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Dec.
6, 2006 |
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Welcome to ACAAI eNews — a bi-weekly
aggregated
news service
from the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. To be
removed from this distribution list, please see instructions at
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Top
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Distance Learning |
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Drugs and Devices |
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Association
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Fellows-in-Training |
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Calendar |
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Archive |
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FIT Archive |
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Distance Learning |
2005 Board/Recertification Review Course:
DVDs, Audio CDs, MP3s
Link
ACAAI Tape Store
Complete Listing
Link
2005 ACAAI ANNUAL MEETING
• Symposia Online
Nov. 4-9, Anaheim
Link
2004 ACAAI ANNUAL MEETING
• Symposia Online
Nov. 12-17, Boston
Link
2003 ACAAI ANNUAL MEETING
Nov. 7-12, 2003, New Orleans
• Two Symposia Online
Link
• Plenary Sessions CD-ROM and DVD
Link
Patient-Centered Allergy Practice
Endorsed by ACAAI, Sponsored by Physicians Practice
Link
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Calendar |
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JANUARY
New York Allergy Society
Jan. 10
Tel: 212-355-1005
E-mail
WSAAI 45th Annual Scientific Session
Jan. 14-18, Wailea Maui, Hawaii
Tel: 623-266-9148
E-mail
FEBRUARY
2007 Meeting of the Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Society of
Georgia
Feb. 2-3, Greensboro, GA
Tel: 770-534-0534
E-mail
2007 AAAAI Annual Meeting
Feb. 23-27, San Diego
Tel: 888-869-0189 (US/Canada)
Tel: 415-979-2277 (International/Local)
Link
MARCH
IX
International Symposium on Respiratory Viral Infections
The Macrae Group
March 3 - 6, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Tel: (+1) 212.988.7732
E-mail
Link
APRIL
2007 World Immune Regulation Meeting
April 11-15, 2007
Davos, Switzerland
Email
Link
International Conference on Asthma
Impacts of Air Pollution
South Cost Air Quality Management District
April 26-27, Anaheim, CA
Tel: 909-396-2432
Link
ONGOING
World Allergy Organization Society Meetings
ACAAI CME Website
Contact: Mary Campbell
Tel: 847-427-1200
E-mail
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Sponsored
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Top
Stories |
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AAFA launches 'asthma friendly'
toy certification
The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America recently
launched a new program to certify toys as asthma friendly. The
toys on the list have been tested and determined to be better
choices for children with asthma and allergies. The toys also
include instructions for keeping them asthma friendly. For
example, plush toys should be placed in the freezer for 24 hours
and then washed in the washing machine every four weeks to kill
dust mites and their eggs. The asthma friendly toys are
available at several major U.S. retailers.
Regular swimming pool use may boost hay fever risk
Children who go to swimming pools frequently may be at risk
for developing hay fever when they become adults, according to a
study in Allergy. Researchers at the GSF- National
Research Center for Environment and Health in Neuherberg,
Germany, retrospectively surveyed 2,606 adults from 35 to 74
years old. They gathered detailed medical history and
information about swimming pool attendance. Subjects who
attended a chlorinated swimming pool 3 to 11 times each year
during school age were 74 percent more likely to develop hay
fever than subjects who never attended a pool at school age. In
addition, subjects who were frequently exposed to pools during
the past year were 32 percent more likely to have hay fever than
subjects with no pool exposure.
Perceived asthma control linked to better health
Patients who have greater perceived asthma control have improved
asthma-related health status, according to study in Chest.
Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco,
conducted structured telephone interviews with 865 patients who
were discharged from asthma-related hospitalizations, collecting
demographic information, asthma history and administering the
Perceived Control of Asthma Questionnaire. They then measured
over time emergency department visits and asthma-related
hospitalizations, with a median follow-up time of 1.9 years.
Greater perceived control was associated with better physical
health and asthma-related quality of life and fewer severe
asthma attacks. In addition, patients with greater perceived
control reported fewer days of restricted activity due to
asthma.
New risk score helps identify severe asthma cases
A new clinical tool to help doctors predict which asthma
patients are at highest risk for hospitalization or emergency
department visits could optimize clinical management and result
in better patient care, according to a study in the European
Respiratory Journal.
