Our Impact

We’re creating a new future for the millions of adults and children living with IBD. Here is a look of what we accomplished in 2022.

Read the latest issue of our Impact Report, published three times a year, for timely updates on our continuing progress to discover cures and change lives.

Click here to view past issues of our Impact Report to learn more about our advancements in research, patient education and support, and access to care.

2022 Accomplishments

Our mission is to cure Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, and to improve the quality of life of children and adults affected by these diseases.

In 2022, the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation invested over $66 million in our mission, the most in Foundation history. Of this amount, more than $36 million was directed to 200+ research projects, bringing our total investment in research to date to nearly half a billion dollars.

Leading critical research in our search for better treatments and cures

We’re expanding our understanding of IBD and transforming this knowledge into novel therapies and life-changing products that address unmet patient needs.

• Our venture philanthropy program, IBD Ventures, continues to advance novel treatments and products for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
  
  In 2022, we invested $2.4 million in potential discoveries that hold promise to change patients’ lives, including:
  • A targeted drug to reduce gut inflammation
  • A drug that blocks the development of fibrosis
  • An oral peptide (a small protein-like molecule) for gut barrier restoration
  • A monoclonal antibody drug to lead to mucosal healing
• We grew IBD Plexus^®, our scientific network and transformational platform that makes millions of data points and hundreds of thousands of biosamples
  
  available to researchers to help speed the pace of discovery.
• We announced plans to launch a groundbreaking research project—MyIBD Health Study. This new patient registry, which aims to recruit more than 100,000 patients, will help accelerate IBD research.

We made exciting research gains to drive new treatments and improve patients’ quality of life, including:

• A blood test that predicts the course of the disease in
  newly diagnosed patients.
  
  Thanks to Foundation funding, a U.S.-based trial called PRECIOUS is currently recruiting IBD patients.
• A wearable device that can measure IBD biomarkers.
• Our Precision Nutrition initiative is helping to uncover how personalized diet and nutrition can give patients information to help them manage what they eat.
• The effects of psychological stress on IBD symptoms.
• The root causes of chronic abdominal pain and new treatments to manage the pain.
• IBD Qorus, our quality-of-care initiative that is keeping patients out of the emergency room when they don’t need to be there and moving them toward remission.

Improving patient quality of life and driving remission rates higher

• IBD-SIRQC – Patient enrollment is underway for IBD-SIRQC—the Surgical, Innovation, and Research Quality Collaborative—our first long-term surgery study that aims to help the 70% of people with Crohn’s disease and 30% with ulcerative colitis who will undergo at least one GI surgery during their lifetime.

Engaging and empowering patients

We created tools to empower patients and improve their quality of life.

• Gut Friendly Recipes is our new, first-of-its-kind online recipe finder. We partnered with Nestlé Health Science, leading dietitians in IBD, and patient advisors on this new scientifically-proven tool that contains more than 500 easy recipes for gut friendly and nutritious meals.
• IBD Medication Guide – Launched a new IBDMedicationGuide.org, a comprehensive, user-friendly online guide of all available medications for patients with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
  
• We Can’t Wait App – More than 50,000 restrooms nationwide are now featured on our app, helping millions of people with urgent restroom needs find an available restroom when they are away from home.

We supported patients no matter where they are in their disease journey.

• Camp Oasis – Reopened our Camp Oasis sleepaway camp and continued to offer a virtual option for kids. Ninety-nine percent of campers report favorable
  
  outcomes from camp and close to 70% continue to describe it as “life changing.”
• MyIBD Learning – Returned to our in-person educational programs for patients and caregivers and continued our successful virtual programs. More than
  14,000 people participated in MyIBD Learning in 2022.
• Support Groups – Launched seven new Facebook support groups for patients, responding to the diverse needs of the IBD community, including patients who identify as veterans,
  
  Hispanic/Latino, Black/African American, and LGBTQ+.

We raised awareness of IBD.

• Spill Your Guts – Our Spill Your Guts public service awareness campaign aired on more than 160 TV stations across the United States reaching 70 million viewers. Our newest PSAs focus on treatment options for patients.
  
• Restroom Access Survey – Conducted a nationwide survey demonstrating the critical shortage of public restrooms and the need to make more restrooms available to patients and the general public.
• Spanish-Language Resources – Developed a new Spanish-language website and translated a Spill Your Guts public service awareness TV spot into Spanish.

Improving access to care

• 
  Step Therapy Reform – Led efforts to pass step therapy reform legislation. There are now 34 states with step therapy laws, allowing decisions about patient medications to remain between the clinician and patient—and not the patient and their insurance company.
• Professional Education – Returned in person to reach more than 1,200 healthcare professionals with our educational programs and resources. Our online IBD Clinical Hub engaged more than 88,000 fellows, advanced practice providers, APNs, dietitians, gastroenterologists, and primary care professionals.

Click here for a printer-friendly version of our 2022 Accomplishments