March 23, 2010 was a memorable day for me. I was working for a U.S. Senator who played a key role in shepherding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) through Congress. I had spent the months prior organizing healthcare town halls and visiting hospitals discussing the issues plaguing our health...

Casey Jean Silvernale was diagnosed at age 11 with Crohn’s disease. Now, more than a dozen years later, she’s working as a clinical research coordinator in the Center for Neurointestinal Health at Massachusetts General Hospital and studying for her MCATS (the admissions test for medical...

Although the main purpose of IBD Innovate 2019 was to showcase new IBD products, the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation also wanted to make sure researchers and developers were up-to-date about current developments in data exchange research platforms. Having data exchange platforms openly...

The following are two patient stories that were recently presented at the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation's second annual IBD Innovate Conference. They demonstrate how patients are taking active roles in creating new products to help IBD patients. Crohn’s patient Slawa Madelska and Dr...

At the end of 2019, the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation convened the second annual IBD Innovate, our unique showcase and networking event for innovators working in the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) space.    By bringing together developers engaged in the creation of new a...

Living with a chronic illness, like Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, can affect not only your physical health but also your mental health and emotional well-being. In fact, the rate of anxiety and depression among IBD patients is two to three times higher than that of the general ...

Living with IBD can complicate relationships with your family, friends, and significant others, both positively and negatively. There are several ways in which your disease can impact your relationships: Your family members, friends, and significant others become your caregivers when...

I didn’t know much about Crohn’s disease before I met Darian and only Googled what it was. However, I feel that we learned how to be prepared early in our relationship for how Crohn’s could, and would, affect us both.  Darian and I were dating for six months when I had a sudden fa...

Today is National Wear Red Day, which helps bring awareness to heart disease, and the start of Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week. Now, when you think of Crohn’s disease, you don’t typically think of heart disease also. But I have experienced both. I was born with a congenital hear...

Two months after we started dating, Dan was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. He was extremely sick – underweight, malnourished, and experiencing crippling symptoms. The first three years after diagnosis, Dan was on medications that did little to quell his disease activity. I watched him ...