Breathe Better Together with Allergy & Asthma Network! Allergy & Asthma Network is the nation's leading nonprofit dedicated to ending needless death and suffering due to asthma, allergies and related conditions through outreach, education, advocacy and research. Tonya Winders, President & CEO, explains who is part of the Network and why she is so passionate about the cause.
Tonya Winders, MBA is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of Allergy & Asthma Network, the leading patient advocacy organization dedicated to ending the needless death and suffering due to asthma, allergies and related conditions.
Tonya has over 17 years experience in leadership roles within the allergy and asthma industry. From sales and marketing leadership to managed markets access, she has worked tirelessly to ensure patients have access to effective diagnostic and treatment tools.
Tonya joined Allergy & Asthma Network in 2013 as the successor to founder Nancy Sander who led for 28 years. Tonya has worked closely with the leadership of the ACAAI & AAAAI to address challenges currently facing the integrity of allergy and asthma care throughout the US while spreading awareness and preparedness messages to patients and caregivers.
Personally, Tonya is the mother of five children, four of whom have asthma and/or allergies, ranging in age from 10-17 years old. She enjoys spending time with her husband of 20 years Brian Winders and cheering on her children in various sports.
Dr. Pat: Hey, everyone, wow, welcome! I
want to welcome everybody. Welcome to “The Dr. Pat Show,” Talk Radio to thrive
by. Thank you all for tuning us in and turning us on. It’s really great to be
chatting with all of you today. We’ve got a great line-up and this is what I
love. I don’t even know what I don’t know sometimes. I love that about that my
life.
What does that even
mean? If you’re somebody like me, you’ve gone through life and have had a few
bumps in the road and along the way you stop long enough to say, “Wait a
minute, wait a minute, maybe I shouldn’t be going down that pathway with my
life. Maybe there’s something else that I should be doing. Maybe this thing that
I thought about career, a job that I thought was going to give me peace of
mind, maybe that’s not it. Then all of a sudden, something devastating happens
and your life goes in another direction, and that’s part of our conversation
today.
Dr. Pat: It’s all a build up for
tomorrow. It’s all a build up for the equinox. It’s all a build up, well
whatever it is that you believe in. But one of the things for sure that I’ve
discovered along the way is that there are some things that happen in life. I
want to just say this -- for many of us that are in the world we have come down
this journey to understand what happens sometimes in life.
My sister is someone
that had a rough life – even more so
than me. What happens when you have a family member and you just watch what
their journey is like and you just love them, but you know at some level, you
don’t even know what you don’t know. Well, my sister went down that path and
one day had to admit herself into the hospital because she was having an asthma
attack. What does that even mean? What do we even know about that?
What do we say about
asthma that we don’t know a whole lot about? Well, first of all, that’s what
today’s show’s about; is to begin to take a look at what the Allergy and Asthma
Network is doing. What this leading non-profit is all about and what their dedication
is to ending needless death. How do I know about that? My sister was one of
those.
How do you go in to a
hospital for what some people consider a minor incident only to not wake up the
next day, only find out that a dear family member has passed away? How many
others, children now in the world are we watching with allergies that are
carrying around special injections for themselves?
This is really a
bigger conversation than anything that I’m about to have. That is why Tonya
Winders is joining me here today. Breathe Better Together with Allergy and
Asthma Network. “Breathe Better Together”; what does that mean?
The question mark, I
guess, for Tonya, is, “Has allergy and asthma got us singing the blues?” Yeah.
It not only has us singing the blues, but it is definitely confounded and
confounding people.
How many children
right now, as well as people every age are we watching – just suffering and not
really quite understanding why or how? That’s because Allergy and Asthma
Network, they are right there and helping folks with outreach, education,
advocacy, and research. And yes, it is so important because we don’t know what
we don’t know. Today, that is the conversation we’re going to have. That is the
conversation that Tonya’s going to take us along the way and on this journey to
help us understand not only what her passion and commitment is all about, but
who she is.
President and Chief
Executive Officer of Allergy and Asthma Network. It’s the leading patient
advocacy organization dedicated to ending the needless death and suffering due
to asthma, allergies and related conditions. For those of you other there I
want to say this; if you think that we are getting better around this, we are
not. We are not.
