National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month is underway, and there is still time to showcase to your community how allergists can help people live their best lives.
I’m sure many of you probably have seen the national and local news stories in the past few weeks highlighting this year’s particularly difficult allergy season (which no doubt is having an impact on your practices). I and several other College leaders have participated in numerous media interviews, which bring attention to changes we are seeing, and the need to get allergic symptoms under control.
You’ve probably also seen the promotions from the College leading up to this awareness month, including our Asthma and Allergy Awareness Toolkit. This toolkit provides many ways to engage your community – whether it’s a social media activity that takes just a few minutes, a presentation at a local school or library, or setting into motion an asthma screening event at an upcoming health fair or festival.
The College would love to hear what you and your practice are doing for this year’s Awareness Month. If you share about it on social media, please tag us (our Twitter handle is @ACAAI) or let us know so we can engage with you! Contact our ACAAI Member Communications Manager, Amy Romanelli, at amyromanelli@acaai.org either for assistance using the kit or to share what you’re doing this month.
In addition to planned content on our social media platforms and continuing our highly successful Time for an Allergist PCP Awareness campaign, the College will sponsor a nationwide radio public service announcement later this month highlighting that allergists best help people cope with seasonal worsening of allergic diseases, even as changes in our climate are making pollen seasons longer and more miserable.
Besides working to inform other health care providers and the public about what we do best, the College is busy working on many great projects with you, our members, in mind.
On April 29, our leadership convened our first Strategic Planning session for 2024-2027 so we can ensure that we meet your needs with focus and relevance in the coming years. We identified many College strengths and opportunities that are exciting and encouraging – realizing that our greatest strength lies in the talents, insights and contributions of our members and emerging leaders. We also are paying attention to potential challenges to our specialty, so we can address and prepare for these changes. We look forward to important future planning activity.
Finally, I’d like to highlight a “new and different” product – our Allergy Office module on Clinical Research: Is It Right for You? It’s a thought-provoking look at starting a clinical research program in your practice – an opportunity to further knowledge in our specialty while serving patients in your community. There will be additional ways to engage in education, research and scholarly activity, if that interests you, via the Community Allergist Partnership in Education multi-year Presidential Initiative – more details to come!
I welcome your feedback on our progress as the halfway point of my year as College president quickly approaches. Many thanks to all of you who have reached out with your ideas, and let’s continue to improve our great College, together.
