AARC Endorses Pulmonary Hypertension Campaign

February 24, 2014

The AARC has endorsed a new campaign launched by the Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA) to raise awareness of the condition among medical professionals.

The overall goal of the multi-year Sometimes it's PH effort is to reduce the time from onset of symptoms to diagnosis, which averages 2.8 years and has gone relatively unchanged over the past 20 years despite the introduction of 12 treatments since 1996. Eleven of the 12 have been introduced since 2001 and three since November of last year.

Since most people with PH are initially diagnosed with more common respiratory conditions like asthma and COPD, the campaign chose the zebra for its mascot, building on the fact that health professionals are taught to associate common symptoms with common conditions using this saying, “When you hear hoof beats, think horses, not zebras.”

The PHA says PH is the zebra that should be considered, and the campaign aims to ensure more health professionals look for its stripes when assessing patients with respiratory symptoms that could be PH.

The overall campaign goals are to:

• Educate more health care providers about PH
• Urge more health care providers to consider a PH diagnosis when symptoms warrant
• Encourage health care providers to refer patients to PH specialty care centers for appropriate testing and a wider range of treatment options