Today, we’re going to be
speaking with her about a tireless effort. Her dedication, commitment to
helping all of us understand the challenges that we’re facing in the world
today with this, who is now affected, how is it changed, and how this
mother-of-five kids, four of whom have asthma or allergy issues ranging from 10
to 17. How all of this blends into a life that enables her to become an
advocate and a spokesperson and have a job that fulfils a vision.
Tonya, welcome to the
show. It’s great to have you here.
Tonya: Thank you, Dr. Pat. I appreciate
the opportunity to be here today.
Dr. Pat: You are perfect for answering
questions that I’ve been asking for 13 years. Here you and I get to talk. I
never thought in a million years that I would be doing what I’m doing. It
certainly didn’t happen by me sitting down with a big old business plan, but
its paying attention and looking at things that show up in life.
What has taken you
and put you smack, dab in the middle of this journey to get you here on this
show talking about a conversation about allergies and asthma? What is it? What
are the challenges and obstacles that you personally had to overcome to get you
right here to this very moment?
Tonya: Well, again, it is a journey
and certainly, mine has taken its fair share of twist and turns in unexpected
ways. I actually began my career about 18 years ago in the pharmaceutical
industry and the very first companies that I went to work for had allergy and
asthma products. As I grew in my career and in my professional journey, I had
increasing roles with pharmaceutical device diagnostic companies all in the
allergy and asthma space.
Simultaneously, we began
our family and I often laugh and say it was not part of my dating profile,
perhaps it should have been, but my husband has terrible allergies. As we married
and began to have our own children, and our own children began having these
conditions and the symptoms often associated with allergies and asthma – like face
atopic dermatitis or eczema, and some DI issues, and then seasonal allergies,
and then sun interment asthma. It became both a professional journey and a
personal journey for me over the past 18 years.
Then three years ago I
actually had been working with Allergy and Asthma Network from a volunteer
capacity for several years when the President and Founder, Nancy Sander decided
to retire after 28 years of service. At that point, she and her Board of
Directors approached me about leading the organization as President and CEO.
Dr. Pat: Part of this is really looking
at how we go from there to where we are. One of the interesting things that I’m
starting to really look at is the level of awareness that we actually could
have around asthma and allergies.
Especially as moms, right.
We’re talking about being a mother, as well. In looking at how this all began
as a mother, looking at the puzzle that Nancy Sander had, and looking at her
own daughter’s allergies and asthma. Isn’t it interesting when we step back and
we think about our children and the challenges that they go through to help us
become inspirations and advocates. Look at you right, you didn’t put a big old
business plan together and said, “You know I think I’m going to become an
advocate here.”
Tonya: Right. But it is very
interesting how life event, circumstances, our attitudes, and behaviours, and
beliefs constantly drive us to be and do something bigger than ourselves.
I think that specifically
in the case of Allergy and Asthma Network that’s what we really intend to do,
to first engage individuals to help them become more aware about their own
condition or their family member’s conditions. Then secondly, educate
themselves to become thirdly, more empowered and overcome these conditions and
now allow these chronic conditions like allergies or asthma to hold you back or
keep you from activities of normal daily living. Once you can do that for
yourself then you’re on the journey to truly advocating for others; taking that
next step of helping others and making sure that public policy and research
continues to really ensure that we can have the right treatment and access to
these treatments, and therefore also get better health outcomes.
Dr. Pat: Well this is part of the
conversation that we’re beginning today, so that when we are looking out in the
world we know who to go to and how to get there. Who knew that back in 1985,
who knew that something would be created that started to build momentum and
what does that mean?
Today we’re going to
a journey, right? We’re going to take this journey together. What does speaking
out for patients actually means? How do we go from ‘85 to now speaking out,
we’re going to take you on a journey so that all of you can find out more. Here’s
the way to begin: go to allergyasthmanetwork.org, allergyasthmanetwork.org.
We’re going to take
a short break, when we come back we’re going to see what this journey has been
like. What is the history? What does it mean to tap into grassroots and how is
this now today more important than we ever imagined? Stay tuned and help us
save lives. We’ll be right back.
