On September 14th, EFA organised the second Atopic Eczema Awareness Day, this time hand-in-hand with Global Skin, to make Atopic Eczema Day a global happening. This international day is of especial importance to the patient community EFA represents in Europe, as it shed light into the hidden reality of atopic eczema, which is rarely outspoken. In 2019, we focused on the overarching topic “looking beneath the surface”, emphasising that atopic eczema is much more than just a skin disease, with its impact going far beneath the skin.
“Atopical Lives”, an online photo exhibition
Through an online photo-gallery, we shed light onto the real burden of atopic eczema with an impactful series of testimonials from thirteen patients from Czech Republic, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. While EFA supported Italian Member Federasma e Allergie Onlus to host the exhibition psychically in Rome, the e-exhibition features people touched by atopic eczema across ages, portraying the similarities and differences among patients in five European countries.
An accompanying video follows patients in their daily lives and provides unique insights into what living “atopical lives” actually means. The video was shown by EFA Dutch Member Vereniging voor Mensen met Constitutioneel Eczeem (VMCE) during their national event in Utrecht.
Coordinated (social) media campaign to raise awareness
For World Atopic Eczema Day, we organised a coordinated social media and press campaign in coordination with our Members. Before, during and after Atopic Eczema Day, more than 1.5 million people were reached or engaged with our communication materials via social media.
We were happy to see a lot of engagement within the communities, commenting and sharing materials on atopic eczema. Our collective voice got the support of many individuals, partners and public authorities, such as the European Medicines Agency. Further, we were happy to see the awareness day covered by several national and European level media (EurActiv, Parliament Magazine).
We thank our members and partners for their mobilization and engagement, through countless events and congresses, to “look beneath the surface” and drawing attention to atopic eczema and the people living with it.
Quality of life discussion at EADV
Related to our last years’ report on atopic eczema and this years’ Atopic Eczema Day, EFA attended the largest dermatology congress, European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) in Madrid, where we connected with many other patient organisations, healthcare professionals and patients.
We held a patient-driven session on how to actually improve quality of live in atopic eczema beyond the physician consultation, organised in collaboration with GlobalSkin. The session brought together patients and top dermatology experts to discuss the needs and best practices on multidisciplinary care for atopic eczema in Europe to support quality of life. There was strong agreement on the need for collaboration for multidisciplinary care that is patient centred. The session recording is uploaded into EFA’s Youtube channel.
Beneath the surface, look at the numbers!
- Website was visited 678 times by 590 people
- 2 articles in European level media outlets
- More than 1.5 million social media impressions
- Over 300.000 views on our infographic
- Video: 146.000 views and 20.000 play-troughs
- More than 145.000 impressions for the online gallery
