Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are debilitating diseases that affect millions worldwide. Those with CD or UC suffer from both the physical (painful symptoms like cramping) and emotional (embarrassing symptoms like frequent diarrhea) impact of their disease. The social isolation resulting from always needing to be near a bathroom may be the most difficult challenge of all.

As a result, these CD and UC patients become 'silent sufferers', so embarrassed by their symptoms, they're reticent to discuss them with family, friends or even with their doctors, making them resigned to continuing to manage their disease with sub-optimal treatments. Worse still, many don’t realize that both diseases are progressive, so they don’t fully recognize or may ignore the risk of not treating appropriately.

Our goal was to shift patients from ‘resigned’ to ‘re-engaged’ by convincing them to stop waiting and start talking to their doctor immediately about more effective treatment options.