Dr. Pat Hey everybody, welcome back.
It’s great to have you all join us here. We’re so thrilled about this series we
are starting with talking about something that many of us are aware of.
Certainly, if you have watched any films on television and especially in the
movies, one of the things I’m really struck by right now is in this blockbuster
movies. Have you ever noticed this recently -- even the zombie movies, have you
ever noticed this; there is at least one child that has asthma or that as an
allergy? Think about it, if you go back and think about this, what are we
showing in our mega blockbusters around the vulnerability of children? Why are
we showing it?
What this represents
in so many ways is a consciousness now that is coming to the forefront. It’s
kind of like this is not an anomaly anymore. Why do you see this so much in our
pop culture and how little do we know allergyasthmanetwork.org.
I’m so thrilled to be
doing this series with Tonya Winders joining me here today. Here’s why, as I
said before, we don’t even know what we don’t know. The thing that we do know
is that the number of people suffering from allergies and asthma is accelerating
at every age.
Tonya, thank you for today
and I know we’re going to talk today about where we were, where we are, and
where we’re going. I thought it would be great to talk a bit about how did we
get from mothers of asthmatics, how do we get from there to the next level?
Where do we go from ’85?
Tonya: Sure, and again, thank you for
the opportunity to share a bit about the organization’s background. If you
think back to 1985, certainly we didn’t have the wealth of knowledge, the
wealth of information at our fingertips through the World Wide Web that we have
today. For Nancy Sander, she had a daughter who had very severe asthma and
life-threatening allergies and she was in and out of the hospital. As a single
mom with multiple-children and really looking for where she could find
medically accurate, patient-friendly materials and unfortunately continued to
come up short.
So, Nancy decided to
sit there at her kitchen table with her typewriter and hammer out a newsletter
that she could share with other moms in the clinic that she was actually
visiting with Brooke. She did that and then that newsletter was actually
picked-up by the Kaiser Permanente system and shared throughout the system as a
patient newsletter. That picked up some national media attention and the
organization was born out of that effort. It really does show the power of what
one mom on a mission who wants to seek out her own information and education
but also share that with others, can do to change a community.
Now 30 years later,
we have over 2 million members at the network. Ninety percent of those members
are patients and caregivers, families just like yours and mine. Then ten percent
are healthcare professionals that commit their life and their work to this
space of allergy and asthma.
Dr. Pat: This is really, what we’re
talking about; someone has something that’s happening in their lives that is
directly related to and let’s just talk about it – not just the thriving of
children but the surviving of children. Many people don’t really get that we’re
talking about a wide-range of conditions that happen everything from having a
great day go bad, as you said during the break, to a life that is lost, we
still don’t have a sense of that, do we?
Tonya: No, I think that most people
don’t realize that actually twelve Americans die each and every day because of
asthma and allergies, life-threatening allergies here in our country. That’s
astounding!
Again, these are
conditions that we – by all stretches of the imagination – certainly do have
good have good guidelines-based care, we have good established treatments that
work the majority of the time. Yet the fact that this is the most common,
chronic childhood condition and has such huge financial burden on our country 56
billion in case of asthma each year, and over 25 billion in the case of
allergies each year. That in it of
itself is 80 billion dollars that these two conditions are causing. Not to
mention the priceless effort of loss of life and having twelve Americans die
every day because of these conditions, really is just astounding and a tragedy,
a shame that shouldn’t be.
Dr. Pat: Yeah, and one of the things that
we’re also going to address, as we move forward in the radio series that we’re
doing, is what is really important, what do we need to do, how do we go from
typing on a typewriter now to expanding the outreach? How do we do – and I
think most people are baffled by waking up one day and holding a child, or a
family member, anybody in their arms. As both Linda and I have done on numerous
occasions with a family member and saying, “Are we going to make it to the
hospital in time?”
So part of this
isn’t it, Tonya, part of this is also understanding what can be done from a
preventative point of view.
Tonya: Absolutely, prevention is so
very key when we’re talking about these conditions because there are again,
very distinctive steps we can take to preventing an asthma flare or a
life-threatening reaction called anaphylaxis. Being prepared, taking the steps
to prevention is absolutely critical. We will certainly spend a great deal of
time on those, as they’re the first step, to really, correct awareness around
these conditions.
