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Psoriasis group launches online advocacy center to help psoriasis patients reach out to Congress
Lawmakers now just a few mouse clicks away for 6.5 million Americans with psoriasis
(April 4, 2005) Psoriasis Cure Now, a nonprofit patient advocacy group, today unveiled its new online advocacy center, which makes it easy for the 6.5 million Americans with psoriasis, and their loved ones, to urge Congress to increase research funding for the incurable immune disease. The Psoriasis Research Action Center is the first psoriasis advocacy site ever to leverage the power of the internet to mobilize the estimated 15,000 constituents in each Congressional District who have psoriasis.
“For too long, the psoriasis community sat on the sidelines, as federal research funding soared for practically everything except psoriasis research,” said Michael Paranzino, president of Psoriasis Cure Now. “Federal funding of biomedical research has doubled over the last decade, even after inflation, but psoriasis research is down 8% in that time. Our new advocacy tools will help those affected by psoriasis change that.”
Visitors to the site, on the web at http://www.psorcurenow.org/jointhebattle.php , can send their elected representatives a letter urging increased funding for research on psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis; can request materials for use in home-town meetings with their lawmakers, materials that are targeted to the specific interests and priorities of their elected officials; can download a handout to give to their physicians to spread the word about the research funding campaign; and can even write a letter to the editor of their local newspaper about psoriasis—all with a few mouse clicks. For those visiting Washington, DC, on business or for pleasure, the site outlines how the visitors can have a Psoriasis Cure Now advocate join them for meetings with their lawmakers’ Congressional offices.
“These new tools will make psoriasis patients a force to be reckoned with and will help speed up the search for a cure to this terrible disease,” said Brad Bolt of Grand Rapids, Michigan, a crime scene investigator and psoriasis patient who was among the first to use the new tools. “I urge everyone who wants a cure for psoriasis to visit this site and get involved today.”
The Action Center was crafted by Paranzino, a former Congressional staffer and lobbyist, and field-tested by other former Congressional staffers with a combined 30 years of service on Capitol Hill.
“One thing I learned from my time on the Hill is that Members of Congress care passionately about serving their constituents,” Paranzino added. “The Psoriasis Cure Now web site is a nifty megaphone, but we need psoriasis patients and their loved ones to shout into it.”
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