Doctors As Fundraisers - An 'Intensive' Appeal
7 October 2002 at 1:10 pm
Intensive care specialists in hospitals across Australia and New Zealand have banded together in a unique campaign to raise $10 million dollars for life saving research – a campaign that has already attracted the attention of Prime Minister John Howard.
The Head of the Intensive Care Unit at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne Professor David Tuxen is driving the Intensive Care Appeal.
It’s taken three years of planning but Professor Tuxen and the Australian & New Zealand Intensive Care Foundation have enlisted 180 ICU hospitals and turned more than 450 ICU specialists into fundraisers.
ANZIC Foundation Deputy Chair, Dr. Nerina Harley says it is unique that the specialists have become the fundraisers, so far attracting dozens of large corporate sponsors. It’s this aspect that has caught the eye of the Prime Minister who has agreed to launch the Public Appeal on October 11th.
Dr Harley says the Intensive Care Appeal aims to raise $10million over five years for life saving research into four areas: lung injury, brain injury, infection and prevention methods.
Dr Harley says the survival rate of patients in Intensive Care is 85%. The research aims to improve that figure by 2%. With one hundred thousand patients in intensive care in Australia and New Zealand each year, the results from the research could save another 2000 lives.
Dr Harley says that this would be like wiping out the annual road toll across our two countries.
She says while there are many, many worthwhile medical causes the Intensive Care Appeal is very attractive because it is achievable, has high community impact and has a time scale of months not years for results to be seen.
She says there are two main corporate sponsors and dozens of other large corporate supporters who have backed the Appeal.
To date the Appeal has raised over $3 million dollars from public and corporate support. The Foundation’s principal partner ANZ has pledged $1.5 million over three years and recently PMI Mortgage Insurance has pledged just under half a million.
Dr Harley says 10 medical companies forming the Intensive Care Cooperative have largely agreed to pay the infrastructure costs so that every cent raised from the Public Appeal, which will involve the sale of brightly coloured Intensive Care wrist bands and ‘heartbeat’ bookmarks, will go directly to the research.
She says while the ANZIC Foundation has a campaign director it’s the specialists who have stepped into the role of corporate fundraisers in a unique bi-national campaign, engaging their ICU’s teams to help raise funds publicly.
If you would like more information about the Intensive Care Appeal or its corporate partnerships please contact Professor David Tuxen on 0418 389 589 or page Dr. Nerina Harley on 03 9387 1000. The Appeal web site is www.intensivecareappeal.com.