Dr. Pat: Now, I want to talk about the
network for a minute because this is really setting the stage. We talked about
somebody having a passion – I love how we all love to get together here. I
dialled a wrong phone number thirteen years ago and didn’t hang-up and here I
am today. This is not something I planned.
But what was key to
me in my journey was kind of like you. It was six months after saying yes to this;
I got very, very, very sick. An allergy is was one of the first thing people
check now, and by the way, this was the only thing that I could do.
So it’s interesting how we
all get guided to be here. For you, you lived, and if I should say, breathe
this every day. This is something you’re immersed in and I wanted to ask you
this question; out in the world, what do you see the greatest challenge now for
us? What is the greatest challenge? Clearly, we’re not typing on a typewriter
anymore, but that doesn’t mean we’re not faced with some challenges.
Tonya: Oh yes, there are still so
many challenges. I think that one of the foremost challenges, certainly, there
is such a wealth of information – and knowing where to go, who to trust, what
information is appropriate for each individual is something that is very
overwhelming.
When you’ve got the
internet and all of the voices coming at you whether it be from your healthcare
professional, your physician, your school nurse, your best girlfriend, your
mother, your sister, daughter, friend, all of those individuals giving you
advice about your health – sometimes it can be overwhelming and confusing. Certainly,
hearing that reliable voice, that credible voice, knowing that is, trusting it,
believing it, and then having someone there to just support you through the
journey whatever that journey may be, whatever you face along the way.
Dr. Pat: Yeah, here we are, we’re talking
now, this is the world we live in and you touched upon something I find really
fascinating. Because I’m finding this kind of little conundrum and found this
along the way in my own kind of journey.
If you go back thirteen years,
I know this is hard for us to do. Many listeners listening, “Thirteen years,
you’ve got to be kidding; I was like in high school or something, right?” I’m a
little bit older than most, but if you go back thirteen years we weren’t going
to connect on Skype. There wasn’t going to be – internet radio was just
literally being born but it wasn’t taking on. Now we get emails and texts from
people in Belarus that are listening to the show on their smart phone. This is
the world of information. How do you manage? How does Allergy Asthma Network
manage getting the correct information to people?
Tonya: Well, we do it through a
variety of different channels. I think that first and foremost, we partner with
professionals who are experts in this topic of asthma and allergy. We are the
official advocacy lay organization for the American College of Allergy Asthma
and Immunology. We work very closely hand-in-hand with those medical experts to
ensure that everything we write, everything we put out is medically accurate.
Secondly, we work
with some of the health literacy experts across the country to ensure that it’s
easy to understand and digest. That even someone at a fifth or sixth grade
reading level could understand the information, comprehend and digest that
information, and then apply it accordingly to their lives and to their
situation. I think again, at the very essence that we do is taking that
medically complex information and presenting it in an easy-to-understand format
for individuals no matter the walk of life or where they’re coming from.
Dr. Pat: Wow, we’re going to take a short
break, everyone. When we come back, we’re going to take a look at what the
network does and who are the people that are involved as well as how do we take
this conversation to key legislators?
Why do we want to do that?
Why is that important? What road have we gone, and what strides have we made to
look at conversations with government to get support along the way. The
question mark is, “Is anyone listening?” Stay tuned, we’re going to take a
short break.
Again,
allergyasthmanetwork.org, check it out, when we come back we’re going to talk
about where we are, what we’ve done in terms of getting congressional support,
and where we’re going. Stay tuned, we’ll be right back.
Dr. Pat: It is so great to be – so I have
Tonya joining me here today and as we said before, this is a first of a series
we’re going to be doing with Allergy and Asthma Network. For those of you out
there, go to allergyasthmanetwork.org and what you’re going to find when you go
there is you’re going to see that this is a place that is available for both
patients and for healthcare professionals.
I wanted to talk about this
in this way a little bit, Tonya, if we could. We touched upon where we were;
now here we are and I just touched upon the fact that you all have made some
great strides in bringing this to Washington D.C., so to speak. I wanted to
take a moment to talk about that because that is a big thing whether or not we
know it – protecting patient’s rights.
