Spotlight on the News

Cleveland Clinic's Rare Disease Center Joins National Network

Nearly one in 10 Americans have been diagnosed with a rare disease which is a term used to classify a condition that affects fewer than 200,000 people. Although more than 7,000 diseases are classified as rare, no treatments currently exist for 95% of these diseases.

The Cleveland Clinic (https://myclevelandclinic.org) has been designated a "Rare Disease Center of Excellence by the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD). The new Cleveland Clinic Center is one of 40 U.S. academic medical centers selected to join the first of its kind national network designed to diagnose, treat, and research all rare diseases.

The Center brings together experts from across the Cleveland Clinic which includes physicians, medical geneticists, pharmacists, and genetic counselors from the Center for Personalized Genetic Healthcare.

The Center also includes the recently launched Undiagnosed Disease Clinic which uses whole genome sequencing on patients impacted by a rare undiagnosed disease to find a clinical diagnosis.

These teams collaborate with scientists in the Lerner Research Institute's Genomic Medicine Institute in order to achieve a better understanding of multiple rare diseases.

According to Daniel Sullivan M.D. Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Co-Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Rare Diseases, "As a NORD recognized center, the Cleveland Clinic will have access to resources and expertise from a large network of institutions working together to innovate around new treatments, therapies, and research."