The week before the start of Hydrocephalus Awareness Month, a big milestone passed quietly during the weekend – the Hydrocephalus Clinical Research Network (HCRN) turned 10 years old. The seeds were sewn during the first NIH Workshop on hydrocephalus in September 2005 when the network co-founders, Dr. John Kestle and philanthropist Paul Gross met during a breakout session. Gross subsequently engaged John Smith and his teammates at the University of Washington Executive MBA program to write a business plan which was completed in June 2006. Two months later, Dr. Kestle hosted Dr. Jerry Oakes of Children’s of Alabama and Dr. James Drake of SickKids for the inaugural meeting of HCRN. Ironically, Gross could not attend the meeting because his 18-month old son had an emergency shunt surgery just prior to the meeting’s start.
Fast forward 10 years and HCRN has 14 centers and representing more than 30 neurosurgeons that span North America, has published 14 papers in peer reviewed journals, reduced post surgical infection rates by more than 35% and set the standard for clinical research in neurosurgery. The group meets bi-weekly by teleconference and face to face biannually to advance its research. Below is a note that Chairman Kestle sent to the members of HCRN to acknowledge the milestone:
Our first sit down meeting was Aug 21 2006 so we just turned 10! Congratulations everyone and thanks for all the time and effort you have put into the network over the first 10 years. A special thanks to my co-founder Paul Gross for supporting us and helping us be accountable and productive. Thanks to all the site investigators for devoting a big part of your academic activity to the group and to Jim (Drake), Jerry (Oakes) and Tom (Luerssen) for your wise counsel. A huge thank you goes to Marcie (Langley) and the folks at the DCC for managing all of us and the many simultaneous projects and demands. Finally I want to thank the site coordinators – you are the backbone of this network and none of the sites would survive without you!

The next 10 years will bring new challenges but also many opportunities to continue to grow and make an impact on hydrocephalus – I look forward to new study ideas, more grants and papers and especially to our biannual meetings – I always find them energizing thanks to excellent input from all of you.
jk
Our partners at the Hydrocephalus Association produced this nice infographic to commemorate our accomplishments. Please view it and know that we appreciate all of the support we have received to make this network thrive.
Bravo and thank you! Our son with hydrocephalus and we as a family have felt the support of this network time and time again. Hoping for more big steps in research and awareness in the coming decade.