NORD announces Rare Disease Centers of Excellence for specialized care for rare diseases

The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) announced 31 NORD Rare Disease Centers of Excellence across the United States, according to a press release.

The program will help to expand access to care for patients with rare diseases. NORD hopes this network of specialized centers will reduce the time it takes a patient to be diagnosed and improve the coordination of multi-specialty clinical care.

“Our belief is that the Center of Excellence program is the next big stride forward for rare disease treatment and patients – to improve health equity and create critical new connections to resources and specialists across our nation,” said Ed Neilan, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer, NORD in the press release. “NORD is committed to breaking down silos and building bridges so that people living with a rare disease can achieve their best health and well-being.”

Each Center for Excellence showed it had experts across multiple specialties as well as and significant contributions to rare disease education, physician training, and research.

The full list of NORD designated Rare Disease Centers of Excellence:

Alabama

• University of Alabama at Birmingham Medicine/Children’s of Alabama

California

• Children’s Hospital of Orange County/UC Irvine
• University of California, San Francisco & UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals

Colorado

• University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus/Children’s Hospital Colorado/UCHealth

Florida

• University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

Georgia

• Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

Indiana

• Indiana University Health-Indiana University School of Medicine

Iowa

• University of Iowa Health Care

Maryland

• Johns Hopkins Medicine/Kennedy Krieger Institute

Massachusetts

• Mass General Hospital/Mass General Hospital for Children/Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Boston Children’s Hospital

Minnesota

• Mayo Clinic
• M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital

Missouri

• Washington University/BJC Healthcare

Nebraska

• UNMC Munroe-Meyer Institute, Omaha Children’s Hospital and Nebraska Medicine

New York

• Columbia University Irving Medical Center
• Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

North Carolina

• Duke Health Rare Disease Center
• UNC Children’s – North Carolina Children’s Hospital

Ohio

• Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
• Nationwide Children’s Hospital/Ohio State University

Oklahoma

• OU Health/University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

Pennsylvania

• Penn Medicine/Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
• UPMC Center for Rare Disease Therapy

Tennessee

• Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Texas

• Baylor College of Medicine/Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center/Texas Children’s Hospital
• McGovern Medical School
• UT Southwestern Medical Center

Utah

• University of Utah Medical Genetics

Washington, D.C.

• Rare Disease Institute at Children’s National Hospital

Wisconsin

• Children’s Wisconsin/Medical College of Wisconsin
• University of Wisconsin Center for Rare Diseases

The full press release can be found here.