This is PediCast.

Welcome to Pediacast, a pediatric podcast for parents.

And now, direct from the campus of nationwide children's, here is your host, Dr. Mike.

Hello, everyone, and welcome.

Once again to PDACast.

It is a pediatric podcast for moms and dads.

This is Dr. Mike, coming to you from the campus of

nationwide children's hospital. We're in Columbus, Ohio. It's episode 398 for February 28th, 2018.

We're calling this one rare genetic diseases. I want to welcome everyone to the program.

So it is the last day of February, and you may not realize it, but the last day of February each and every year is rare disease day.

And this was news to me, by the way, I had not heard of rare disease day before.

It's been around a while. It started back in 2008, so 10 years

ago. And the idea was to raise awareness about rare diseases and the unique challenges in

researching, diagnosing, and treating these disorders that affect a relatively small number of people, which is an

important consideration because, as you know, one component of health care is business.

And when a relatively small number of people are affected by a particular condition,

there isn't always the same drive to research, develop,

produce, and distribute new knowledge and treatment strategies because there isn't going

to be as much demand for that knowledge and the products, which is an unfortunate consequence

of a health care delivery system that's rooted in a free economy.

But the good news is it doesn't have to be this way.

And in fact, in 1983, the United States Congress passed the Orphan Drug Act.

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