February marks the annual celebration of Rare Disease Month, and February 28th is officially Rare Disease Day. Rare Disease Day is a day dedicated to raising awareness and generating change for those living with rare diseases around the world.
There are over 7,000 rare diseases, each of which affect fewer than 250,000 people, or only 1 in 31,500. The challenges these patients face in obtaining treatment and support can be substantial while living with these afflictions. Though these populations may seem small, when added together, rare diseases affect nearly 10% of the population, equating to hundreds of millions of people. They and their families face the challenges associated with living with rare diseases, obtaining treatment, and even receiving a diagnosis for their condition, every day.
These patients hold an incredibly special place in Team RareMed’s heart. Our mission is to catalyze access to life-transforming therapies for complex conditions, and rare diseases are certainly complex. That is why RareMed supports Rare Disease Day every year. To honor the millions of patients we serve, this year, RareMed hosted our own officially recognized Rare Disease Day event in support of these patients: SEE RARE MOVE.
Over the week leading up to Rare Disease Day, Team RareMed came together to raise awareness and mobilize us to support people living with rare diseases. The SEE RARE MOVE exercise challenge was a week-long event where employees were invited to walk, run, bike, and MOVE to raise awareness for this worthwhile cause. The challenge ended on February 28th, Rare Disease Day itself, and was capped off by an in-person office walk around the RareMed Solutions headquarters. Dozens of team members joined leadership to walk around our campus. Those who could not join in-person took part by walking at home and submitting their mileage.
When RareMed announced SEE RARE MOVE, the company goal was to walk a total of 575 miles—the distance from the RareMed Headquarters to the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) Headquarters in Boston. Our team jumped into action and quickly surpassed our goal.
Collectively, RareMed logged over 800 miles in support of Rare Disease Day. RareMed will be matching each walked mile with a donation to the Rare Disease Day fund.
Though Rare Disease Day is vital to raising awareness for the challenges faced by people living with rare disease, at RareMed, we treat every day like Rare Disease Day and stop at nothing to help our patients!
About Rare Disease Day
Rare Disease Day is a globally-coordinated movement working towards equity in social opportunity, healthcare, and access to diagnosis and therapies for people living with a rare disease. Since its founding in 2008, Rare Disease Day has played a critical part in building an international rare disease community that is widespread but united in its purpose.
Rare Disease Day is a patient-led movement, but everyone can participate. The Rare Disease Day website (www.rarediseaseday.org) helps patient organizations, patient advocates, and others interested in campaigning for equity for rare disease to identify resources and promote campaign events.
About RareMed Solutions
RareMed Solutions is the nation’s only concierge patient services provider. RareMed partners with biopharma to transform the lives of patients afflicted with rare and devastating conditions by accelerating access to biomedical breakthroughs. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, RareMed offers case management, co-pay, coupon and financial assistance programs, reimbursement support, nursing support, healthcare professional education, patient adherence and education, and non-commercial pharmacy dispensing services to all 50 states. RareMed also develops and supports innovative technology solutions to advance the industry, including the award-winning RarePath™ suite of pharmacy hub technologies. The company has a breadth of experience developing, transitioning, and maintaining therapy-specific solutions that ensure unparalleled manufacturer and patient satisfaction. RareMed’s undivided concierge-level focus, high caliber associates, fully dedicated teams, and sophisticated proprietary technology enable it to address the unique needs of patients suffering from rare and devastating conditions. RareMed provides award-winning concierge patient service that recently ranked #1 on Managed Market Insights & Technology’s (MMIT) quarterly patient satisfaction survey. RareMed also provides award-winning employee satisfaction, evidenced by multiple annual appearances on top workplace surveys administered by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Pittsburgh Business Times.