Shriners Hospitals for Children, Springfield is one of 60 pediatric sites participating in the CARRA International Registry. The Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA) is a North American organization of pediatric rheumatologists who have joined together to answer critical questions about arthritis and rheumatic disease through clinical research. Childhood arthritis is the number one cause of acquired disability in children and is the sixth most common childhood disease following asthma, congenital heart disease, cerebral palsy, diabetes and epilepsy. It is estimated that 300,000 children in the U.S. suffer from some form of arthritis or rheumatic disease.

The CARRA registry is a database (collection of information) of patients with pediatric rheumatic diseases. Researchers will study the information that is stored in the database in the hopes of improving future treatments and health outcomes and maybe even preventing or curing pediatric rheumatic diseases in the future. CARRA plans to enroll more than 20,000 patients at its 60 participating centers and as of August 2011 has enrolled more than 5,000 children.

Your child may be eligible to participate in the CARRA Registry if he/she is 21 years old or younger and has been diagnosed with a rheumatic disease. You can find the participating site closest to you at www.carranetwork.org. At your child’s first visit, you will be asked to review and sign a consent form, answer questions about your child’s medical and family history and how his/her medical condition affects his/her life, and provide contact information for yourself and other persons who know how to contact you and your child. At follow-up visits approximately twice each year, you will be asked to update changes to medications, answer questions about how your child’s medical condition affects his/her life, and review and update contact information, if necessary. More information is available through the links below. Health information stored in the CARRA Registry is completely confidential. By participating in research such as this, you can contribute towards a better tomorrow for children and young adults with arthritis and rheumatic disease.

For more information on CARRA, the CARRA Registry, and childhood arthritis, please visit www.carranetwork.org.