TR: Has the pandemic affected how you advocate for rheumatology?
Dr. Ziglar: There’s a camaraderie and a level of comfort that you can have when you meet legislators and their staff in person. That’s harder to attain when communicating through a screen, but with email, online meetings, Twitter, Facebook and any number of other platforms, we are still getting the word out.
TR: Who would you encourage to become an advocate?
Dr. Ziglar: Everyone can be an advocate. You don’t have to start right out of a fellowship. Like me, you can be someone who has been in the clinic for many years, finally have the kids out of their diapers and have extra time to feed your desire to speak up about injustices or problems that you see from day to day. One of the fastest and easiest ways to get started is to click on the links in call-for-action emails from the ACR, type in your personal experience and send it. That helps to really magnify and increase the momentum of the issues that we at the GAC want to push through. I also encourage everyone to support RheumPAC, which will likewise champion our causes.
All advocacy is important. The more we stay silent and hold back our opinions, the less likely we are going to be able to help each other as practitioners and also our patients, who rely on us to be their voice.
Leslie Mertz, PhD, is a freelance science journalist based in northern Michigan.
Every ACR/ARP member can advance rheumatology by being an advocate for rheumatology issues, practices and patients. Find tools and resources from the ACR to guide your advocacy journey.
