National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month begins this Thursday! With the focus on asthma and allergies in May, you’ll want to seize the opportunity to spread factual information and share your expertise on allergic conditions.
The easiest place to start is with the College’s Asthma and Allergy Awareness Toolkit. It’s full of ideas for community/media outreach, virtual presentations, patient education, videos for your practice website and topics for your practice newsletter.
You can choose your level of involvement during the month. If you want to keep it simple, you can use our social media images/sample posts on your X, Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, Threads and Bluesky accounts. It’s easy – get the details in our social media kit.
For a little more involvement, let primary care physicians know that allergists can help their patients with unresolved allergy symptoms. Use the email templates in our Time for an Allergist Toolkit to connect with them. Also, send a note to primary care NPs and PAs in your community to share information tailored to them.
For those who want to get out into the community, we have resources. Planning to host a local asthma screening? Our Asthma Screening Event Planning Guide can help. Or you can give a talk at a local senior center, library or school about allergic conditions. Download our ready-made PowerPoint presentation for a factual virtual or in-person talk. You can be the expert source in media stories about managing allergic conditions and how a board-certified allergist can help. Read our tips for contacting your local media, and download our ready-made articles to pitch stories.
Other resources for National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month (or anytime!) include:
- New – SMART therapy infographic! Angela Hogan, MD, FACAAI, Chair of the ACAAI Asthma Committee, developed an infographic allergists can use to explain SMART therapy to patients. The bright graphics and easy-to-follow information illustrate the benefits of SMART therapy. College members can use the infographic with their patients.
- Online brochures with easy-to-read information on common allergic conditions – New brochures (in English and Spanish) include drug allergies, managing allergies during pregnancy, immunotherapy treatments, food allergy, and understanding penicillin allergies. Share them with your patients in person, via your patient portal, or post on your website.
- The College’s extensive collection of videos on our YouTube channel – You’ll find new videos where ACAAI members answer commonly asked allergy questions and videos where patients share real-life experiences. These are great to show on monitors in your waiting room.
In the ever-changing health care environment, it’s important to stay informed on hot topics and practice-related tools in allergy/immunology. Free for members, the College offers:
- Shared decision-making toolkits on Adult Severe Asthma, Pediatric Severe Asthma Severe Asthma, Chronic Rhinosinusitis with Nasal Polyps and Immunotherapy.
- eYardsticks/eParameters on atopic dermatitis, chronic rhinosinusitis, food allergy, PIDD and pediatric asthma.
- AllergyTalk podcast episodes that cover issues of AllergyWatch. Get CME!
- Recorded clinical and practice management webinars on timely topics.
- MicroCME – In less than 30 minutes, explore a variety of clinical topics – and get CME!
The month of May also includes Food Allergy Awareness Week and Eosinophil Awareness Week. We’ll provide resources for these commemorations in May.
