OLD LYME, CT — MAY 22, 2018 — The France Foundation, a leading medical education company, is rolling out a mentoring program with an educational research grant from Genentech to help foster relationships between community healthcare providers and leading medical research centers to improve the ways patients are diagnosed and treated for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
The mentoring program will bring together front-line health practitioners and leading interstitial lung disease (ILD) centers, which focus on evaluating and treating lung conditions such as IPF. One ILD center is The Johns Hopkins Interstitial Lung Disease Clinic, which is devoted to the care of patients with IPF and other forms of ILD.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Johns Hopkins and other leading healthcare institutions, and we’re grateful to Genentech for providing this grant,” said The France Foundation President Stacy Miller. “This project goes beyond education to build relationships and foster communication for the purpose of effecting sustainable, system-level changes in the management of IPF. Ultimately, we hope this program will lead to improved outcomes for patients living with IPF.”
IPF causes progressive lung scarring, which affects a person’s ability to breathe and get enough oxygen into the bloodstream. The disease is often misdiagnosed, or definitive diagnoses are delayed. To mitigate these challenges, experts emphasize the need for close collaboration between medical disciplines.
One way to facilitate these relationships is to offer mentoring for community healthcare providers. ILD center specialists will serve as the mentors, who will assess the community healthcare providers’ current strategies for diagnosing and managing patients with IPF. The mentors also will identify areas in need of change.
The Genentech grant will support The France Foundation’s efforts in establishing these mentorships. The France Foundation is also responsible for setting project timelines, assessing and reporting outcomes, and providing administrative support.
If you are interested in learning more about the IPF mentorship program, call The France Foundation at (860) 434-1650.
About Genentech
Founded more than 40 years ago, Genentech is a leading biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes medicines to treat patients with serious and life-threatening medical conditions. The company, a member of the Roche Group, has headquarters in South San Francisco, California. For additional information about the company, please visit http://www.gene.com.
About The France Foundation
Since 1999, The France Foundation (TFF) has been at the forefront of planning, developing, and implementing multidisciplinary certified medical education. Located in Old Lyme, Connecticut, TFF is an award-winning organization accredited with commendation by the ACCME and by the ACPE to provide continuing education for physicians and pharmacists, respectively. TFF has implemented thousands of educational activities over the past 18 years. TFF has also been involved in collaborating with multiple academic medical centers, medical specialty societies, hospital systems, and broad-based clinical networks to develop and deliver innovative, impactful educational experiences. Today, TFF is a recognized leader in continuing professional development (CPD) and continuing medical education (CME), having established strong relationships within medical communities across the U.S. and abroad. The France Foundation is a wholly owned subsidiary of SmithBucklin, the association management and services company more organizations turn to than any other.
