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Dec.
20, 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
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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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CDC releases “State of
Childhood Asthma” report
A recently released report about childhood asthma by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says asthma deaths
among children under 18 have declined since 1999, while doctor
visits for the disease have more than doubled during the past
decade. "The State of Childhood Asthma, United States:
1980-2005" also reports that, in 2005, nearly 9 percent of
children (6.5 million) had asthma. Between 1980 and 1995, asthma
rates climbed from 3.6 to 7.5 percent. Since 2001’s introduction
of more precise asthma measurements, the trend has remained
stable at historically high levels.
(requires Adobe
Acrobat Reader)
Whole grains, fish may reduce asthma risk
Increased consumption of whole grains and fish could reduce
the risk of developing asthma by 54 and 66 percent,
respectively, according to a study in Thorax. Scientists from
the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands, examined whole grain and fish intake
in relation to current asthma among 598 Dutch children ages 8 to
13, who were enrolled in the International Study on Allergy and
Asthma in Childhood 2 (ISAAC-2). Dietary intake was estimated by
parent-completed semi-quantitative food frequency
questionnaires. Current wheeze and asthma was determined by a
combination of questionnaires as well as bronchial
hyperresponsiveness and atopic sensitization test data. In
addition, after adjusting the results for possible confounding
factors, the probability of having atopic asthma with bronchial
hyperresponsiveness was reduced by 72 and 88 percent,
respectively, when children had increased consumption of whole
grains and fish.
Asthma a barrier to exercise among children, study says
Asthma is a barrier to exercise among children, making
strategies to promote exercise within pediatric asthma care
necessary to protect mental and physical health, according to a
study in Pediatrics. Researchers from the University of
Nottingham, United Kingdom, studied 117 children ages 7 to 14,
who attended hospital outpatient clinics for either asthma or
non-asthma (otorhinolaryngology or dermatological) conditions.
They compared customary activity levels, body mass index (BMI),
and emotional well-being between the two groups. The asthmatic
children reported fewer physical activities than children
without asthma (median 4 per day vs. 6 per day). In the asthma
group, 60.7 percent of parents identified their child's health
as a barrier to exercise, compared with only 11 percent of the
parents in the non-asthma group. Obesity rates and mean BMI also
were higher in the asthma group.
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 A
message from ACAAI President Dr. Daniel Ein
It’s the holiday season again and we all look forward
to being with friends and family, celebrating the
passing of the old year and the promise of a new year.
Memories of our childhood flood back with the familiar
sights, smells, and sounds of whichever holiday we
celebrated: Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa. If you are
like me, it is the gift-giving and receiving that
triggers the best feelings — seeing the pleasure on
the faces of our loved ones as they open the gifts we
gave them and remembering the satisfaction of opening
a present and discovering it was exactly what we
secretly wished for all year.
This year, all of us practicing medicine kind of
received a gift from Congress, if you can call
correcting a mistake and an injustice a gift. You must
all be aware that we risked having Medicare
reimbursement cut by 5 percent because of a faulty SGR
formula. Congress voted to continue the 2006 rates.
This coupled with an average 5 percent increase in
reimbursement for E&M services, minus reductions in
compensation for some of our procedures, means that
allergists will see a net increase of about 2 percent
in Medicare compensation. And, we all know by now
that, as Medicare goes, so goes the health insurance
industry, so these decisions have ramifications far
beyond just Medicare.
The largest increase (12.77 percent) in E&M services
will be for code 99213 (mid-level office visit). Code
99214 will go up 9 percent. These gains are permanent.
This means that the gains will continue throughout the
future and that future updates will be based on these
higher fees. Other non-internal medical specialties
will not see net increases in 2007 payments.
The legislation also provides for voluntary pay for
reporting, an early version of pay-for-performance,
which will allow participating physicians to qualify
for an additional 1.5 percent bonus. In order to
qualify, physicians will have to report on three
measures from the Physicians Voluntary Reporting
Program. The legislation also further fleshes out the
pay-for-performance program that the College, with the AAAAI and JCAAI, have been working on to ensure that
fair and sensible measures are adopted for the
diseases we treat.
This success for organized medicine came about as the
result of a lot of hard Congressional lobbying and
grass-roots mobilizing, by the AMA, ACP, and others.
Some months ago, I wrote in this column about the need
to belong to AMA, precisely because we must have our
interests and our patients’ interests articulated with
a unified, strong and effective voice. I repeat my
entreaty to those of you who do not belong to join the
AMA, join your local medical societies, and support
the efforts to protect the practice of medicine.
