniques to understand the neurologic effects of commonly used medications. This work challenges longstanding assumptions regarding the acute pharmacological management of spinal cord injury. Ultimately, this will yield new insights into neurologic drug safety, which in turn will optimize recovery from spinal cord injury. This will also lay the foundation for a pharmacovigilance (drug safety) platform in spinal cord injury — the first of its kind in the field.