Meet Barby Ingle | Author and President of International Pain Foundation

We had the good fortune of connecting with Barby Ingle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Barby, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
The International Pain Foundation (iPain) is devoted to advancing access and quality care to help people suffering from a variety of muscular-skeletal, inflammatory, neurological, emotional, degenerative, and often rare conditions that involve chronic pain through education awareness and access to care projects.

We have four areas of focus; education, awareness, social, and access to care. Education events include our iPain Summit, where the International Pain Foundation unlocks the power within each attendee to help fulfill lives and successfully manage the treatment for those living with chronic pain. Comprehensive learning resources; online and printed information about “disease conditions” symptoms, treatments, and support links. Watch our webinars, packed with great information from doctors, patients, caregivers, and other professionals. We keep many of our resources FREE. iPain “chronic awareness“ projects reach around the world. Music Moves Awareness, iPainPOP, RSD/CRPS Quilts, and painting the world orange in the month of NERVEmber. Keep your mind off pain at Comic Pain Relief and help us bring awareness to your condition with #iPainPOP. A social network & events for pain patients. Join us for hope and inspiration in our community projects; iPain partners, celebrity partners, newsletter, blogs, and more. Stay in the loop with our FREE app in your marketplace under iPain or visit us on Facebook. Access to care projects we host help people obtain appropriate pain resources to preserve or improve their health; abuse-deterrent medications, opioid Induced constipation, policy efforts, step therapy, prior authorization, specialty tier, electronic health records, and prescription monitoring programs.

iPain Foundation’s objectives are reached through critical educational events, support, resources, and enhancement projects funded through private donations and grants. The Power of Pain Foundation (dba: International Pain Foundation) demonstrates its commitment to the chronic pain community by promoting new knowledge on the cause and treatment of chronic pain conditions. The ultimate goal is to provide tools and life skills to chronic pain patients, allowing them to perform their regular activities in the community and bolster society’s ability to provide full opportunities and appropriate support. We contribute to the overall knowledge and treatment of chronic pain by supporting education for pain patients, family members, caregivers, and medical professionals. This allows our foundation to affect the lives of millions of people with chronic pain worldwide. Whether you have pain or are a caregiver, family member, or friend of someone diagnosed, we’ll help you face the challenges and life changes of chronic pain head-on.

The ultimate goal is to allow chronic pain patients to perform their regular activities in the community and to bolster society’s ability to provide full opportunities and appropriate support for its pain citizens. By supporting education for pain patients, family members, caregivers, and medical professionals, we contribute to the overall knowledge and treatment of chronic pain. This allows our foundation to affect the lives of the millions of people with chronic pain worldwide and chronic pain patients, caregivers, family members, and healthcare professionals.

Much more research is needed into these painful diseases, and while research facilities are doing that great work, the iPain works to help patients on improving their daily activities of living with the resources available to us today. The International Pain Foundation (iPain) provides community-based support services that address the immediate need of Neuropathy pain patients. Accordingly, many of our beneficiaries include economically and socially affected patients by these invisible diseases. Whether you have Neuropathy pain or are a caregiver, family member, or friend of someone diagnosed, we’ll help you face the challenges and life changes of chronic nerve pain head-on.

The iPain coordinates events to raise money for educational enrichment, leadership training programs, and support projects for the chronic pain community. This includes patients, caregivers, families, industry, providers, and the public.

Chronic pain affects the entire family and needs to be treated right from the start; everyone needs to be involved as an active, positive participant.

Over 1.5 billion people live with chronic pain worldwide, which is not discussed much. We are trying to change that with your help! At iPain, we know that education and knowledge can transform a person’s future. We see it happen all the time. Attending important education events at no charge to the patient and their caregiver is vital to their access to care issues and learning tools for better daily living. They do not have many places to go for support or understanding, the International Pain Foundation is one such place where we can give resources, information, and assistance to people struggling with neuropathy pain daily.

