ImproveCareNow Research
Research demonstrates need for greater support for the IBD caregiving community
The National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) has released a report on caregiving of individuals with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Riding the Roller Coaster of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A National Study of Caregivers of Individuals with Crohn’s Disease or Ulcerative Colitis focuses on caregiving for the more than three million Americans affected by the two most common forms of IBD – Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
The full results of the survey can be viewed online at http://www.caregiving.org/ibd
Science is the Voice of Reason
Hi, my name is Rishi, and I’m a 19-year-old Medical Sciences undergrad as well as a Student Researcher at a Children’s hospital. I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis in August of 2016, but most people outside of the IBD community have no idea I have IBD. In addition, many people do not know I lived in the National Radio Quiet Zone for a month last summer: no internet, no cell phone service…nothing!
Join Us - Spring 2019 Virtual Community Conference
Twice-yearly ImproveCareNow Virtual Community Conferences seek to connect and grow our widely distributed and diverse community in pursuit of our purpose to improve health and care for all children and youth with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. We invite all people wishing to learn more about and get involved with ImproveCareNow to join us on May 2 between 6 and 8pm eastern for our Spring 2019 Virtual Community Conference. Read more to see the agenda for this event.
Healthy Mind Healthy You: A Study of Mindfulness - Now Open
Most people experience stress at some point in their lives. Stress, especially when severe, can not only make you feel bad, it can also worsen existing health problems like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, depression, and even cancer.
Healthy Mind Healthy You is a new study about how mindfulness can help people cope with stress. Funded by the Patient Centered Outcome Research Institute (PCORI) and involving 19 Patient Powered Research Networks (PPRNs), Healthy Mind Healthy You will be able to study the effects of mindfulness on a wide variety of populations and conditions.
This study is for members of ImproveCareNow. It includes patients, caregivers, and family members.
Top Ten LOOP Posts of 2018
LOOP is making an impression on the IBD community!
We enter December 2018 with 60 new posts, shared by 40 ImproveCareNow community members! And 27 people posted for the very first time in 2018. Posts covered topics like: IBD research, mental health, new PAC member intros, ICN event updates, what I wish you knew, and many honest accounts of life with IBD.
We are thankful for each and every one of these stories. Here are the top 10, most viewed, posts of 2018!
ImproveCareNow Partnering to Survey Caregivers of Individuals with Inflammatory Bowel Disease
The National Alliance for Caregiving, in partnership with the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation and ImproveCareNow, is launching a first-of-its-kind survey of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) caregivers. The survey, which is being conducted by researchers from Crimson Research at New Mexico State University, is seeking feedback from family caregivers of children and adults living with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, the two major types of IBD. "Through this survey, we hope to capture the power behind these unpaid friend and family caregivers and to articulate what they are doing so that they can serve as a model for caregivers in other communities," explains C. Grace Whiting, President and CEO of the National Alliance for Caregiving.
Clinical Research 101
David Wohl (parent of a child with Crohn's disease) and Mike Kappelman (pediatric gastroenterologist at UNC Children's), in collaboration with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, ImproveCareNow, and NASPGHAN, have developed a slide set and pre-recorded webinar to help patients & families understand more about the purpose and process of clinical research, including clinical trials. The aim is to provide education to patients and families, and increase awareness about clinical research so that when they are approached and asked to participate in a clinical research project they can have an idea of what may be involved. Care teams can choose to incorporate the slides or webinar recording into local educational programs (i.e. an IBD education day), or share the resources with patients and families directly when discussing clinical trials. We hope these Clinical Research 101 resources are useful to patients, families, and IBD care teams.
Clinical Research 101: Patients and Clinicians Gearing up to Discover Together – View Presentation
Understanding the Importance of Pediatric Clinical Trials - Parent Guide
Nicole Learns about Clinical Trials – Patient Guide
Personal experience with nutritional interventions
On June 5, 2017, my single, overweight suitcase and I boarded a plane flying from Miami to London Heathrow. Over the course of the next six months, I shadowed and worked with the IBD Team at Great Ormond Street Hospital, a tertiary children’s hospital in the center of London. As a Political Science major who intends to go into medicine, the opportunity to study how IBD patients were being cared for under the UK’s health system was too enticing.