Crowd funding platform offers grassroots input on medical research

When dealing with health issues, it's pretty common for us to turn to the internet. There, we hope to find information and answers.

But EricPolsinellididn't feel he could trust the internet to answer questions he had about inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Instead, Polsinenlli turned to a unique program offered by the University of Michigan Health System. It's called WellSpringboard.

WellSpringboard is a way for the public to submit medical questions or ideas to University of Michigan researchers. Money is raised through crowdfunding, so researchers can then answer the best questions.

Thanks to this platform, Polsinelli’s IBD questionis now the focus of research by University of Michigan gastroenterologist, Dr. Peter Higgins.

Polsinelli and Higgins joined us on Stateside to talk about crowdfunding and research on how lifestyle can affect IBD.