Sinai Health's Flammy campaign and Crohn's research launch get separate spotlights in Toronto

A large pink figure called Flammy has been turning up around downtown Toronto and online. Sinai Health Foundation introduced it on November 2 as the face of a campaign about chronic inflammation, and its president and CEO, Louis de Melo, said the point is to get people talking about a condition the Canadian public doesn't understand well. Campaign proceeds are meant to fund research into ways to predict and prevent disease before symptoms appear.

The foundation said the campaign drew about 40 million impressions in its first two weeks. Dr. Ken Croitoru, a gastroenterologist and Canada Research Chair in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases at Sinai, described chronic inflammation as the kind that fails to heal, has no known cause, or does not stop, and said it can lead to health complications if left untreated.

A separate effort launched Friday in Toronto. Crohn's and Colitis Canada started a national IBD Precision Medicine Research Program at The Westin Harbour Castle, with a campaign called "It's about time." Canada has among the highest rates of inflammatory bowel disease in the world.

Sinai has said its research has identified an immune response that can be detected by blood test years before Crohn's symptoms appear.