Sickle Cell Foundation of Arizona Commences the 2026 Sickle Cell Awareness Month With an Upgraded 360° SCD Hub App and Dashboard

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Moses Akpan, President & Founder, Sickle Cell Foundation of Arizona
Email: in**@**fa.org · Phone: 520-338-9560
Release date: September 4, 2026

Tucson, AZ — September 4, 2026 — As National Sickle Cell Awareness Month begins, the Sickle Cell Foundation of Arizona (SCFA) today announces a connected system of support for Arizona’s Sickle Cell Community with a tool that increases access to health education and improves the delivery of health support services. This App is designed for families, individuals, and community partners across the healthcare spectrum, all linked by engagement and data that leads to real solutions and measurable impact.

The vision isn’t new — it’s a promise kept. Two years ago, the SCFA Board Chair Sarah Spiekermeier, now CEO of Banner University Family Care, presented the live 360° SCD Hub App and its associated community outreach to the Medicaid Innovation Leadership Conference in a talk titled “Technology, Support and Partnerships: Why All 3 Matter When Trying to Connect and Reach Target Populations.”

The Technology: The Newly Improved 360° SCD Hub App and Dashboard

The 360° SCD Hub App and Dashboard, the digital home for the sickle cell community, has received new enhancements. The App improvements boost learning about Sickle Cell through educational courses, increased support services and programs in an ecosystem not limited to the following:

An Enhanced Member Hub Home. Every member is represented in this ecosystem — living with SCD, a caregiver, a medical professional, a community supporter, and the general public — equipped with the right tools, community, and resources from the beginning of their membership journey.
Health and Activity Trackers. Built for Individuals and Families. With this enhancement — the 360° SCD Hub App’s LIVE IT Trackers — an individual, a parent or caregiver can track symptoms, pain with a full-body map, medications with reminders, hydration, vitals, labs, and appointments in one shared view.
Shareable Care Reports. A PDF of symptom and medication history that members can extract from the Hub and share with care team/providers — creating an Emergency Room visit that reduces undue stress in the patient and provides a summary of the patient’s tracked health data over time.
New Tools and Resources. An expanded library of sickle cell education, guides, and community resources, organized so members quickly find what they need.
SickleSense Coins for every action. Every step — Learn It, Live It, Share It — earns coins, a friendly way to recognize the daily effort of managing sickle cell and staying connected.

New and improved — check out the new Member Hub Home on the 360° SCD Hub app, with QR codes to download — New & improved — the new Member Hub Home, with quick access to your tools, trackers, and resources.

The Family and Community Support: Blossom Where You Are Planted

Technology alone doesn’t hold a person or family up — people do. The Foundation’s new Blossom Where You Are Planted program organizes education, outreach, and support beginning with the Tucson and Phoenix metropolitan area. Within these metropolitan areas are five Community Support Zones — Tucson/Southern Arizona, the West Valley, the East Valley, Central Phoenix, and Pinal County. Each zone has local Community Leaders who work in tandem with Community Health Workers, with volunteers and advocates expanding our reach — real people, in every community, whose goal is to make sure their advocate has a face and a name.

Find Your Community Support Zone — Blossom Where You Are Planted, with an Arizona map of the five zones — Find your Community Support Zone — Blossom Where You Are Planted.

The Healthcare Partners: Community Health Advisory Council

The new Community Health Advisory Council, a well-coordinated and collaborative network, with fresh perspectives and specialized knowledge in the delivery of care — guides the Foundation’s work, strengthening the connection between Arizona’s medical community and its sickle cell families, ensuring what families experience at home informs what happens in the clinic.

Arizona Community Health Advisory Council for Sickle Cell Disease — The Community Health Advisory Council for Sickle Cell Disease.

Connected by Engagement and Data

A connected ecosystem: An action that is logged in the 360° SCD Hub becomes a connection to a local support team consisting of providers, social workers, community leaders, and community health workers. Every action feeds the Foundation’s de-identified data from which analytical reports can be produced — resulting in the community’s needs being seen, community voices being heard, and their impact measured.

Sickle Cell Disease in Arizona — the Foundation's public dashboard: the occurrence, our impact, and the Arizonans we reach — The community’s story, told with data — Sickle Cell Disease in Arizona.

“Real change for our families was never going to come from an app alone, or a program alone, or a council alone. It’s the totality of these efforts and resources. It takes the technology in a family’s hand, the neighbor in their community, and the healthcare partner at the table — all connected.”
— Moses Akpan, President and Founder, Sickle Cell Foundation of Arizona

For Sickle Cell Awareness Month, the State of Arizona, through the Sickle Cell Foundation of Arizona and its Partners, has an enhanced ecosystem connecting the Sickle Cell community. Each September, the Sickle Cell Foundation of Arizona joins with others in highly visible activities for recognition of National Sickle Cell Awareness Month to empower Sickle Cell communities throughout Arizona.

The newly improved 360° SCD Hub App is available for download from your mobile device’s app store or at 360scdhub.org. Membership is free — get involved and get connected to the ecosystem from the start of your membership journey.

The Sickle Cell Foundation of Arizona is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to empowering, educating, and supporting individuals and families affected by Sickle Cell Disease throughout Arizona. Learn more at 360scdhub.org.

The 360° SCD Hub App is not a substitute for professional medical advice.

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