The TENOR Risk Score uses factors such as breathing and exercise
tests, age and weight, as well as smoking, medication and
medical history. Scientists from the University of California,
San Francisco; Harvard Medical School in Boston; and the
National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver collected
information about 2,821 adults, assigning risk scores from 0 to
18. Subjects with risk scores of 5 to 7 points had a 3.5-fold
higher risk of hospital treatment. Those with risk scores of 8
points or more had a 12-fold higher risk compared with subjects
whose risk scores were below 5.
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 A
message from ACAAI President Dr. Daniel Ein presented
at the Annual Business Meeting
Those of you who were at the Convocation (or read my
last eNews column) know that I am optimistic about our
future. We are on the verge of great advances in
treatment of allergic diseases based on science and
our ever-deepening understanding of the immune system.
Our College has a bright future with enlarging
enrollment, solid finances, and growing acceptance in
our country and the world as a major influence in
allergy, as a leader in education and in support of
allergists in their practices, whether in private
offices, in multispecialty groups or in academic
centers.
We are committed to continue the work so many had done
before in positioning us where we are today and to our
desire to grow and strengthen those bonds that we have
forged with sister and related organizations and
partners. And all of this was in the context of “We
have only just begun.”
But I want us to be aware of some of the challenges
that lie before us.
We, the officers of the College, heard repeatedly from
our pharmaceutical partners that they feel their
industry is under siege and that it is “the new
tobacco.”
While medicine is not quite that badly viewed and
while people still for the most part respect their own
doctors, health care as an industry is seen as
dysfunctional — too costly, too unfriendly, often
dangerous to one’s health. While health care was not
at the top of voters’ concern in the recent elections,
it did rank about sixth, according to a recent article
in the New England Journal of Medicine.
One of the challenges facing American practitioners
is, as most of you know, the potential loss of 20
percent reimbursement from Medicare over the next five
years. This comes as a result of a faulty Medicare
reimbursement policy tied to the volume of physician
services, the Sustainable Growth Rate. Congress has
been fixing this each year on an ad hoc basis but
failed to do so this year, so far. It may try to fix
it by the end of the year, tied to Pay for Performance
measures, but this is not guaranteed. I don’t mean to
be simplistic about this, and I know there are
multiple reasons for our current situation, but I
believe that if there were more good will toward
physicians on Capitol Hill, we might well have less
trouble getting our problems solved.
Allergy continues to be threatened by competition from
a variety of directions. Physicians from other
specialties think that they can learn to practice
allergy by taking one or two weekend courses in
allergy testing and immunotherapy. These physicians
are now taking weekend course in treating asthma. They
are, of course, well within their rights, and in the
hurly-burly of the marketplace that constitutes our
system, we have to continue to prove that “allergists
do it better.”
We were recently made aware that certain clinical
laboratories are now offering full immunotherapy
services to primary care doctors. They promise to do
blood allergy tests and, if the PCP sends a signed,
blank prescription, an allergy nurse will write out
the prescription, which will be sent to an allergy
extract provider, who will mix a vaccine, which the
PCP can administer. Instructions for immunotherapy can
be found, according to this laboratory’s Web site, in
our practice parameters.
We have challenges in our workforce with shrinking
numbers of allergists at a time when projected needs
for allergists in the future are increasing.
We need more money to fund training of allergists. New
pharmaceutical regulations are throwing up additional
barriers to funding programs for all medical
societies.
I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
But none of these problems is insurmountable, and I am
sure that by continuing to work in the spirit of
collaboration and friendship that characterizes this
College, we shall be able to meet these challenges.
So, dear friends, I promise you, who have given me the
great honor of leading this wonderful organization for
the next year, that I will give this leadership task
the full attention it deserves. I have no doubt that,
with the help of all of you, we will, in the end, be
successful in preserving and extending the excellence
in the science and practice of allergy that our
mission statement sets forth.
Remember, we have only just begun. |
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Association
News |
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Annual Meeting
programs will be available as video podcasts
The College has launched a new initiative to electronically
deliver scientific presentations from this year’s Annual
Meeting directly to its members as vodcasts (video podcasts).
