Patient education and public relations are important functions of any medical organization, and the College does a great job with both. On average, 1,000 media stories per month mention the College and/or quote one of our experts – that’s a huge readership for one subspecialty group. Add to that the extensive coverage that we typically get for our Annual Scientific Meeting. In 2023, there were more than 4,000 media stories published about data that was presented at the College’s Annual Meeting.
Did you know that each of you – our members – has the opportunity to play a role in expanding the reach of College information and education to the public? And the month of May, which is National Asthma & Allergy Awareness Month, provides the perfect opportunity. The College makes it very easy with our Marketing and Patient Materials Toolkit.
Each year, we issue a news release from ACAAI for Asthma & Allergy Awareness Month. This year, our “hook” to interest the media is the fact that there is not just one type of asthma – there are multiple types, and each has its own diagnosis and treatment. You can easily send this news release to your local media contacts, or choose one of the other spring and summer news releases in the kit. Any of these can be adapted to send to your local reporters and editors – offering to serve as an expert for their allergy and asthma stories, of course! Each news release in the kit comes with a sample email that you can send and this outreach can be done in as little as 15 minutes from start to finish.
If face-to-face time with the public is more your thing, this is an ideal time of year to find local health fairs or fests where you can showcase what you do. This gives publicity to your practice, and also to the relief that allergists can provide. Health fairs often are sponsored by local libraries, school districts, YMCAs, or hospitals. Check out our planning guide for ways to participate in a health fair or to hold your own successful screening event.
Awareness Month also is a fantastic time to contact primary care practices in your network, reminding them of the specialized care that allergists can provide to their patients whose symptoms are not well controlled. You can find everything you need for a persuasive communication in our Time for an Allergist campaign toolkit.
And here is an action that most of you can take with minimal time and effort: Follow ACAAI on your favorite social media platform (find the links in this newsletter) and share your favorite College posts or videos with your followers. Voila – you’ve now contributed to amplifying the valuable content made possible by College experts.
I encourage you – as soon as you’re done reading this issue of College Insider – to make a “note to self” to check out the resources I mentioned. Then choose one thing that you can do to help raise awareness about asthma, allergies, the great information from the College, and the amazing work that you all do to help our patients.
