By Wendy Lyman

What sets IBDLyfe apart from other online IBD platforms? I am here to answer that question.

IBDLyfe is breaking out of the present-day mold of social media support groups and becoming much more than that. IBDLyfe wants to educate and innovate with you.

I am a mother who has been caring for a child with ulcerative colitis (UC) for the past ten years, so I can tell you that this site is significantly different from the others out there. As our esteemed Lyfebulb Founder and CEO Dr. Karin Hehenberger explains it, “IBDLyfe provides peer-to-peer connectivity, building communities that also build insight and promote mentorship.” We share motivational stories that help others open up about their IBD symptoms. We provide clinical, curated, and validated resources, as well as a space for members to monitor their health so both the patients and care partners can keep records to feel stronger and more confident when meeting with medical providers. This information can also help us measure the impact of drugs and treatments. And, of course, we host a forum where patients and care partners can talk about various topics, from the technical to the intimately personal, in a safe place that includes moderation.

With the help of our IBD champions, ambassadors, and patient entrepreneurs – all experts through their life experiences with IBD – we believe that we can have a direct impact on patients and that their outcomes will be improved. We plan to partner with institutions to conduct clinical research and offer seminars co-hosted with academic institutions. We will use the industry to source and recruit patients for speeches, workshops, challenges, and market research, meaning that patients will be able to make money using their own expertise in their disease area. Our platform will also eventually aid in clinical-trial enrollment, making it faster and more accessible. We predict that the quality of life and experience with the disease will be improved, leading to reduced costs to the system and accelerated innovation. 

And that is what sets IBDLyfe apart from the rest of the players; we are creating an innovation engine. It is that drive to discover what more we can do and create the tools to make it happen that inspire innovation. And innovation is, in the end, what will improve the lives of IBD patients and their care partners. 

I think about my now adult son and how much of his life is still ahead of him as he battles this chronic condition. I think about how great it would be to see the innovations sparked here on IBDLyfe come to fruition and positively impact my son’s health and the quality of life of everyone on our platform. Please join us.

Together, we can continue moving the innovation engine forward! Check out what these patient entrepreneurs already brought to the table in the 2021 Lyfebulb and Arena Pharmaceuticals Innovation Challenge: Imagining Life Without Limits – An Inflammatory bowel Disease Innovation Challenge here.