There is an urgent need to evaluate new and existing therapeutic approaches for persons with thalassemia and to disseminate the findings to health care professionals, patients, and the public. There are several reasons why a thalassemia clinical research network will accelerate clinical research and meet this need. The highly variable and sometimes complicated clinical manifestations of thalassemia often make it difficult to accumulate a large number of comparable patients in one center. Furthermore, uniformity in treatment protocols may reduce the number of patients needed at each clinical center. Also, the TCRN mechanism will help pool the necessary clinical expertise and administrative resources to facilitate the conduct of multiple and novel therapeutic trials in a timely, efficient manner. This, in turn, would promote rapid dissemination of research findings to health care professionals.