Seeking Answers for Undiagnosed Patients

For patients with a rare disease, the diagnostic odyssey can be a long journey fraught with many wrong answers. The Undiagnosed Diseases Network is a research study funded by the National Institutes of Health to bring together clinical researchers from across the country armed with advanced technologies to solve the most vexing cases. Ahead of Undiagnosed Disease Day on April 29, we spoke to Kimberly LeBlanc, associate director of research operations for the Undiagnosed Diseases Network, about the challenges rare disease patients face in getting a diagnosis, how the network works, and why its work holds the potential to help clinicians better diagnose rare disease patients.