Legislative Successes

Thanks to lupus e-Advocates, here are some of the LFA's legislative successes for Fiscal Year 2010!

• Secured $4.5 million in FY2010 for the National Lupus Patient Registry (NLPR) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The NLPR is the most comprehensive national study looking at the prevalence and incidence of lupus. The LFA has advocated expanding the program to include additional sites to ensure the study includes all forms of lupus and all populations affected by lupus. The program was implemented in 2003 and we have successfully advocated for $16.6 million in federal funding. Read more about here.
  
  
• Congress provided $1 million in FY2010 for a national health provider education program on lupus to be operated jointly by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, Office on Women’s Health, and the U.S. Surgeon General. The education program addresses a key goal for the LFA’s advocacy efforts to improve early diagnosis and treatment of lupus.
  
  
• The FY2010 Department of Defense (DoD) bill appropriated $50 million for the Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMRP) and the LFA secured lupus as one of only nineteen diseases eligible to apply for this research funding. To date, $8.4 million has been awarded for lupus research through the PRMRP. Learn more about PRMRP here.