The 2015 Action Plan for the Muscular Dystrophies(pdf, 690 KB) has been developed under the auspices of the interagency Muscular Dystrophy Coordinating Committee (MDCC). As an outline of the priority needs to improve treatments and reduce the disease burden for all types of muscular dystrophies, it is intended to be a blueprint for the entire muscular dystrophy community. All stakeholders, including academic researchers, companies, government agencies, patient advocacy groups, and patients and their families, have a shared responsibility for meeting the needs described, and thereby improving the lives of people living with muscular dystrophy. While the Action Plan includes some objectives for specific types of muscular dystrophies, most objectives address shared needs of the field as a whole. The 2015 MDCC Action Plan for the Muscular Dystrophies has added value in that it can serve as both a starting point and a guide for individual disease communities to tailor strategic plans for their specific types of muscular dystrophy.
Previous MDCC Planning Efforts
The MD-CARE Act of 2001 directed the MDCC to develop a plan for conducting and supporting research and education on muscular dystrophy through the national research institutes, and to submit this plan to Congress within the first year of the establishment of the MDCC. This first planning stage led to the Muscular Dystrophy Research and Education Plan for NIH, which was submitted to Congress in August 2004 which formed the basis for a subsequent, more intensive planning process that produced the 2005 MDCC Action Plan for the Muscular Dystrophies(pdf, 625 KB), which was approved by the MDCC in December 2005. The next stage in planning is described in the 2015 MDCC Action Plan for the Muscular Dystrophies, above.