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Thrills – and Some Frustration – as We Recognize Private Professional Patient Advocates Week 2014
This year, March 3 to 9th, marks our Fourth Annual Private Professional Patient Advocates Week – capping the 5th year of existence of AdvoConnection and the Alliance of Professional Health Advocates. Congratulations to us! (Back patting and hugs all around….) It’s easy to see why we are thrilled. From the 30-ish people who joined the organization right away, taking a leap of faith (and, OK, there was no cost involved!) that this might be an interesting alliance to be part of in 2009, and with a keen interest in growing an almost non-existent profession… to the almost 500 members of APHA today (OK, as of this morning we have 494 members) – you can see how the profession is growing. Including the fact that there are probably a couple hundred folks who are interested and/or are performing advocacy-related services that aren’t members of the Alliance.) A profile of our membership and achievements: We hail from 34 states and 2 Canadian provinces. (With more members from California than any other state or province.) We are international, with members from each of Australia, Russia, South Africa, Spain and the UK. We represent advocates who have been performing advocacy services for 30+ years, those who are just exploring the opportunity to perform advocacy services as a business, and everywhere in between. About half our membership is signed up to use our Forum where we discuss every topic imaginable (the other half could participate, too, but they’ve never signed up.) We have held 40 teleconferences with experts to help members build their practices. We have showcased at least 50 media mentions for our members just in the past two years. The Alliance and AdvoConnection have been mentioned in the likes of O Magazine, Health Magazine, Forbes, CNN and others. Some AdvoConnection stats: The AdvoConnection Directory is the premier marketing activity the Alliance uses to help patients and caregivers find our members. Since launching the directory in late 2009, (through March 1, 2014) we have seen: Visits from 80,953 different people who viewed a total of 285,612 pages on the site. In our first full…