Mission & Objectives

Our mission is to globally support and empower patients with allergies, airways and atopic diseases by protecting their rights and insisting on the duties of governments, healthcare professionals and the general public.

GAAPP’s vision is to create a world where patients with allergies, airways and atopic diseases live better. We operate based on the values of respect, responsibility, and relationships.  

GAAPP Objectives

GAAPP’s goals and objectives are based upon the following four pillars: Awareness, Education, Advocacy, and Research.  

  • To ensure the growth & sustainability of the Board of Directors & staff to achieve the mission.
  • To equip and empower MOs to fulfil their missions. 
  • To drive awareness and action to address unmet needs of allergy, asthma, and atopic disease patients. 
  • To create & disseminate tailored evidence-based education tools to support patients, caregivers, policymakers, and Health Care Providers. 
  • To advocate on behalf of all people living with asthma, allergies, and atopic diseases to receive the best care, at the best time, with the fewest barriers. 
  • To advance and ensure the allergy/asthma/atopic disease patient voice in research & development to reflect the full community. 

What we do

GAAPP works with healthcare and governmental organizations – such as WHO, EAACI, ERS, GINA, GOLD, WHO GARD, and IPCRG – to improve patients’ lifestyles and reduce the impact of these diseases. Serving as an equal partner, we can make dynamic, beneficial changes to health and social policy and global decision-making while exchanging information and best practices with our member organizations. We also strive to improve the quality of diagnosis and therapy within the field. As a global platform, GAAPP aims to serve as an intermediary among patient organizations, enabling the amplification of local voices and encouraging communication across the globe. We also strive to demand global standards – including an increase in air quality by reducing pollution – that will ultimately empower patients and their communities and improve their lifestyles. We also support the establishment of patient organizations in low and middle-income countries, helping improve allergy, airways, and atopic disease care and support worldwide.

GAAPP members benefit from first-hand knowledge and our support for local adaptation and implementation of global quality standards.

We also conduct annual global events like the Scientific Meeting, The Global Food Allergies Summit, and the Global Respiratory Summit granting to our members access to worldwide initiatives and shared decision-making, as well as global events and the highest quality of support. This helps our Member Organizations enable your local patients and their healthcare professionals to thrive.

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Organization Info

GAAPP is an umbrella organization working to support, empower and advocate for patients with airways, allergic and atopic conditions. Based in Vienna, Austria, GAAPP’s Board is representative of all regions of the world with large and small groups, all with a common purpose: empowering the patient and supporting the patient voice so that decision-makers in both the public and private sectors in government and industry will be mindful of patient needs, patient desires, and patient rights.

Since 2009 we have grown into a vibrant worldwide organization with more than 100 constituent members from every continent sharing information and best practices, concerns, and hopes.

GAAPP’s Objectives are to establish a global network to empower patients with allergies, airways, and atopic diseases to:

  • working together with governmental and health-care organizations to minimize the impact of allergies, asthma, and urticaria
  • being an equal partner involved in the decision-making from inception to a conclusion with global health-care organizations
  • facilitating the founding of patient organizations in emerging countries
  • fighting for best-practice therapy
    and to support the worldwide community managing allergies, asthma, atopic eczema and urticaria by:
  • assisting patients to take an active role in managing their disease and empowering those who support them in the process
  • demanding unpolluted healthy air for patients
  • collaborating with member organizations to help with health and social policy concerns
  • aid emerging countries with the necessary diagnostic and therapeutic remedies for patients

For member organizations, GAAPP annually executes a Scientific Meeting and the GRS (Global Respiratory Summit) – 2020 with virtual participation – to support their member organizations with the latest scientific developments in the field of allergies, airways, and atopic diseases and with capacity building webinars:
First, setting awareness, education & policy priority goals – then capacity building webinars e.g. for

  • Social Media Engagement
  • Fundamentals of Fundraising
  • Covid-19 Crisis Management
  • Digital Health & Telehealth
  • Engaging in Government and HTS bodies

GAAPP is developing, conducting, and disseminating across all communication channels multi-channel awareness campaigns of World Awareness Days and supports different Registries for patients (Asthma, Covid-19+Asthma, Covid-19-+Atopic Dermatitis).
We engage experts in allergy, airways, and atopic diseases to craft key messages and coordinate the distribution of the messages among all organizations in GAAPP.
We strive to raise the voice of patients and be patient advocates (e.g. GINA guidelines or GOLD guidelines) by getting involved whenever relevant treatment guidelines change, or new drugs become available. GAAPP is co-author of the Charter for Patients with Severe Asthma and participates in real-life studies.
Our key values are Patient Centricity, Accountability, Transparency, a Growth Mindset, and Respect.

Member Organizations

Social & Racial Justice

As a global not-for-profit patient education and advocacy organization, GAAPP has a commitment to civic and social responsibility and supports those who seek a more just society. GAAPP upholds the principles that all human beings are inherent in dignity and equality and that all members have an obligation to take action, jointly and separately, to promote and support universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction of race, of sex, language, religion or national origin.

GAAPP reaffirms the need to rapidly eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and manifestations throughout the world and to ensure understanding and respect for the dignity of the human person. All people are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection under the law against all discrimination and against any incitement to discrimination.

Raising awareness of airways disease and allergies and improving access to healthcare are among our key policy priorities.  Social and economic problems affect patients in many countries, highlighted by the COVID-19 crisis.

Let us unite as GAAPP members to find solutions that advance equity, not only in healthcare but in all aspects of life.

We will reflect on how we can better use our voice to help those who deserve equality, listen to those who are angry and hurting, and strive to come together for a better future – for all.

Constitution

Download the Global Allergy and Asthma Patient Platform Constitution. Last Updated July 2021.