Patient Advocacy

[bkoffman]

Friends,

This past weekend I was in Paris representing the US (and Canada) for the planning meeting for the CLL Advocacy Network (CLLAN) that is being organized in Europe with a global reach. Our first meeting for CLL advocate organizations will be in Belgrade, Serbia in November. If you are an advocate and are interested, please contact me.

We were honored to have the mentorship of both Giora Sharf who together formed the non-profit organizations, The CML Advocates Network [ cmladvocates.net ] and the Leukemia Patient Advocacy Foundation [ cmladvocates.net/about-us/a... ] and also with your very own Nick York of CLLSA [ cllsupport.org.uk ] the UK based CLL Support Association. Their presence helped provide an experienced-based foundation for this new CLL advocacy organization. You can see my past interview with Giora and Jan Geissler, another one of the founders of CML Advocates Network and who is also heavily involved with EUPATI or European Patients‘ Academy on Therapeutic Innovation. [ patientsacademy.eu/index.ph... ]

They discuss their studies on medication adherence in CML, a topic that will have increasing relevance in CLL. Part 1 is here [ cllsociety.org/2015/03/ash-... ] and part 2 is here. [ cllsociety.org/2015/03/ash-... ]

This week in the Living Well with CLL/Support section of the CLL Society website, we’ve posted an interview with Sharon Millman, the CEO of another non-profit organization, Lymphoma Australia, located in Brisbane. The CLL Society partnered with them to host a patient/caregiver program prior to the iwCLL meeting in September 2015. You can read about their organization and watch my interview with Sharon here. [ cllsociety.org/2016/05/lymp... ] Please excuse the video snafu towards the end of the interview where Sharon is slightly out of the frame.

THANK YOU AGAIN TO OUR READER POLL PARTICIPANTS! Data analysis is in progress and we are really excited with the preliminary results. We really appreciate the time you spent to contribute to our research and look forward to sharing the data in the future.

In the meantime….

Stay strong.

We are all in this together.

Brian Koffman, MD

Volunteer Medical Director of the CLL Society

cllsociety.org

bkoffman.blogspot.com

(Links edited so they will work; the HU site doesn't like any character other than a space character before or after a link - Admin)

[Justasheet1]

I need to say thank you for all you do Doc.

Jeff

[Peggy4]

My thanks also.

Peggy

[SusanBo]

We are all blessed to have so many professional and lay people who have dedicated their lives to this disease and it's irradiation/management. For those of you who are believers, there is definitely a place in heaven for each and everyone of you - and for those who aren't, I hope you guys are wrong because you definitely deserve everlasting happiness. Thank you all.

[bkoffman CLL CURE Hero in reply to SusanBo]

Thank you for your your sweet thoughts.