As we close our April Awareness campaign, we are truly astounded by the amount of awareness for Sjögren’s that we were able to spread this year! We want to thank each and every one of you for contributing your time to call Congress, sharing your stories on several platforms, using some of our 40 Ways to Advocate for Sjögren’s Awareness, creating fundraising opportunities, and overall raising more awareness for this serious and systemic disease.
We received so many stories for our April Awareness #ThisIsSjögren’s campaign that we will be able to continue sharing your stories to spread awareness long past April and use them to advocate for changes that will improve the lives of all patients. You shared with us your struggles, your strengths, your advice, and your hopes, and we appreciate being able to share those with other patients that can empathize with and benefit from your story. Stories also help us share the message that Sjögren’s affects all ages, genders, and races, and further explaining that the disease is not just dry eyes and dry mouth, but patients can also have multiple other clinical manifestations.
If you missed our April #ThisIsSjögren’s stories, you can read all of the stories here. We also encourage you to submit your story to our patient-to-patient stories and be on the lookout for more opportunities to share your voice!
In preparation for April, Congressman Joe Morelle of New York introduced the Foundation’s Resolution to reaffirm April as Sjögren’s Awareness Month and update information about the disease. You can read our Resolution at www.congress.gov. We appreciate those of you that called to personally thank Representative Morelle as well as those that also thanked him through social media. We are excited that updated information on Sjögren’s has been introduced to Congress, so they can utilize this information to fund more research and vote on critical healthcare issues that affect Sjögren’s patients.
On April 30th, the Foundation- including Drs. Sara McCoy (rheumatology) and Vidya Sankar (oral medicine), who are on the Foundation’s Board of Directors- met with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to present evidence aimed at the necessity of dental and oral healthcare coverage under Medicare for autoimmune disease patients on immunosuppressive and immunomodulatory therapies. The following day, we joined the Oral Health Consortium meeting with CMS to further discuss autoimmune diseases and oral health. In total, the Foundation has been a part of 15 meetings, including the two with CMS, to advocate for the necessity of dental and oral healthcare coverage. A ruling on this CMS proposal should come in the following months and we will keep you informed of their decision.
Thank you all again for your support! With your help, we hope to shed light on the millions of people affected by Sjögren's and improve quality of life by decreasing the time to diagnosis, creating better treatment plans, increasing research, and developing better therapies.
TOGETHER we can conquer the complexities of Sjögren's!
As we close our April Awareness campaign, we are truly astounded by the amount of awareness for Sjögren’s that we were able to spread this year! We want to thank each and every one of you for contributing your time to call Congress, sharing your stories on several platforms, using some of our 40 Ways to Advocate for Sjögren’s Awareness, creating fundraising opportunities, and overall raising more awareness for this serious and systemic disease.
We received so many stories for our April Awareness #ThisIsSjögren’s campaign that we will be able to continue sharing your stories to spread awareness long past April and use them to advocate for changes that will improve the lives of all patients. You shared with us your struggles, your strengths, your advice, and your hopes, and we appreciate being able to share those with other patients that can empathize with and benefit from your story. Stories also help us share the message that Sjögren’s affects all ages, genders, and races, and further explaining that the disease is not just dry eyes and dry mouth, but patients can also have multiple other clinical manifestations.
If you missed our April #ThisIsSjögren’s stories, you can read all of the stories here. We also encourage you to submit your story to our patient-to-patient stories and be on the lookout for more opportunities to share your voice!
In preparation for April, Congressman Joe Morelle of New York introduced the Foundation’s Resolution to reaffirm April as Sjögren’s Awareness Month and update information about the disease. You can read our Resolution at www.congress.gov. We appreciate those of you that called to personally thank Representative Morelle as well as those that also thanked him through social media. We are excited that updated information on Sjögren’s has been introduced to Congress, so they can utilize this information to fund more research and vote on critical healthcare issues that affect Sjögren’s patients.
On April 30th, the Foundation- including Drs. Sara McCoy (rheumatology) and Vidya Sankar (oral medicine), who are on the Foundation’s Board of Directors- met with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to present evidence aimed at the necessity of dental and oral healthcare coverage under Medicare for autoimmune disease patients on immunosuppressive and immunomodulatory therapies. The following day, we joined the Oral Health Consortium meeting with CMS to further discuss autoimmune diseases and oral health. In total, the Foundation has been a part of 15 meetings, including the two with CMS, to advocate for the necessity of dental and oral healthcare coverage. A ruling on this CMS proposal should come in the following months and we will keep you informed of their decision.
Thank you all again for your support! With your help, we hope to shed light on the millions of people affected by Sjögren's and improve quality of life by decreasing the time to diagnosis, creating better treatment plans, increasing research, and developing better therapies.
TOGETHER we can conquer the complexities of Sjögren's!