On a somewhat less happy note, I want to address an
issue I touched on in my last column: the recurrence
of the remote practice of allergy. This rears its ugly
head every five to 10 years and we can never seem to
make it go away permanently. This time, it is being
initiated by a major national clinical laboratory,
which is marketing in vitro allergy testing to
primary-care doctors. They are linking this to a
program whereby they will send the results, when
accompanied by the physician’s signed prescription
(the prescription form is provided by the laboratory),
to an allergy supply house. The supply house will
write a vaccine formula, based on the test results,
and the vaccine will be made and sent to the PCP for
administration of immunotherapy. The marketing
material directed to the PCP specifically refers them
to the JCAAI Web site to access our practice
parameters for specific recommendations on the
prevention and management of systemic reactions.
There is no possible justification other than the most
obvious one for prescribing and administering
immunotherapy without the comprehensive allergy
history and examination that only a trained specialist
can provide. The College takes very seriously its
commitment to improving the quality of patient care
and we, together with the AAAAI and JCAAI, are
addressing these important issues head-on. We intend
to make sure that the laboratory and supply house
fully understand that this program is not in the
interest of the patient because it does not meet
acceptable standards of care. This approach has
usually succeeded in the past, and we certainly hope
it is successful again. More information will follow
as this unfolds.
I look forward to meeting as many of you as I can
during my presidency, and I hope I can call on you for
help to further our programs.
I want to wish you and yours all the best for this
holiday season and in the new year. |
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Association
News |
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New NAEPP Asthma
Guidelines update
Dr. William Storms, the College’s representative to the
National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP),
attended a meeting in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 4, to discuss
the planning for the 2007 rollout of the new asthma
guidelines. According to Dr. Storms, no date has yet been
selected for the release of the new guidelines.
“The first process will be sending the guidelines out to the
stakeholders in the NAEPP, including the College, federal and
other agencies,” said Dr. Storms. “The organizations will have
some time to review the document and make comments. Then it
will be open for public comment before it will be finalized.”
Rates increase for Board Review Course on Jan. 1, 2007
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 2007 Board Review Course 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.
College membership grows to record high 5,215
During the past year, the College has recruited 242 new
members, reaching a record total membership of 5,215.
New members include: Fellows-in-Training (134), Associate
Members (55), Allied Health (20), Fellows (19), Members (10),
and Scientific Fellows (4).
The College recognizes the following physicians who have
sponsored the most dues-paying membership applications:
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Dr. Jose
Huerta Lopez |
15 |
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Dr. Bryan L.
Martin |
8 |
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Dr. Blanca
E. Del Rio Navarro |
7 |
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Dr. Sandra
N. Gonzalez-Diaz |
5 |
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Dr.
Charlotte Cunningham-Rundles |
4 |
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Dr. Mitchell
Grayson |
4 |
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Dr. Larry
Hagan |
4 |
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Dr. Rohit K.
Katial |
4 |
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Dr. Stephen
J. McGeady |
4 |
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Newly
elected ACAAI Fellows were honored during the Convocation
held in Philadelphia on Nov. 11, including Drs. Vasudeva
M. Bommanna, Pearland, Texas (left), and Mark Ballow,
Buffalo, N.Y. The Convocation was sponsored by Merck &
Co., Inc. |
High school seniors
charged with
"Proving Where There’s A Will, There’s A
Way"
As part of the Schering-Plough Will to Win Asthma Scholarship
Program, high school seniors across the country were asked to
show how they have succeeded in the face of asthma. Ten
winners demonstrating success in one of four categories will
each receive a $5,000 college scholarship.
The “Will to Win” program encourages high school seniors with
asthma to lead active, healthy lives and to pursue their
dreams, thereby demonstrating that asthma does not have to
limit the pursuit of excellence.
The 10 winners are currently being selected by judges from
various asthma groups, including the College, and will be
announced in January 2007.
A total of $50,000 in college scholarships will be given to
winners in the following four categories: performing arts,
visual arts, community service, and athletics.
Schering-Plough launched “Will to Win” 22 years ago, and over
the years the program has awarded scholarships to students
with asthma who are pursuing higher education. In previous
years, the college scholarship was offered exclusively to
student-athletes.
For more information, please visit
www.schering-ploughwilltowin.com. |
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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 84 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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Copyright
© 2006 American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. All
rights reserved.
E-newsletter services provided by the medical editors at Ascend
Media, LLC.
Do you have news, responses or opinions to share with us? Please
e-mail the association office at
enews@acaai.org.
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