Roy Chao

Why do I participate in research?

In November of 2014 I was diagnosed with Polyarteritis nodosa. I was a mess at the time. I was hospitalized for 2.5 weeks and had to have emergency surgery as the vasculitis had affected my gut. I quickly began researching my new plight and discouraged to find very little information and what I did find wasn’t very encouraging. 

I wanted to believe that I wasn’t in this alone and that there were people out there who were trying to cure this nasty condition. The Vasculitis Foundation was helpful for additional information. Ultimately finding the Vasculitis Patient-Powered Research Network really gave me hope. As a rare disease, it is hard for researchers to come across enough data to do research. As patients, we can help our community by providing information about our conditions. So much can be done with the aggregated data. 

By taking a few minutes a couple times a year we can empower researchers who are trying to help the vasculitis community with the valuable data they need.  Let’s help us by helping them.”

-Roy Chao