The National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense are creating a database to study recovery and rehabilitation after limb loss, NIH announced Oct. 1.
Here are three things to know:
1. NIH's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development awarded a five-year, $5 million contract to Mayo Clinic to develop and launch a registry for Americans recovering from limb loss.
2. Researchers will use the registry to study diseases and conditions contributing to limb loss like vascular disease and diabetes.
"The Limb Loss and Preservation Registry addresses a significant public health knowledge gap," Alison Cernich, MD, director of NIH'sational Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research, said in a press release. "The information housed in this database will be vital to preventing limb loss, improving amputation surgeries, refining rehabilitation approaches and guiding the development of devices for people with limb loss."
3. NIH expects the registry to be operational by 2020.