About the Campaign

A pharmacist in a white coat hands medication to an elderly customer in a pharmacy with shelves of medicine in the background.

This campaign has been developed alongside new health professional guidelines for assessing and managing penicillin allergy. The new guidelines were created as a collaboration between the National Allergy Council, the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA), Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia and the National Allergy Centre of Excellence (NACE).

This campaign aims to:

Help consumers understand why confirming a penicillin allergy matters and give them the confidence to talk to their doctor about how to get their penicillin allergy assessed.
Support GPs, pharmacists, nurses and other health professionals to identify low-risk patients, initiate assessment where relevant, appropriately refer where required, and keep the patient’s penicillin allergy information up to date in medical records.

The ASCIA penicillin allergy assessment guidelines:

Build on ASCIA's 2020 consensus statement on penicillin allergy assessment.
Cover both adults and children, with a separate guideline for each.
Support non-allergist health professionals (such as GPs) to safely assess and manage penicillin allergy in patients who are unlikely to be allergic to penicillin.
Have been incorporated into ASCIA's Allergy Assessment and Management e-training for Health Professionals

The ASCIA penicillin allergy assessment guidelines were developed by:

Reviewing published research, systematic reviews and international guidelines with support from NACE.
Bringing together health professionals with drug allergy expertise to discuss the evidence and agree on proposed recommendations.
Reaching formal consensus by a health professional panel via a formal Delphi process.

This campaign was developed by

A meeting of key interest holders (health professionals from a range of disciplines and consumers) to agree on scope and proposed and key messages.
Working with a design agency to generate brand concepts and key messages.
Testing these concepts through focus groups. Separate focus groups for health professionals and consumers were held.
Examining the focus groups discussions to identify common themes, which shaped the final brand and communication strategy.

If you would like more information about the campaign, please contact the National Allergy Council.

Other helpful resources

A man in glasses and a denim shirt uses a smartphone while sitting at a desk with a laptop, near a window with plants.