RESEARCH INITIATIVES

The Children's Cardiomyopathy Foundation (CCF) is committed to improving health outcomes, survival, and quality of life for children with cardiomyopathy. CCF takes a leadership role in accelerating basic science, clinical, epidemiologic, and translational research on cardiomyopathies affecting children under the age of 18.

Research Priorities

Due to a shift in research strategy, CCF is no longer offering research grants and will focus on launching a prospective Pediatric Cardiomyopathy Patient Registry and funding multi-center studies utilizing retrospective data from the North American Pediatric Cardiomyopathy Registry.

CCF continues to be in active discussion with industry partners and other national study groups on new research opportunities. Going forward, CCFs will prioritize research initiatives that:

  • Encourage patient and caregiver participation in the Pediatric Cardiomyopathy Patient Registry
  • Support the North American Pediatric Cardiomyopathy Registry research initiatives
  • Facilitate collaboration between industry partners and multi-center study groups
  • Assist in clinical trials with patient recruitment and dissemination of information
  • Advocate for federal research funding opportunities
  • Disseminate new research findings and clinical care guidelines to the patient and medical community

CCF welcomes inquiries about opportunities to collaborate with partners who share our commitment to advancing the understanding of pediatric cardiomyopathy. Please contact CCF to explore possibilities.

Funded Research

Since CCF’s formation, more than 55 studies have been funded through CCF’s Research Grant Program and research partnerships with the American Heart Association (AHA), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and Kyle John Rymiszewski Foundation.

Awarded research grants have focused on the causes, evaluation, and treatment of dilated, hypertrophic, restrictive, arrhythmogenic, and noncompaction cardiomyopathy in the pediatric population. Past research programs have included:

  • CCF Grant Program
    The $50,000 grant provided one year of seed funding to faculty appointed investigators for the testing of novel concepts and collection of preliminary data.
  • American Heart Association Pediatric Cardiomyopathy Research Award
    CCF's joint research program with the American Heart Association provided 50% funding of selected multi-year grants to encourage new scientists to study cardiomyopathy in the pediatric population.
  • American Academy of Pediatrics Pediatric Cardiomyopathy Early Career Research Award
    In conjunction with the American Academy of Pediatrics, CCF offered a $50,000 grant to an early career pediatric cardiologist pursuing basic or clinical studies on pediatric cardiomyopathy.
  • CCF & Kyle John Rymiszewski Research Scholarship in Pediatric Cardiomyopathy
    The one-year mentored research program provided a $50,000 stipend to an early-stage clinical researcher interested in studying hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in children.