Research focus

Catherine Arnaud is an Associate Professor of Public Health at the University of Toulouse, France, specialising in Perinatal and Paediatric Epidemiology. Her research focuses on children with disabilities, especially cerebral palsy, examining prevalence, schooling, social inclusion, quality of life, health inequalities, and early preventive strategies. She has chaired the European SCPE network of cerebral palsy registries for over ten years.

Veronka Horber is a Senior Pediatric Neurologist at the University Children’s Hospital Tübingen, Germany. Her research focuses on neuroimaging in children with cerebral palsy, with a particular interest in neonatal imaging and the development of the MRI Classification System (MRICS). As an associated partner and consultant specialist within the SCPE network, she investigates imaging patterns and their relation to associated impairments in cerebral palsy.

Tobias Haack is Deputy Director and Senior Consultant at the Institute of Medical Genetics and Applied Genomics at the University of Tübingen, Germany. His research focuses on rare disease genetics, using integrative approaches and advanced technologies to understand human diseases. He has contributed to the identification and in-depth characterization of over 60 novel disease genes, often aiming to develop personalized and targeted therapies. As head of the molecular diagnostics laboratory, he leads the translation of research innovations into clinical practice, promoting the use of multi-omics strategies within interdisciplinary patient care.

Kate Himmelmann is an Adjuct Professor at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and a Pediatric Neurologist with extensive experience in cerebral palsy across the lifespan. Her research explores causes, prevalence, survival, associated impairments, and lifelong challenges in individuals with cerebral palsy. She conducts register-based studies using data from the CP Register of western Sweden, the national CP quality register (CPUP), and the European SCPE network. Her work also includes clinical research on the management and treatment of spasticity and dystonia.

Javier de la Cruz is a Clinical Research Coordinator at the i+12 Research Institute, Hospital 12 de Octubre in Madrid, Spain, where he has been working from 2017. He was previously a Senior Researcher at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in Ispra, Italy. Actively involved in the SCPE network for cerebral palsy surveillance, his research focuses on real-world data study design and analysis methods, including data and process mining. His areas of interest includes traumatic brain injury, healthcare trajectories, predictive modelling, and cerebral palsy, with particular attention to high-value care and technology acceptance.

Elodie Sellier is a Doctor in Public Health at Grenoble University Hospital, France, where she is the head of the Department of Medical Information. She is a member of the steering committee of both the “Registre des Handicaps de l’Enfant et Observatoire Périnatal” in Grenoble and the European SCPE network of cerebral palsy registries. Her research focuses on the epidemiology of children with cerebral palsy, including trends in prevalence and the reproducibility of the classifications. She is also involved in evaluating quality of care for hospitalized patients, developing outcome measures and tools for improvement.