National Psoriasis Foundation on The Hill: More Research Funding on Psoriasis
First posted Sept. 19, 2002
The National Psoriasis Foundation joined nearly 60 other voluntary and professional organizations April 17 in Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress to increase funding for the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), which supports research in psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and other diseases.
The goal of the joint lobbying group--called the NIAMS Coalition--was to convince Congress to increase the NIAMS budget by 15.7 percent: an amount of about $521 million. Tara Rolstad, National Psoriasis Foundation's director of research, and Foundation volunteer and member Larry Green, M.D., met with lawmakers and their staff to encourage the increase on behalf of people with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.
The budget increase would complete the goal set for the federal government five years ago of doubling the NIH budget. Through NIAMS and other health institutes, psoriasis-related research projects received more than $15 million last year. With more funding available, more research can be conducted.
"This commitment to medical research has already made it possible for NIAMS to fund new grants, bring in and train new researchers in dermatology and rheumatology, and will make a real difference in our ability to learn more about the causes and treatments for diseases such as psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis," said Ms. Rolstad.
Ms. Rolstad and several other representatives from skin disease advocacy groups also met privately with Stephen I. Katz, M.D., director of NIAMS, who updated the group on a meeting the institute is organizing specifically to focus on understanding the immunology of psoriasis and other inflammatory skin diseases--how a person's immune system plays a role in skin disease. The meeting is still being planned.
In another exciting development, the National Psoriasis Foundation was asked to serve on a planning committee for a meeting in September intended to determine the burden of skin diseases in the U.S. According to the NIAMS Coalition, more than 65 million Americans see doctors annually for skin conditions and diseases, including skin cancer, and skin diseases are responsible for 40 percent of all occupational disease claims.
The meeting, to be held in Washington, D.C., will attempt to answer questions such as: how much time do people take from work because of skin diseases? How much does Medicare pay for skin diseases? How do you quantify the emotional and psychological costs of skin diseases? There are estimates on the costs for medical care and lost wages, but the exact yearly toll skin diseases have in the U.S. is unknown.
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