What should our readers know about your business?
Our president, Barby Ingle, is a best-selling author, reality personality, and lives with multiple rare and chronic diseases; reflex sympathetic dystrophy(RSD), migralepsy, PALB2-var breast cancer, valley fever, endometriosis, and other pain disorders. Barby is a chronic pain educator, patient advocate, and president of the International Pain Foundation. She is also a motivational speaker and best-selling author on pain topics. Her blog, reality shows, and media appearances are used as a platform to help her become an e-Patient advocate. She presents at healthcare conferences, speaking publicly, sharing her story, and educating and advocating for patients across the globe. She has received more than 25 commendations for her advocacy efforts, including; the 2012 WEGO Health Ms. Congeniality, 2012 NAF You Are Our Hero Award, the 2013International Inspirational Luminary, 2015 IDA Impact Award, and 2016 WEGOHealth Lifetime Achievement. In 2017, Barby was named a Health InformationTechnology Top 100 Influencer by HealthScene and Top 20 Health Influencer by InsiderMonkey Magazine. In 2018, Barby received the Reality All-Star ReunionSuperstar award for her Social Media efforts and Top 50 Chronic Pain Advocates. In 2020, Barby is listed in the top 50 social media advocates for rare Diseases and top 10 Healthcare Influencers for All Marketers to Follow,2020 PharmaVOICE100, and 2020 HITMC Patient Advocate of the Year. In 2021 Barby was awarded the 2021 Medigy HITmc Music Video of the year and 2021 Arizona CapitolTimes Leader of the Year; Healthcare. In Feb. 2021, Barby was listed in the top 75 social media advocates for rare diseases. Barby currently serves as the reigning Mrs. Southwest Petite USA and will compete at the National event in Aug.

Our executive director, Ken Taylor, owns My Genetic Meds. He is also iPain Living Magazine Digital Editor; Ken Taylor is a caregiver for his wife, who lives with multiple chronic conditions. Ken is a chronic pain educator, patient advocate, Founder & Executive Director of the International Pain Foundation. Ken is the CEO and founder of My Genetic Meds. He currently serves as an advisor for Johnson & Johnson Generation Care Program since 2019 and has been a Dish Network Software Beta Advisor since 2015. He is a licensed sUAS pilot. He is also a motivational speaker and best-selling author on pain topics, graphic designer, and reality tv personality. Ken received the 2017 iPain Hero of Hope, Patient Awareness, and 2017 Health Information Technology Top 100 Influencer. In 2018, 2019, & 2020, and 2021 Ken was named to the top 50 advocates for the rare disease and chronic pain community.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If we had friends or family visiting Arizona, we would have packed schedules taking them to all the places we love around the state. We would start with a 4-hour tour in Cottonwood AZ, on the Verde Canyon Railroad. Then head to Sedona, AZ, and check out the beautifully carved church on the mountainside, Chapel of the Holy Cross. We’d head down to Phoenix to the city of Fountain Hills, AZ to check out the fountain and outdoor market in the town center and then check out the WeKoPa casino for a game of Bingo and some gambling. We’d head out for a mountain bike ride through the beautiful city of Gold Canyon, AZ and then top the week off with a great steak dinner at the Gold Stallion Restaurant.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We would love to shout out to all pain and rare disease advocates who use their voices to make a difference. We worked with many thousands over all of our years of service. Some of the greats are our 2022 Hero of Hope Winners, including Mia Maysack, Pain News Network, Dr. Jeff Singer. We always get excited with celebrities speaking up about their health challenges, Paula Abdul, Justin and Hailey Bieber, Nicole Arbour and Mia St John. Thank you all for sharing and making a difference.

Website: www.internationalpain.org

Instagram: @internationalpainfoundation

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/4233957/

Twitter: @iPainOfficial

Facebook: @iPanFoundation

Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/barbyallyn

Other: Blog – http://barbyingle.com/blog
Blog – https://internationalpain.org/pop-blog/
IMDB – www.imdb.me/barbyingle
Instagram – www.instagram.com/barbyingleofficial
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbyingle
Twitter – www.twitter.com/BarbyIngle
Website – www.barbyingle.com
Amazon – https://amzn.to/3bqCTNI

Image Credits
Ken Taylor, Barby Ingle, Zee Strong