New York, NY, May 12, 2009 – Today, the Foundation for Clinical Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease announced that its Advances in Inflammatory Bowel Disease patient education program will be presented in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on May 28, 2009. This free program for patients with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis and their caregivers will be held at the Milwaukee Marriott West, W231 N1600 Corporate Court in Waukesha from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. Registration begins at 5 p.m. Patients and caregivers who want to attend the Milwaukee Advances in IBD program can register in advance by calling toll free 1-866-442-3243 or e-mailing register@myIBD.org. The Advances in IBD program in Milwaukee is sponsored by Shire Pharmaceuticals.

Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and indeterminate colitis, the diseases collectively known as inflammatory bowel disease, are chronic and painful diseases that have no known cause or cure, and affect approximately one and a half million Americans.

“Advances in IBD is designed to help patients and their families better understand their disease,” said Jane Present, co-founder and executive director of the Foundation for Clinical Research in IBD. “We empower those who attend our seminars by helping them learn more about the treatment of their disease, which helps them better manage it.”

The Advances in IBD patient education program in Milwaukee features visiting lecturer Daniel H. Present, MD, Clinical Professor of Medicine at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Joining Dr. Present in a panel discussion about IBD will be Mazen Issa, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and Michael C. Stephens, MD, FAAP, Director of the IBD Center at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

Since the Advances in IBD series began in 1999, the smeinar has been presented to patients in over 100 cities throughout the United States. The Advances in IBD patient education seminar features national IBD thought leaders as visiting faculty and local experts who discuss the latest management techniques and treatments. Attendees also submit questions to the panel of experts for their discussion. In addition, because IBD patients have a higher risk of developing osteoporosis, free bone density scans are available during the seminar.

The value of these seminars was assessed in a study conducted by Hude Quan, M.D., Ph.D., Lloyd R. Sutherland, M.D., and Jane W. Present, Department of Community Health Services, University of Calgary, Canada. Between March 2000 and December 2001, seminar participants from nine communities were asked to fill out a series of questionnaires. The results showed that the seminars not only improve participants’ knowledge of IBD but that participants retain the knowledge they acquire during the seminars.

A full report of the study appeared in the November 2003 issue of the peer-reviewed journal, “Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.”

Patients and caregivers who want to attend any of the spring Advances in IBD programs can register in advance by calling toll free 1-866-442-3243 or e-mail register@myIBD.org.

The Foundation for Clinical Research in IBD is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to providing continued support to the IBD professional community, encouraging and enabling continued clinical research into IBD and its treatments and supporting patients and their families through education. For more information about the Foundation for Clinical Research in IBD, visit www.myIBD.org.

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