Progress at the Heart
Progress at the Heart Program
Sleep health disparities are impacted by ethnicity, socioeconomic status, discrimination, geography, social patterns, and access to healthcare as well as other complicating factors.1 Harmony Biosciences' Progress at the Heart funds innovative programs that address disparities, injustice, and inequities in the rare neurological disease and sleep disorder communities.
Harmony Biosciences has two open application periods for Progress at the Heart in 2022:
- April 7 – May 20: Notification sent to awardees by July 2022
- May 31 – August 19: Notification sent to awardees by October 2022
- Application Document
- Comprehensive Budget Document
- If applying from a 501(c)(3) organization, kindly include your 501(c)(3) tax-deductible letter and your organization's most recent Form 990
People with rare neurological diseases often have limited access to diagnosis, treatment, and care. The disparities can be even greater for people from underrepresented ethnic or other minority groups in both access to care and underrepresentation in research and clinical trials. Together, these disparities make timely diagnosis and adequate treatment exponentially harder, potentially resulting in serious health consequences.2
Sleep deficiencies, which include insufficient or long sleep duration, poor sleep quality, and irregular timing of sleep, are disproportionately distributed among populations that experience health disparities in the United States.3 Studies have also suggested that ethnic minorities and the socioeconomically disadvantaged may be more likely to experience sleep patterns that are associated with adverse health outcomes. Adverse outcomes of insufficient sleep and/or sleep disorders include weight gain and obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, accidents and injuries, stress, pain, neurocognitive dysfunction, psychiatric symptoms, and mortality.4
Click here to read our full 2021 press release.
- Community Programs: People-centered, community-led programs to improve awareness and treatment in the sleep disorder and rare neurological diseases with sleep deficiencies communities and help achieve greater equality for underrepresented ethnic or other minority groups
- Education: General public and healthcare provider education and programs that increase awareness and decrease time to diagnosis of sleep disorders and rare neurological diseases with sleep deficiencies found in underrepresented ethnic or other minority groups
- Public Health: Creation of or modifications to public policies that impact underrepresented ethnic or other minority groups
- Other proposals that help achieve greater equality within rare neurological disease communities
Funding Application Information
- Description and type of organization
- Program title and summary
- Key deliverables and program milestones
- Evaluation plan
- Communication and results plan
- Financial information/detailed budget for project
Harmony Biosciences will request a program update one year after award.
- Applicants must be a 501(c)(3) or similarly credentialed nonprofit organization
- No minimum funding amount; maximum funding request per application: $50,000
Incomplete proposals will not be considered for review.
Applications will be reviewed by a cross-functional team of Harmony Biosciences employees. Proposals will be evaluated based on a standard set of review criteria, which will include the quality of the application, creativity of the solution, and the organization's infrastructure and past program successes.
Harmony Biosciences cannot fund projects that will provide a benefit to Harmony Biosciences other than the "incidental and tenuous" benefit that Harmony Biosciences receives in the form of goodwill, name recognition, and publicity.
We will not consider proposals that include any of the following:
- Programs that reference Harmony Biosciences products or product candidates, or seek to measure the impacts of Harmony Biosciences products
- Organizations that discriminate on the basis of age, race, sex, religion, sexual orientation, or disability
- Funding for events or programs that have already occurred
- Political organizations, campaigns, or direct lobbying activities
- Religious organizations or groups whose activities are primarily sectarian in purpose
- Programs or proposals that supplement an organization's income or offset its expense in a manner that benefits, directly or indirectly, a healthcare provider's compensation
Harmony reserves the right to withdraw this program prior to selecting and awarding grants.
Harmony reserves the right to use grant awardee organizations and winning programs in press materials.
Harmony reserves the right to partially fund grant requests.
Applications and support materials must be submitted in English.
Yes. Each program application must be submitted separately.
Yes. Collaborative proposals between individuals and/or advocacy/community groups and/or academic institutions and/or medical societies are allowed.
Yes. Local, regional, and national programs will all be considered. At this time, the Progress at the Heart grants will be awarded to programs in the U.S. only.
No. There is no guarantee an awarded program will receive funding in the future, even upon the continuation of a proposed program and beyond the proposal description.
No, Progress at the Heart does not fund activities that have already occurred, but will consider support for ongoing and existing programs.
Please address all questions regarding your application to progress@harmonybiosciences.com.
2022 Program Awards
In its inaugural year, Progress at the Heart funded over $100,000 in awards for the following projects addressing health disparities and inequities for people living with sleep disorders and rare neurological diseases with sleep disorders. We are proud to support programs like:
CommunityHealth Clinic
Enhancing Sleep Health Awareness Among Chicago’s Medically Underserved Population
This project will provide educational materials about sleep health and various sleep disorders to the target population at CommunityHealth Clinic (CHC), which primarily includes patients from Spanish- and Polish-speaking communities, whose annual income is at or below 100% of the federal poverty line. Additionally, this project provides the framework and platform upon which to create and disseminate educational materials that are applicable for similar clinics serving low-income communities across Chicago.
Duke Department of Neurology
Duke Health Disparities in Neurology Scorecard
The creation of the Duke Racial Disparities in Neurology Scorecard, inspired by the White Coats for Black Lives Racial Justice Scorecard for medical schools. A calculator will be published electronically that will aid other neurology departments across the country to create their own scorecards.
The Hypersomnia Foundation (HF)
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Initiative
The DEI Initiative is focused on understanding and identifying the challenges people of diverse backgrounds may face when they need healthcare for excessive daytime sleepiness and other symptoms of sleep disorders. A five-step program led by a DEI Task Force, HF plans to hold listening sessions in the community as first steps.
Project Sleep
Focus Groups to Understand Barriers and Improve Sleep Disorders Awareness, Diagnosis, and Treatment in Black American Communities
This project aims to uncover important insights by conducting focus groups to better understand the first-hand perspectives of Black Americans, healthcare providers, and trusted community leaders. The findings will help inform future awareness and education campaigns, aiming to reduce delays to diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders in underserved communities.
“Racial disparities in healthcare are a medical emergency. To ensure equitable care, at Duke Neurology, we are building a system to identify and eliminate any variations in treatments provided to patients of different races and ethnicities. With funding through the Progress at the Heart program, we will be able to build the Duke Health Disparities in Neurology Scorecard that will provide easy-to-understand scoring to indicate where we are achieving our mission and where we can improve. Ultimately, the scorecard template will be broadly available with the goal of reducing health disparities nationwide.”
— Andrew Spector, MD, Neurologist, Sleep Medicine Specialist
Harmony does not provide grants to individuals unless an individual is acting as sponsor investigator of an investigator-sponsored study/research. No grants, sponsorships, or charitable contributions are offered or provided in exchange for endorsing or prescribing Harmony products or for a commitment to continue prescribing Harmony products. In other words, any quid pro quo is strictly prohibited.
Any funding provided by Harmony will be in compliance with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations.
References: 1. Billings ME, Cohen RT, Baldwin CM, et al. Disparities in sleep health and potential intervention models: a focused review. Chest. 2021;159(3):1232-1240. 2. #RiseForRare. The Rare Disease Diversity Coalition website: https://rarediseasediversity.org. Accessed March 16, 2021. 3. Jackson CL, Walker JR, Brown MK, Das R, Jones NL. A workshop report on the causes and consequences of sleep health disparities. Sleep. 2020;43(8):zsaa037. 4. Grandner MA. Sleep, health, and society. Sleep Med Clin. 2017;12(1):1-22.
