Research

National Pediatric Rheumatology Mental Health Workgroup Cassie + Friends has led the formation of a new workgroup on Pediatric Rheumatology Mental Health to improve mental health care and outcomes for children with rheumatologic diseases. The goal of this Mental Health Workgroup is to develop strategies to improve research, care, and…

Children’s Healthcare Canada and ScienceUpFirst, with funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada, have declared February 23, 2023, to be National Kids and Vaccines Day 2023. As such, we wanted to bring you an important update from our research partners, the Yeung Lab regarding SUCCEED Kids – their study looking at Covid-19 vaccination in children with…

Fun fact: Did you know that the microbiome plays a key role in how our immune system functions and in our overall health? In fact, around 70% of our body’s immune cells are located in the gut! To shed some light on what that could mean in the context of JIA,…

Three-year-old Katherine can keep up with other kids now, but that wasn’t always the case… When Alana noticed her daughter was limping at the playground, she didn’t know what to think – especially when the limp didn’t go away. She decided to bring her to a doctor to be examined.…

Thanks to the generous support of our donors, we are very excited to now be recruiting for our second International Postdoctoral Fellowship in Pediatric Rheumatology in the Brown Lab (http://kbrownlab.ca) at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Read below to hear from our first fellow, Dr. Lovro Lamot, a Pediatric Rheumatologist…

C+F Research Partner Highlight: The Brown Lab at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute in Vancouver, BC. With your help, Cassie + Friends has now invested nearly $500,000 in the Brown Lab in support of their work to discover less invasive tests and more precise treatments for children affected by juvenile arthritis and other…

A vital part of the work we do at Cassie + Friends stems from our involvement in important research in the pediatric rheumatic (PR) disease community. Over the past decade, we’ve helped endow a research chair, fund a new international post-doc, build one of only three PR labs in Canada, launch…

“Every furrow of her brow makes me want to stop” If you have ever struggled to give your child an injection or to manage your child’s – or your own – emotions about their treatments, you are not alone!  In the lead up to our Methotrexate session, we talked with Yvonne…

“Imagine that your 4-year-old wakes up and cannot move. And every basic function has their body locked down in paralysis… As a parent—what is going through your mind?” Click the link below to learn how the Matzke-French family from our pediatric rheumatology patient community found a way they could help…

#RareFinds w/ @DrPedsRheum Did you know it can take up to 17 years for research to trickle from journals and publications into your child’s clinic appointment?  When we heard the recent American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Meeting was a “big one for Pediatric Rheumatologists,” we wanted to know why. So…

Autoinflammatory vs Autoimmune Diseases Coined less than 20 years ago, the word autoinflammatory is often confused with autoimmune—so, what’s the difference? When we think of the word autoimmune, most people understand that it means your body is attacking itself the way it attacks invaders, like bacteria and viruses. These autoimmune responses…

Donation marks ten years of dedicated support for kids and families affected by Juvenile Arthritis and other rheumatic diseases in British Columbia and Canada. Cassie and Friends is proud to announce today our $140,000 gift to BC Children’s Hospital to support children and families affected by Juvenile Arthritis – a…