hero media helmsley

Helmsley Awards $3.3 Million to the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation for IBD Qorus™, an IBD Patient Quality of Care Program

NEW YORK, NY – The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation has received a $3.3 million grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to support IBD Qorus, the Foundation’s flagship quality of care program. Launched in 2014, IBD Qorus is the first-ever adult IBD learning health system, focusing specifically on improving health outcomes and how care is delivered to patients across a range of U.S. geographic locations, practice settings, and disease complexity.

“We have seen great progress with IBD Qorus, including the development of anemia and nutrition care pathways, which are helping to promote the consistent application of standards of care for IBD patients,” said Michael Osso, President & CEO of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. “Through Helmsley’s commitment to IBD patients and research we are able to build additional resources that will help deliver on our mission to improve patient quality of life and, ultimately, drive toward cures.”

“Helmsley recognizes the urgent need to define the highest standards and improve the quality and delivery of care for people living with IBD,” said Garabet Yeretssian, PhD, Director of the Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Crohn’s Disease Program. “We are confident that by supporting a groundbreaking initiative like IBD Qorus we can continue to drive our mission forward to improve patients’ lives, and ultimately see the end of Crohn’s disease.”

IBD Qorus leverages the power of a collaborative improvement network by bringing together healthcare teams and patients from IBD care centers across the United States to systematically learn, share, and disseminate improvements in health care delivery. Its success is driven by three key factors: patient-physician partnership for the co-production of care; a focus on outcomes improvement and value; and a culture of learning and sharing knowledge, best practices, and outcomes-driven results.

“Only a person living with illness truly understands what it is like. By participating in IBD Qorus, I am not only taking an active role in my care, but I am able to provide a patient’s perspective in the development of tools and research priorities that will standardize care for all IBD patients,” said Jess Caron, IBD Qorus patient leader.

The Helmsley grant will support a two-phase expansion over three years, the first focused on optimizing the IBD Qorus experience for patients and providers within the 30 current enrolled sites. The second phase aims to increase patient and provider participation by adding new sites. Additionally, the expansion supports widespread dissemination of evidence-based standards and practices learned through IBD Qorus, which could lead to better understanding of the disease and improved care for patients.

“IBD Qorus aims to raise the bar and improve the quality of care for adults with IBD across the country. The strong commitment by the Helmsley Charitable Trust will directly enable IBD Qorus to grow, connect more patients and providers to the program, and accelerate the pace of improving the quality of care for IBD in new and innovative ways,” said Gil Melmed, MD, Co-director of Clinical Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Co-chair of IBD Qorus.

IBD Qorus is made possible by the support of AbbVie, the Helmsley Charitable Trust, Janssen, Luitpold Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Nestlé Health Science, Pfizer, Inc., and Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc.