PatientFocused Drug Development Meeting In collaboration with the FDA

Francie Fitzgerald speaks on the experience of living with hypermobile EhlersDanlos syndrome (hEDS) and POTS for the past 13 years; highlighting the diagnostic odyssey and the arduous process of finding effective treatments. "Lifestyle management has been chief among the things that have benefited me, so I will emphasize these adaptions."

Francie Fitzgerald is a clinical social worker providing dialectical behavior therapies at the Ebright Collaborative in Wilmington, Delaware. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame where she studied neuroscience, she pursued her Masters in Social Work at the University of Pennsylvania. Since being diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome at the age of 15, Francie has devoted herself wholeheartedly to bettering the lives of those affected by dysautonomia and related conditions. Francie was ultimately diagnosed with EhlersDanlos syndrome after developing multiple pain syndromes and immunemediated comorbidities. She is active in the review of research proposals to private philanthropies and nonprofit organizations. Her professional passion is adapting empirically supported mental health therapies to chronic illness patient populations.