Tonya: Right, absolutely. I think
this is an area that most Americans, they fail to really, connect public policy
and health. How, again, just a few people speaking out, raising their voice and
really sharing what the concerns are of the millions of Americans with these
conditions, the difference that you can make.
For now, twenty years
we’ve actually held the Annual Allergy Asthma Day on Capitol Hill and it’s an
opportunity to gather hundreds together. We make face-to-face visits with our
federal decision-makers, members of Congress, as well as the Senate and share
about the issues that are facing our families, put forth legislation that’s
going to help advance public policy and ensure that we have access to
treatments that we so desperately need.
In the last ten
years, a couple of the things that we’ve been able to do in that respect, is –
ten years ago we worked with federal decision-makers to pass a law so that
students can self-carry their asthma medication and their life-threatening
allergy medication, their Epinephrine auto-injectors in school. This allows
students, if they’re age-appropriate, and emotionally, maturity ready to
actually carry those medications and administer them as deemed appropriate at
the time of an emergency, they have the right to do so. Subsequently, 50 states
have also passed the same measure.
Then most recently,
in 2013, we worked with the Federal Administration, the Obama Administration to
pass legislation whereby schools can stock epinephrine auto-injectors for
anaphylactic reactions. What we learned by looking at the data is that actually
25 percent of first-time severe allergic reactions occurred in school without a
previous diagnosis. That’s why it’s so important to have the stock epinephrine
on-hand and be able to administer it when that emergency happens.
Dr. Pat: The question mark that comes up
for a lot of people is, “Okay, why now? Hasn’t this always been going on? What
have we done in the past?” But, there really is a little confounding variable
here in the forefront. That is really talking about the increased numbers that
are appearing of people that have allergies and asthma. By the way, we’re going
to talk about this in more detail in one of the later shows we do, what that
actually means.
But, folks would ask
the question, “Okay, why now?” Aren’t we seeing an astronomical rise in this?
Tonya: Absolutely, at this point,
again, asthma is the most common chronic childhood condition affecting about 7
million American children. In fact, an average two to three children per
classroom have the diagnosis of asthma. Likewise, for life-threatening
allergies we found that again, a life-threatening allergy, food allergies and
medication allergies, insect-sting allergies are also on the rise and impacting
about 15 million Americans.
Again, as you’re seeing
the rise of the prevalence of allergy and asthma there’s more and more need for
these types of public policies that can protect people and also allow them to
be more preventative in their care and prepared.
Dr. Pat: I want to ask you a question,
because you’ve been really side-by-side with this but as many of us know,
sometimes the journey comes to an end as it did with Nancy, Nancy Sander when
she retired. Then here you are, here you are, now you are coming into the
forefront as President and CEO. I want to take a moment and ask you what it was
like for you, what the passing of the baton was like.
Tonya: I think that it’s a wonderful
opportunity when you’ve known someone and you’ve known their legacy and their
organization for a length of time. Certainly I think on one-hand, it was that
how do we pay respect and honor due to Nancy Sander and to the legacy that she
has created of the organization for the past 30 years. We certainly have had a
number of ways to do that through retirement celebrations through our 30th
Anniversary celebration. We recognized Nancy and her contribution, and all the
wonderful foresight that she had to create the organization and to grow and
sustain it over the first 28 years.
Then for me, it was
really an opportunity to step back and say, “Who do we want to be? How do we
want the legacy of the organization to live on towards the next 30 years? How
can we leverage our strength that have been established in the first three
decades. Yet, channel them in new avenues, and new ways to reach even a broader
audience. To get the message out more widely so that more people can have the
benefit of the resource of Allergy and Asthma Network.
Dr. Pat: That’s really part of the
conversation, is really looking at where do we go from here. There are so many
things that we’re discovering in the world of information and communication.
I love this thing that I
have where we don’t even know what we don’t know. As a matter of fact, we were
sitting there today and we’re looking at some new technology we’re developing
to do exactly what we’re talking about here, is address this ever-changing
landscape of information that people want and information they don’t want.
