Do You Know Your EPI?

By Gina Mennett Lee, M.Ed.   FoodAllergyConsulting.com

As part of our Beyond Awareness Food Allergy Educational Campaign for 2015, this month we are focusing on knowing how to use your epinephrine auto-injector.  This month’s campaign is hosted by friend and fellow food allergy advocate, Sharon Wong of NutFreeWok.  Her blog post is an excellent read and thoroughly explains our campaign.  Below I’ve provided my thoughts and a quick overview.

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Why focus on epinephrine training?

A recent study from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston found that out of 102 patients ONLY 16% used their epinephrine auto-injector correctly.

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The most frightening statement was made by Rana Bonds, MD, ACAAI Fellow and lead author of the study.

“Most patients made multiple mistakes and would not have benefited from self-administration of the potentially life-saving treatment if the need arose.”

What can you do?

  • Be sure that you know how to use the epinephrine prescribed to you or your loved one.
  • Use an epi trainer regularly to make sure you remember.  (Experts recommend at least every 3 months.)
  • Ask your loved one with food allergies where they keep their epi and if they know how to use it.

Please help us to spread this important message by tweeting, sharing or blogging about this topic. Please tag it with #FAEC15 and feel free to share a link to your blog post here.

Links to instructional videos can be found below:

EpiPen
Auvi-Q
Adrenaclick
Epinephrine Autoinject

The “Beyond Awareness Educational Campaign” was created by Gina Mennett Lee, M.Ed. of Mennett Lee, LLC.  The purpose of the campaign is to harness social media to provide necessary education to the public regarding food allergy management.  Caroline Moassessi  of GratefulFoodie and Sharon Wong of Nut Free Wok have joined the campaign to provide an even greater reach.  We hope you will join our effort by sharing the campaigns on your social media outlets. Together we can make a difference.
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