Christine von Raesfeld is a leader in bringing a critically needed patient perspective to cutting edge medical innovations. A patient advocate committed to providing patients with chronic and rare diseases with the support they need, Christine works with patient advocacy organizations, industry representatives, and individual patients and their family members. Living with many rare and chronic diseases, she believes that in order to foster understanding and empowerment, patients must be treated as people first.

Christine’s drive to make lives better for patients has been nationally recognized. Earlier this year, she spoke on stage at the Startup Health Festival as an invited guest of Sanguine Biosciences. In 2018, Christine was chosen as a member of the Team of Patient Advisors for PatientsLikeMe, a company working to create digital avatars of patients and ‘healthy’ individuals so that in the future, medication can be first tested on the digital recreations. She was also recognized as one of Wego Health’s 2018 Top 10 Patient Collaborators as well as being named one of the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 100 Women of Influence for 2019.

On the community side, Christine currently serves as a Board member of More than Lupus, a ‘start-up’ patient advocacy organization. She also volunteers her time with the only patient-run national lupus advocacy organization, the Lupus and Allied Diseases Association, as well as many other grassroot organizations. She provides an honest patient perspectives at conferences that normally don’t include the patient voice and speaks out about the realities of living with chronic illness.

Finally, Christine is currently working on helping write national legislation to help individuals who, like her, are on federal disability insurance.

Having lived with many debilitating conditions since an early age, Christine has become a recognizable face in the patient advocacy community and is always open to sharing her experiences and the perspectives gained from them.