You and I, we’re
talking during the break and unbeknownst to the many, many people that count
people, they clearly miss the boat that women were listening to Positive
Conscious Talk Radio. They were leading the field and that they are affluent,
they’re educated, and they’re tech-savvy. Ninety-two percent have smart phones
and they take it with them.
Now this is really
the conversation for you and I to have about how do we let them know about us?
Because you see, it’s not a matter of will they listen, because they’ve already
got that laid down. But, they are wanting to hear a message that they’re not
quite sure they know that they know that they really want to hear but is
necessary.
Tonya: No, and that is the challenge
because there are so many different sources of news and information. So how do
we make sure that they are listening and getting that credible, relevant,
accurate information in a timely manner, but in the format that they most desire.
I think that’s the real key, we’re looking at how we grow as a network and how
we present materials. It is more that online, on-demand. Utilizing a variety of
different channels, like video, audio in addition to the traditional print
resources and things that we’ve always provided.
Dr. Pat: Yeah, this is really part of a
big, big conversation. We’re going to take a short break, when we come back
we’re going to talk about the network and we’re going to talk about what does
that it mean to get involved, how you can not only support it but how you could
help spread the word. As I’ve said before for many of you out there just go
allergyasthmanetwork.org, allergyasthmanetwork.org.
When we come back, we’re
going to talk about what this means in terms of its members. How you can become
more involved, and what does it mean to help spread the word and become your
own outreach machine. Stay tuned, we’ll be right back.
Dr. Pat: Welcome back, everyone. Tonya
Winders joining me here today, President and CEO Allergy and Asthma Network.
For those of
you out there, Tonya’s going to be able to tell you, first of all, how you can
get directly involved, how you can get more information. It really is something
we’re going to be talking about for a long time to come here because there are
so many ways that we want to share information, also so many things that folks
don’t know.
If you go to
allergyasthmanetwork.org, allergyasthmanetwork.org, you’re going to see a
number of ways to participate. Tonya’s actually going to walk you through. Tell
us a bit about the network – who can be involved and what can they be involved
in doing?
Tonya: Absolutely. Well, thanks again
for that opportunity, Pat. I think that the truth of the matter is absolutely
anyone can be involved in the network. It’s not only patients but also
caregivers, families, friends. Also, healthcare professionals whether you’re a
school nurse that treats kids with asthma, or if you are a primary care
physician, a paediatrician, a respiratory therapist, or a sub-specialist like
an allergist or pulmonologist. Anyone who really is focused on that
guidelines-based quality care for allergy and asthma, that’s who we’re looking
to be a part of the network.
Maybe it’s just that
you want a little bit of information. You just received the diagnosis that your
child has a food allergy or that someone you love has asthma and so certainly
you can engage with the network either via phone, we have a 1-800 help line.
That’s available and manned by certified Asthma Educators and Health Educators.
We also have our website, which is available 24/7. We have a Spanish website
for those who are Spanish-speaking to visit as well.
Then we have a host of
printed resources. We have a host of online continuing educational courses. We
have all of these different ways you can get plugged in and get information
that is medically reviewed and patient-friendly.
Secondly, if you
want to get involved in conducting asthma screenings or doing health fairs in
your community, we’ll provide the resources and tools to help you do that.
Perhaps you are at a level that you fell, “Okay, I know this information for
myself and I want to help educate others,” we’ll most certainly partner with
you to go into your community and provide those resources and support materials
for you to educate others within your own community.
Then another way of
course, is to join the network as a personal member or as a professional member.
We have three levels of membership but it doesn’t cost anything to join and to
get access to the information. If you want to get our print resources, of
course there’s a small charge for those. Otherwise, all of our resources are
free and widely available, and certainly provide a unique opportunity that you
can tailor to your desired level of getting engaged and participating in the
network’s activity.
Dr. Pat: This is also an opportunity to
get information that is also accurate. Because that is one of the things that
we’re going to be talking about, is what are some of the news out there. One of
the things let’s talk about for the network is, it’s not an organization where
we just sit around and collect information. This is an organization, you travel
to conferences, you hold conferences and it really is to build up a momentum of
information in action. It’s what action can we take? Tell us a little bit about
some of the ways that you do get involved in the community, in the outreach.
