About TDP
Education is our mission
The Dysautonomia Project is a non-profit collaborative effort of volunteer healthcare providers, patients, and community leaders working together to bridge the gap between what autonomic specialists know and what community-based providers and patients need to know.
OUR MISSION & IMPACT
Education is our mission — and has been since the very beginning. The Dysautonomia Project is a nonprofit collaborative of volunteer healthcare providers, patients, and community leaders working together to close the gap between what autonomic specialists know and what community-based providers and patients need to know.
We believe that education is the number one treatment for dysautonomia. Everything we do, from our award-winning book to our free video library to our clinician training programs, is built on that conviction.
OUR STORY
HOPE THROUGH EDUCATION
In 2011, a single appointment changed everything. TDP Founder Kelly Freeman visited Dr. Randy Thompson in Pensacola and, for the first time, felt like someone truly understood what she was experiencing. Dr. Thompson spent five hours with her that day — teaching her about autonomic disorders, validating her symptoms, and showing her that there was a path forward. She describes it as feeling like “the luckiest patient in the world.”
On the drive home, Kelly couldn’t stop thinking about the millions of others who deserved that same experience. That conviction became the foundation of The Dysautonomia Project: THERE IS HOPE THROUGH EDUCATION.
Kelly went on to co-author a book with Dr. Randy Thompson and Dr. David Goldstein the head of autonomic medicine at the NIH while mostly bedridden: “The Dysautonomia Project: Understanding Autonomic Nervous System Disorders for Physicians and Patients.” Her dedication led her to also co-found a grass roots non-profit, The Dysautonomia Project (TDP), in 2014 with family and friends. This mobilized community leaders to serve on the board and partner in the mission.
WHO WE ARE
TDP was founded in 2014 by Kelly Freeman, a dysautonomia patient, along with her husband Nate Freeman and longtime community leader Karen Crown. What began as a grassroots initiative with a handful of committed volunteers has grown today to become the global leader in dysautonomia education.
TDP has a laser-focused mission because we believe that when providers and patients have the right knowledge, outcomes change dramatically. Their vision was simple but profound: no patient should have to wait years for answers, and no provider should lack the tools to help them. Our work has already proven this.
In Tampa Bay and across the United States, TDP’s resources and programs have helped reduced the average time to diagnosis from six years to just several months. That same knowledge is now reaching patients and providers around the globe. That founding conviction continues to drive every program, resource, and relationship we build.
OUR SUCCESS
What began as a grass-roots initiative with a handful of committed community leaders in 2014, is today the global leader in dysautonomia education. TDP has a unique, laser-focused mission of dysautonomia education because we believe education is the number one treatment.
Our programs and initiatives are as unique as our mission. They range from our award-winning book (Get a Book) The Dysautonomia Project, which remains the cornerstone of our mission, to the first ever free, online video library (Autonomic Education) connecting the world’s leading specialists to providers and patients anywhere. The Residents Course mini fellowship, presented in partnership with the American Autonomic Society, is the first program of its kind exponentially increasing the number of doctors able to diagnose and treat dysautonomia.
