UI Health, Bernie Mac Foundation Celebrates Sarcoidosis Center’s First Year
The University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System (UI Health) will host the REACH for the STARS Town Hall Meeting to celebrate the one-year partnership between UI Health and the Bernie Mac Foundation in the fight against sarcoidosis.
“This is an opportunity for people to get information and find out about treatments for sarcoidosis,” said Rhonda McCullough, the widow of late comedian, Bernie Mac. McCullough, who is also the president and CEO of the Bernie Mac Foundation, has spoken out about sarcoidosis since the death of her husband who died from complications of the disease in 2008.
Described as an inflammatory disease that often attacks multiple organs, particularly the lungs and lymph nodes, sarcoidosis disproportionately affects African Americans and people of color.
Sarcoidosis, McCullough said, is also very deceiving and often misdiagnosed as cancer.
“You feel very fatigued but you look healthy on the outside. Other than feeling fatigued, there really are no symptoms. In 1984 when Bernie was about 27 or 28, he came home after playing basketball one day and said he was very tired,” McCullough recalled. “The first doctor told him he had lung cancer. We got a second opinion and that doctor said he had an idea what it could be and ran more tests and came back and said it was sarcoidosis and told us there was no treatment and no medicine for it and that if it doesn’t bother you, don’t bother it but people are getting really sick. It’s a chronic disease and it snowballs. When Bernie died, he had pneumonia that developed because his immune system couldn’t fight off a cold; a complication that developed from the sarcoidosis. Mercer, a deadly staph infection that stemmed from the sarcoidosis, was ultimately his downfall.”
Those who come out for the event can expect to hear updates on clinical services for patients with sarcoidosis, and educational and scholarly activities at the Sarcoidosis Center, established at the UI Health with a grant from the Bernie Mac Foundation in 2012. A tour of the new STAR Center discovery laboratory will also be available.
Speakers, including McCullough, Dr. Nadera Sweiss, associate professor of rheumatology at UI Health and director of the UI Health Bernie Mac STAR Center and Dr. Patricia Finn, head of the department of medicine at the UIC College of Medicine and president of the American Thoracic Society and director of the Bernie Mac STAR Center laboratory, will discuss the REACH philosophy (Research, Education, Academic excellence, Clinical Care, Humanism) behind the Bernie Mac Star Center.
"Establishing the STAR center is a dream, come true for the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System,” said Dr. Sweiss in a released statement. “The Food and Drug Administration still has no approved treatments for sarcoidosis. We are using a multidisciplinary approach to evaluating sarcoidosis in a systemic way, and we are grateful for the Bernie Mac Foundation's partnership."
Physicians and investigators from the STAR Center will also discuss clinical services and research opportunities for sarcoidosis patients at UI Health.
The speaking portion of the program takes place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Oct. 3 at UIC College of Nursing, 845 S. Damen Ave., 3rd floor. The Bernie Mac STAR Center laboratory tour follows at 1 p.m. at the College of Medicine Research Building, 909 S. Wolcott Ave., Suite 3060.
The Bernie Mac STAR Center is made up of pulmonary and critical care physicians, rheumatologists, pharmacists, cardiologists, ophthalmologists, dermatologists.
“Everyone should come out not matter your racial background,” McCullough said. “Africans Americans and people of color are more prone to sarcoidosis but it affects everyone. Scientists are saying it could be genetic and are conducting ongoing research.”
Since its establishment at UI Health, the STAR Center has seen a 70 percent increase in the number of sarcoidosis patients visiting the hospital for treatment.
The Center’s research objectives are to develop new diagnostic, prognostic and treatment modalities for patients with the disease, and offer participation in clinical trials evaluating new therapies.
The Center has also played a major role in helping to reduce health disparities among sarcoidosis patients in Chicago, according to information that was provided.
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