Tonya: Yes, absolutely, and thanks
again for that opportunity. We really do believe that once you are informed and
engaged, and educated, that you’ll want to move to that level of empowerment
and actually be more actively involved. So, we provide opportunities for that whether
that is participating in a support group in your own community or starting a
support group in your community. That also could be attending one of our events
like our US Anaphylaxis Summit; we have two of those coming up in October, one
in Dallas and one in Boston.
We just held one out in
San Ramon, California. These are opportunities for a multi-disciplinary
stakeholder group so parents, patients, and healthcare professionals to gather
together and talk about ways that we can advance public policy in this area. How
we can educate our community and empower our community achieve optimal health
outcomes even in the face of allergy and asthma.
Dr. Pat: There are so many things that we
can talk about. I want to ask you this question because this is a discovery for
me. You heard me share at the beginning of the show how my sister went into the
hospital to get treatment for asthma and never got out. I think that we’re
going back to the timeframe that we’re talking about here where the
organization was founded where information started to be provided.
But there are
professionals as well, aren’t there, Tonya, that don’t know how to handle
situations. That don’t know even for example, whether or not their doctor’s
office is okay for someone that has asthma to even be in, something like that
for example.
Tonya: Yes, and it breaks my heart to
hear stories like your sister. Unfortunately, we hear it far too often at the network
and yet the truth is that all healthcare professionals are not necessarily
well-versed in the latest, greatest treatment and technologies for asthma and
allergies. It is a buyer-beware world out there.
We as patients have to be
better educated and informed about even choosing the right clinician, choosing
the right healthcare professional and being a partner in that shared
decision-making rather than the traditional way of, “The doctor said it, now
I’m going to do it.”
We need to come
alongside our healthcare professional and really work collaboratively with a
patient-centered care team approach in order to determine what the optimal
goals are for each individual. Then work for removing the barriers to achieving
that goal.
Dr. Pat: Part of what you and I are going
to be talking about in the shows that we’re going to do is what can parents be
more aware of. We’re talking about a number of different things, clearly, right
– where I talked about my sister in the hospital. Sometimes parents don’t know
the signs, don’t know the early symptoms. We think, “Oh, he is just coughing
over that peanut butter but that’s no big thing.” Isn’t there multi-levels of
awareness that have to happen around this?
Tonya: Absolutely. I think that
definitely it is about a journey. It’s about taking that initial when perhaps
you’re first diagnosed and beginning to learn about the condition. Ten years
down the road when you’ve been living with that condition for that length of
time, or 20, or 30 years down the road certainly you have a different level of
understanding, you have a different level of respect and engagement around the
condition.
Again, then you also
have the opportunity to volunteer and help others, or to donate to an
organization like Allergy and Asthma Network and help us to do the work of
raising that awareness and sharing those key messages across the world.
Dr. Pat: Well, this is the beginning of
getting the word out to our listeners and knowing that there is a solution.
Because that’s really what you all are providing, you’re providing solutions. This
is what’s so absolutely exciting and amazing now, is not just to have
conversations about what the problem is but conversations on how people can
come together in the solutions. Thank you for today. I have one last question;
what’s your personal message? What would you like to leave us with today?
Tonya: I think that my personal
message would definitely be life is a journey. It’s not about a destination,
it’s about a journey. Coming alongside like-minded people for the purpose of a
passion to have the best life they could possibly have. Again, not being
defined by a chronic condition like asthma or allergies but understanding that
that’s part of who you are and the journey that you are to lead, and doing that
with optimal outcome.
Dr. Pat: Wow, thank you so very much for
today. I want to thank everybody for tuning us in and turning us on. We’re
going to take a short break and when we come back more with “The Dr. Pat Show.”
But for now, please make sure you check it out, you go to the website and not
only will you find out ways for you to get more information but also ways to
support allegyasthmanetwork.org, allergyasthmanetwork.org. We’re going to take
a short break everyone. Tonya, thank you for your time today and a fabulous
conversation.
Tonya: Thank you, Pat.
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