C Diff Advocacy Organization Announces its National Summit Agenda

PLF is hosting its annual summit next week in Washington DC.

Yesterday, PLF announced the specifics to its 2024 C diff Advocacy Summit. PLF is a non-profit, patient group and has announced its outlined agenda and confirmed speakers for the event. The annual summit will be held this coming Monday on April 15 at the Kellogg Conference Hotel in Washington, DC. “Our national summit is one of my favorite events of the year,” PLF’s CEO Christian John Lillis said. “Each year, we gather the largest group of C diff survivors and family members to network, learn, and, most importantly, advocate so that people battling C diff today and in the future will have better treatment options, a clearer understanding of the disease, and its socio-emotional impacts, and—ultimately—significantly decrease the number of people who suffer and perish from C diff infections.”

The day is packed with speakers including physicians, experts and thought leaders who will hold sessions and panels diving into various topics like performing and interpreting C diff diagnostics, obstacles to optimal treatment, antibiotic stewardship opportunities for C diff patients, and racial disparities in C diff testing.

The day will close with an advocacy panel moderated by Lillis and featuring Kee Kee Buckley, Carol Raye, and Pam McCollister. The full summit agenda is available here.

According to PLF, this event is the largest gathering of C diff advocates and allies in industry, academia, and policymaking in the country. It provides a unique opportunity for clinicians, industry leaders, policy experts, and academics to meet and strategize with C diff survivors, caregivers, and family members committed to ending the health issue.

For anyone who is a C diff patient/survivor, family member, and caregiver, congressional staff, regulatory staff, academic, policymaker, industry leader, or other stakeholder in antimicrobial resistance and C diff infections who is interested in attending the summit, they can attend by registering for free via their online registration form.

PLF was started after the Lillis brothers lost their mother, Peggy, in a short period of time from C diff.

The Foundation for PLF
Lillis and his brother Liam started the Peggy Lillis Foundation in the summer of 2010, following the death of their mother from a community-acquired C difficile infection. Prior to getting C diff, their mother was a healthy 56-year-old kindergarten teacher. Lillis says there was a suddenness to her death, (she was only sick for 6 days) and the tragic nature of it spurred the brothers to want to understand what happened.

The organization has worked with Contagion on a collaborative video series titled, Living With C diff. In the series, people discuss their experiences dealing with the debilitating condition. There will be more people’s stories being published, so check back on the site in the coming weeks.

[Related Content: Here is an interview Contagion did with Lillis last fall at IDWeek discussing the organization’s plans for the future.]