Improving understanding. Creating connection. Changing lives.
iPOTS (improving POTS) is a patient-focused inactive dedicated to raising awareness, supporting education, strengthening community, and advancing understanding of POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome).
For Stephanie Manica, iPOTS is deeply personal.
Living with POTS has given Stephanie firsthand experience with he invisible barriers that can come with disability, and with the importance of being believed, understood, and supported.
But her work isn’t about asking for sympathy.
It’s about creating change.
Why iPOTS Exists
POTS can affect how the autonomic nervous system regulates heart rate, blood pressure, and circulation when a person changes position from lying down to sitting to standing.
For many people, symptoms can be invisible to those around them.
iPOTS works to help change that through:
Awareness: Helping more people understand POTS and the realities of invisible disability.
Education: Making information easier for patients, families, educators, employers, and communities to access.
Community: Creating connection for people who may otherwise feel isolated by their condition.
Research & Progress: Supporting greater understanding and efforts that can improve the lives of people affected by POTS.
From Personal Experience to Purpose
Stephanie’s experience with POTS became one of the catalysts behind her advocacy.
It taught her that accessibility isn’t simply about removing physical barriers.
Sometimes the greatest barrier is being misunderstood.
That experience shaped a larger belief that now runs through all of Stephanie’s work:
Different doesn’t mean less.
It means we need to build spaces where more people can participate, contribute, and be heard.
The Connection to Stephanie’s Speaking
Stephanie brings lessons behind iPOTS into conversations about:
- Disibility & inclusion
- Accessibility
- Resilience
- Advocacy
- Leadership
- Purpose
Her goal isn’t simply to tell her story.
It’s to use the story to open doors for others.
Awareness Creates Possibility
When we understand what we cannot see, we can begin to build differently.
That is the work of iPOTS.
And it is one part of Stephanie’s larger message: TRYING COUNTS.