The Director of the Institute shall, after consultation with the advisory council for the Institute, provide for the development, modernization, and operation (including staffing and other operating costs such as the costs of patient care required for research) of new and existing centers for arthritis and musculoskeletal diseases. For purposes of this section, the term “modernization” means the alteration, remodeling, improvement, expansion, and repair of existing buildings and the provision of equipment for such buildings to the extent necessary to make them suitable for use as centers described in the preceding sentence.
The Director of the Institute shall, insofar as practicable, provide for an equitable geographical distribution of centers assisted under this section. The Director shall give appropriate consideration to the need for centers especially suited to meeting the needs of children affected by arthritis and musculoskeletal diseases.
Support of a center under this section may be for a period of not to exceed five years. Such period may be extended by the Director of the Institute for one or more additional periods of not more than five years if the operations of such center have been reviewed by an appropriate technical and scientific peer review group established by the Director and if such group has recommended to the Director that such period should be extended.
Not later than October 1, 1993, the Director shall establish a multipurpose arthritis and musculoskeletal disease center for the purpose of expanding the level of research into the cause, diagnosis, early detection, prevention, control, and treatment of, and rehabilitation of children with arthritis and musculoskeletal diseases.