Cory Perugino, DO, discusses self-referrals, physician awareness, and how the IgG4ward! Foundation supports people with IgG4-related disease.
Transcript
We’ve definitely seen some patients at our center that have essentially diagnosed themselves and referred themselves to us.
I think one thing that’s important for patients is to be aware of the IgG4ward! Foundation — which is a great resource for patient-level education and materials, as well as a network of patients and providers that are plugged in and involved in this disease.
Often, primary care doctors and other specialists are not aware of this disease as previously mentioned. So some of the advocacy is just raising the awareness for physicians — which is an unusual paradigm for a patient to be in where they need to be really kind of educating their physician to be aware of this disease.
So I think the IgG4ward! Foundation is a great source for patient-level education. And that can also provide options for anyone in the region that does specialize in IgG4 related disease.
Often a referral is required from the physician that’s taking care of the patient. And that’s not generally a very big ask for a primary care doctor or another specialist. Usually they’re appreciative of the idea — especially when it comes to them on a silver platter with a name in mind for someone at a referral center.
So again, I think the IgG4ward! Foundation is a great resource for patients to really have this full scope of options available to them, as well as education on the disease.
