Patients getting paid to raise awareness of IBD

People signed up to our IBD community database have been getting paid to help raise awareness and understanding of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Since its launch at the beginning of the year the database has connected patients with numerous opportunities, including focus groups and sharing their stories on film.

IBD patients who sign up for the database provide information about their condition and personal experiences with IBD, plus the types of opportunities they would be interested in taking part in, such as research, surveys, media and awareness opportunities.

Opportunities that members of the database have already taken part in include:

• Two paid focus groups sharing their experiences of their disease with pharmaceutical companies who are developing treatments for IBD
• Two patients taking part in paid filming opportunities, also for pharmaceutical companies
• Several patients contributing stories for the IBDrelief website to help other people understand more about living with certain elements of IBD
• Two patients interviewed by a pharmaceutical company to improve employee understanding of the condition

Ben, who took part in a focus group to share his experiences of living with ulcerative colitis with a pharmaceutical company, said: “Taking part in focus groups like this is not something I would have had the opportunity to do without signing up to the database. 

“I found it really interesting sharing my experience and listening to those of other patients…and the pharmaceutical company employees seemed really interested in what we had to say. And as a student, getting paid a couple of hundred pounds to take part was an added bonus!”

Find out more about the IBD database and sign up to it.