The Rheumatology Research Foundation is pleased to announce the overwhelming success of the Journey to Cure campaign. With a goal of raising $60 million, this five-year campaign was created to directly invest in the future of rheumatology by supporting training opportunities and funding innovative research. The campaign surpassed its goal, with a grand total of $61,430,466 raised. This accomplishment would not have been possible without support from the American College of Rheumatology, Corporate Roundtable donors and a total of 3,869 supporters from the rheumatology and patient communities.
The Journey to Cure campaign began in 2011 to support the Foundation’s mission to improve the health of people with rheumatic disease. Dollars earned during the campaign are committed to recruiting and training future rheumatologists, fostering the most innovative ideas in rheumatology and advancing research for all rheumatic diseases.
Since the campaign’s implementation, the Foundation has given awards to 909 rheumatology professionals. This includes 197 education and training awards that build the rheumatology workforce, 102 career development awards that encourage investigators to study rheumatic diseases and 523 student awards that recruit and train tomorrow’s rheumatology professionals.
Journey to Cure also funded 87 Innovative Research Awards, the Foundation’s largest award, which was restructured to offer funding for investigators studying all rheumatic diseases, including health services research. Finally, the campaign helped facilitate major gifts that led to the creation of new awards, such as the designated Norman B. Gaylis, MD, Research Award for Rheumatologists in Community Practice, which encourages research from physicians in community practice who are engaged in patient care.
