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Psoriasis Cure Now celebrates "Health Care Advocate of the Year" winners
(October 23, 2006) Psoriasis Cure Now, a nonprofit patient advocacy group, today announced its 2006 “Health Care Advocates of the Year.” The recipients are Congressman Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania, and Tom and Joy Murdough of the Murdough Foundation of Hudson, Ohio.
These three leaders took action to ensure that funding for psoriasis research is increased. Rep. Gerlach worked in bipartisan fashion on efforts urging the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to focus more attention on this painful and often debilitating disease. Psoriasis research funding at NIH has lagged behind other research areas. Even as NIH funding doubled over the last decade, psoriasis research funding fell 22%, receiving just $6.5 million last year out of a federal medical research budget approaching $30 billion. The Murdough family, through their foundation, single-handedly nearly doubled this year’s national commitment to psoriasis research with a $5 million gift for psoriasis research to University Hospitals of Cleveland, Ohio, the largest known dermatology gift to a U.S. academic medical center.
“Helping people with psoriasis will not land you on the nightly news, nor enable you to hobnob with the Hollywood elite—in fact, no entertainment star will even admit having the disease,” said Michael Paranzino, president of Psoriasis Cure Now. “This makes it all the more wonderful that these community leaders have put themselves on the line to help the as many as 7.5 million Americans with psoriasis. Their hard work and sacrifice will advance our understanding of the disease and speed the day when we will finally have a cure for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.”
Psoriasis is an incurable, recurring disease of the immune system that can first strike at any age, causing dry, painful skin lesions that can crack, bleed and itch. Many people with psoriasis also have psoriatic arthritis, a chronic, progressive inflammatory disease that causes joint pain, stiffness and swelling, and can damage bones. Recent studies have found a higher risk of heart attack and higher incidence of cardiovascular death among patients with severe psoriasis. People with psoriasis also have higher rates of depression and suicidal ideation.
In honor of this year’s winners, Psoriasis Cure Now is making a contribution to Camp Horizon in Millville, Pennsylvania, part of the American Academy of Dermatology's Camp Discovery program for children with chronic dermatologic conditions. Last year’s Health Care Advocate of the Year winners were Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Representatives Ralph Regula of Ohio and Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut.
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