“So, what do you do?” What a difficult question! The communications team at the National Aspergillosis Centre have been mulling this one over a lot recently and have decided that they need to make things clearer.
They have been known as ‘the comms team’ for a long time. But what does that really mean? How can they explain what they really do? They have broken it down into five main areas and have become NAC CARES.
This is what they want to communicate about the National Aspergillosis Centre.
Community
NAC is at the centre of a community. That community is made up of people with aspergillosis, their families and carers, clinicians, researchers, academics and allied health care professionals. We work with the Aspergillosis Trust, the Mycology Reference Centre Manchester and the Manchester Fungal Infection Group. We’re available to consult with staff from any other hospital if they need specialist advice about aspergillosis. Together we are fighting against aspergillosis.
Awareness
We strive to raise awareness of aspergillosis. We champion World Aspergillosis Day. We provide research and clinical resources for academics and health care professionals. We provide free information to patients.
Research
NAC has an extensive clinical research portfolio including azole resistance, optimising diagnostics, clinical outcomes and quality of life, genetic basis of disease and immunity.
Education
We provide information to patients about aspergillosis. We also provide diagnostic and clinical training to health care professionals and technical staff through a variety of online learning resources.
Support
NAC is a friendly place to visit both on and offline. Our staff are helpful and knowledgeable. As well as clinical care, we support people with aspergillosis and their families by hosting face to face and online support groups.
NAC CARES!
The first letter of each of these areas spells out the word ‘cares’. And that’s exactly what we do. So, your NAC comms team will now be known as your NAC CARES team.
Graham Atherton, NAC CARES team lead, said “This is a real step change for us in terms of communicating our function to the people who use our service.”