Clinical committee: Adult subcommittee

The Committee for Clinical Research is led by Dr. Alberto Costa (Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine). The committee is a platform to encourage the development, discussion, and dissemination of clinical research efforts across the T21 research community, families of individuals with Down syndrome and self-advocates, and clinicians serving patients with Down syndrome. One of our main focuses is on enabling opportunities for collaboration in large scale cohort studies of health issues in Down syndrome as well as clinical trials of treatment options. We are particularly keen on improving standardization of cognitive tests and protocols and agreeing on a minimum dataset for future studies, and plan to produce relevant research guidelines. The goal is to help produce a minimum degree of harmonization of procedures and assessments used in clinical studies, while allowing for a reasonable degree of customization and encouraging innovation. This work will hopefully be of equal benefit to research participants with Down syndrome and the research community.