HRES245-119

That the House of Representatives— recognizes Sjögren’s disease as a serious health issue that causes a significant health burden; encourages the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the heads of other relevant agencies— to expand, enhance, and increase research of Sjögren’s disease and identify new areas of research through the Office of Autoimmune Disease Research; to improve the understanding of the causes of Sjögren’s disease and identify biomarkers that will help with patient stratification and diagnosis, disease management, and development of targeted therapies for Sjögren’s patients; to better quantify and regularly track the number of Sjögren’s patients, as many individuals are believed to be undiagnosed or are misdiagnosed, such as those that have Sjögren’s disease and another autoimmune disease; to update literature on Sjögren’s disease and disseminate such literature to health providers to increase awareness and accurate knowledge about the disease; and to build awareness of Sjögren’s disease among physicians and communities in underserved areas so that patients with Sjögren’s disease are diagnosed correctly and obtain the care they need; and expresses support for the designation of Sjögren’s Awareness Month.