Every year, ADSHG funds exceptional research with the potential to change the lives of people with Addison’s disease and adrenal insufficiency, made possible thanks to your support and fundraising.

After many impressive submissions, we are delighted to be able to share two of our 2020 winners with you today:

• The Alfred Potter Memorial Award to Mendelian.
• The Professor John Wass Emergency Medicine Award to SOLUtion Medical.

On behalf of everyone at Addison's Disease Self-Help Group, congratulations! Read on to find out more about their exciting research projects.

2020 ADSHG Alfred Potter Memorial Award Winner

Rare disease healthtech company, Mendelian is looking to reduce the diagnosis odyssey and enable better clinical care through earlier rare disease diagnosis - a journey which is often long and stressful for people with Addison's disease and adrenal insufficiency.

In the UK, on average, patients endure three misdiagnoses via five different doctors and a wait of over five years before receiving a diagnosis, something must be done. However with over 7,000 rare diseases, no healthcare professional can receive training on every rare disease. Our research funding grant will support the development of Mendelian’s software, MendelScan. MendelScan uses state-of-the-art technology, data capture and the latest medical knowledge to enable and improve rare disease diagnosis. 

Dom Hargreaves, ADSHG Trustee comments: "Obtaining an effective and timely diagnosis of Addison’s disease has been very difficult for a lot of our members and is such an important strand of the patient journey with this rare disease." 

Together we hope to improve the patient-doctor relationship and speed up the journey to diagnosis. Many undiagnosed people with Addison's disease and adrenal insufficiency develop an adrenal crisis before the diagnosis is recognised. By improving the diagnosis process this will not only improve quality of life but save lives in our community. Thank you to the Mendelian team for undertaking this vital research. If you'd like to read more, visit our "Meet the Researcher" page.

2020 ADSHG Professor John Wass Emergency Medicine Award Winner

One of the most asked questions the ADSHG receives is “Why don’t we have an EpiPen style injection for our hydrocortisone emergency injection?” Up until now the answer has been the complexities of science and the stability of the medication. But now thanks to SOLUtion Medical this request is becoming a reality. The ADSHG is delighted to help fund SOLUtion’s research to develop a simple, easy to use device to reduce complexity and difficulties of injections, providing an EpiPen-like experience.

SOLUtion’s CEO Julia Anthony, has Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, a primary adrenal insufficiency condition, so knows first-hand the difficulties of current adrenal rescue medication. Julia comments: “Adrenal insufficiency and the risk of adrenal crises are global problems, and we are creating a global solution.”

People still die of adrenal crisis, which is entirely preventable. Injecting a loved one or yourself can be a distressing and difficult process for many, with added complexities for our young people and elderly members. The aim to eliminate the need for the current cumbersome and confusing emergency injection kits, and replace those kits with a single, one-step device will dramatically improve the lives of all those living with steroid-dependency and at risk of adrenal crisis. Our heartfelt thanks to SOLUtion Medical Team for addressing this vital need. If you'd like to read more, visit our "Meet the Researcher" page.

Read more about these exciting research projects in our "Meet the Researchers" series.

On behalf of everyone at Addison's Disease Self-Help Group, congratulations to Mendelian and SOLUtion Medical! The ADSHG is delighted to help fund these vital research projects. We have more updates about our research awardees coming in our next magazine and website. Join us to become a member to receive these updates direct, or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.