Inflammatory Bowel Disease Research Update#1

We’re looking for more study participants currently in IBD flare-ups! Join our research: The first at-home study to look at gene expression in flares as they happen!

We’re excited to release our first progress report for the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) Flare Study since launching in June! We are at the recruitment halfway point but we need your help to finish enrolling this study.

The sooner we finish enrolling this study, the sooner we can return everyone’s results and share our findings! And did we mention we are now compensating patients who participate in the study? That’s right, we’re committed to sharing value with patients and proud to finally have the green light to do so!

How can you help?

We are looking to enroll IBD patients currently experiencing active flares.

Share the ImYoo IBD Flare study with your community, on social media, with your neighbor — help us get the word out!

See someone post about being in a flare? DM them to let that person know that they’re not alone and that we’ve got this research study for them to join

You can direct interested individuals to imyoo.health/ibd

Share my direct email, happy to connect 1:1. emilyharari@imyoo.health

How does the ImYoo IBD Flare study work?

A quick summary on how the IBD Flare study works: Each patient will self-collect 6 samples as they experience IBD flare-ups (a group we call “IBD Active”). If they don’t flare during the time period of the study (a group we call the “Control”), they’ll only self-collect 3 samples. One example of a study control is someone in IBD remission. For more context on the study methodology, you can read our first post about the IBD Flare study.

To effectively power this study, we need a minimum of 50 participants, but we’re enrolling up to 80. Here’s our progress on enrollment:

How many people are enrolled in the IBD Study?

With 30 IBD Active patients enrolled, we are more than halfway to reaching our enrollment goal of 40 participants. With 2 Control patients enrolled, we are almost 30% to hitting our enrollment goal of 10 participants. We are prioritizing recruitment of IBD Active participants at this time, since flare samples are more time-sensitive than baseline samples.

Since June, we have enrolled 30 IBD Active patients and 2 Control patients. IBD Active participants who don’t flare during the course of the study will be re-classified as Controls, and Controls who do flare during the study will be re-classified as Active participants.

Who’s enrolled?

At ImYoo, we believe and invest in patient-centric research approaches that make representative patient participation possible. We’re proud to share that so far we’re seeing representative participation across race and ethnicity, gender (when adjusted for incidence), and are reaching patients in 19 states.

The above charts display our current enrollment numbers across ethnicity, gender, and geography. In 2022, the demographic distribution was reported approximately 3 times more prevalent in whites than non-Hispanic blacks. Our demographic distribution reflects 9 times more prevalence in whites. We also acknowledge that IBD may be under-diagnosed in minority populations, so we are especially focused on representing these communities. The gender distribution in 2022 was reported approximately 3 times more prevalent in females than males, which our numbers come close to. Finally, the geographic distribution is equally prevalent across all US states. We are currently in 19 of the 50 US states. (Hawaii is not depicted in the map, but we’re there, too!)

We’ve done a good job of keeping diversity in mind, but we can be better about enrolling more minorities and males. Please help us by sharing our study!

We’re also excited to announce that we are introducing new, additional compensation for participating in our IBD Flare Study. In addition to receiving your immune report at the end of the study, we will also provide monetary compensation for the time participants took to collect their samples! Patient scientists already enrolled in this study will be retroactively compensated.

The compensation will be $125 for 3 samples collected and $250 for 6 samples collected.

This compensation will be emailed to you via virtual gift card. (You can choose Amazon or Charityvest). After we’ve successfully processed your first 3 samples, we will email you a link to choose and receive your gift card. If you collect 3 more samples, we will email you another gift card after we have processed them.

Additional terms and conditions can be found in our direct communications with enrolled study participants.

That’s enough from us. Hear what our patient scientists have to say.

Snapshots of conversations with two different patient scientists in our IBD study. They were asked permission before we posted this article and we’ve kept their identities anonymous.

Thank you to our IBD community for your strength! We are especially inspired by our patient scientists who persevere through their flare-ups. Your enthusiasm for the research inspires our team every day and strengthens our community. Thank you!

-Emily

You can view this research update and other ImYoo news like it by visiting our blog. The best way to stay up-to-date on our research opportunities is by subscribing on our website.