The RHSCIR was launched in 2003. Early development was spearheaded by members of the care delivery team in the Spine Unit at Vancouver Coastal Health, led by Dr. Marcel Dvorak, Dr. Vanessa Noonan, Lise Belanger and John Cobb. Specialists were consulted both within Canada and internationally to ensure the dataset would meet a wide range of interests, and be compatible with international datasets.

During the pilot implementation in 2003, newly minted privacy legislation coupled with a lack of funding to resource the Registry sites proved to be significant barriers to a successful pan-Canadian implementation. This restricted development and limited active Registry sites to just four— Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Hamilton.

In the last two years, significant progress has been made, thanks in large part to Health Canada funding via the Rick Hansen Foundation, specifically highlighting the importance of and providing funding for the development of a “national knowledge, analysis data and technology network, including the coordination and management of SCI-Translational Research network databases to facilitate research.” In 2008, further momentum was gained with the formation of the Rick Hansen Institute, into which RHSCIR was folded. At this point, RHSCIR gained the resources and infrastructure that are key for success of a national registry.