Beginning later this month, members can view bi-weekly,
30-minute vodcasts of key sessions on their computers or
download them directly to a portable media player. Users will
be able to retrieve files manually from the College Web site,
or subscribe (at no cost) to an RSS feed which will
automatically send an alert when a new presentation is posted.
The first Vodcasts will contain the slides and audio from this
year’s Food Allergy Symposium, Literature Review Course, and
the session “Asthma Control: How Are We Doing?” Other key
scientific sessions and non-meeting related material also will
be broadcast throughout the year.
This new and exciting service is sponsored by an education
grant from GlaxoSmithKline.
Web-based program helps allergists
learn about
Pay-for-Performance
Pay-for-Performance (P4P) will impact clinical services and
reimbursement for allergists in the coming years. An online,
Web-based presentation has been created to give you a
basic understanding of P4P, how it may change your practice,
and the things that are being done by your professional
societies to advocate your interests.
Children’s Asthma Care Performance Measure Set updated
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare
Organizations is a recognized and award-winning international
leader with a long proven ability to identify, test and
specify standardized performance measures. It engages in
cutting-edge performance measurement research and development
activities and has established successful, ongoing,
collaborative relationships with key performance measurement
entities.
The Specification Manual for National Hospital Quality
Measures —Children’s Asthma Care updated Dec. 1, 2006, is
available to download at the Joint Commission
Web site.
Rates increase for Board Review Course on Jan. 1
If you plan to attend the ACAAI/AAAAI
Certification/Maintenance of Certification Board Review
Course, April 19-22, 2007, at the Renaissance Hotel in
Chicago, register before the rate increases on Jan. 1, 2007.
Online registration is fast and easy.
The Allergy and Immunology Review Course 2007 is developed and
presented by a conjoint committee appointed by ACAAI and AAAAI.
As ABAI is the certifying organization for the specialty – and
separate from these educational organizations – ABAI Directors
responsible for preparing the 2007 ABAI examinations are not
involved with the course presentations. Content outlines for
the examination are available on the ABAI
Web site.
Board Review Course programs have been mailed to all ACAAI and
AAAAI members.
We now have an Allergist in the House:
Steve Kagen elected to Congress
 Dr.
Steve Kagen, Appleton, Wis., a practicing allergist for 25
years, was elected by Wisconsin’s 8th District to the U.S.
House of Representatives.
Dr. Kagen founded the Kagen Allergy Clinics in Appleton, Green
Bay, Oshkosh, and Fond du Lac; serves as an assistant clinical
professor of Allergy-Immunology at the Medical College of
Wisconsin; and is triple board certified in Internal Medicine,
Allergy-Immunology, and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology.
Wisconsin doctors have voted Dr. Kagen one of the “Best
Doctors in America,” and CNN trusted him as its allergy
consultant, especially his groundbreaking work in identifying
new causes of asthma, for which he has earned an international
reputation.
“Our nation is headed in the wrong direction, and everyone
knows healthcare costs are out of reach,” Dr. Kagen, a
democrat, told voters. “Our system of healthcare is simply
broken, but by working together, we will be able to guarantee
access to affordable care for every citizen — with No Patient
Left Behind.”
And here’s how:
• Open disclosure of all health care-related prices
• Unitary pricing, so all people pay the same amount for the
same product or service
• A single insurance risk pool, to leverage down insurance
prices for all citizens
• Deductible rates set at 3 percent of a household’s taxable
federal income
• A renewed commitment to cover all uninsured children and
working parents
For more information, visit his Web site at
www.stevekagen.org. |
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Fellows-in-Training |
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Immunology Review Corner
Welcome to the Board Review Corner prepared by Karla R.
Davis, M.D., Senior Representative of ACAAI’s
fellows-in-training (FITs) to the Board of Regents. The Board
Review Corner is your chance to test your Board preparedness.
To refer to a previous Board Review Corner, click the “Archive”
link in the left column.
Immunology Review Corner: Chapter 83 of the 6th edition
of Middleton’s Allergy Principles and Practice, edited by
N. Franklin Adkinson, et al. Review questions were written by
Drs. Karla R. Davis, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, and Soo Kim-Delio, Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
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