CHOP and Penn Medicine Named as an Inaugural Rare Disease Centers of Excellence

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (Penn Medicine) were jointly named a Rare Disease Center of Excellence by the National Organization for Rare Diseases (NORD).

CHOP and Penn Medicine represent one of 31 NORD Rare Disease Centers of Excellence across the United States. NORD established this Centers of Excellence program “to promote outstanding treatment for rare disease patients regardless of disease or geography, elevate collaboration, improve standards of care, advance research, and increase awareness about rare diseases in the broader medical and patient communities.”

The goal is to bring together leaders in the study and treatment of rare diseases to reduce the time required to properly diagnose rare diseases as well as coordinate multi-specialty clinical care. Each Center of Excellence was selected by NORD in a competitive application process.

CHOP and Penn Medicine applied for this distinction together, since the two institutions are neighbors with shared faculty and many pediatric patients at CHOP with rare diseases transition to adult care at Penn Medicine. Additionally, a number of specialized centers and programs in rare diseases span the two institutions, and Daniel J. Rader, MD, serves as both the Chief of the Division of Human Genetics and Metabolic Disease Program at CHOP and the Chair of the Department of Genetics at the Penn Center for Precision Medicine.

Click here to read the full announcement from NORD.