Continued...
This year’s meeting begins with the International Food
Allergy Symposium on Thursday, Nov. 9. The symposium
will highlight the basic immunology of food allergies
and how food allergy concerns begin in utero.
Discussions include talks on transmammary transfer of
food antigens, the antigenic structure of foods,
practical information about formulas and their
usefulness, theoretical possibilities of immunotherapy
for food allergies and traditional Chinese medicine.
Also featured will be the Luisa Businco Lecture,
“Infant Weaning and Food Allergy,” presented by Dr.
Alessandro Fiocchi, director of paediatrics in the
Department of Paediatrics and Maternal Medicine at
Fatebenefratelli-Melloi Hospital, Milan, Italy.
The bookend to the International Food Allergy
Symposium is DERM FEST, on Wednesday, Nov. 15. The
Walk Through the Parameter on Contact Dermatitis will
be held the previous evening, Tuesday, Nov. 14. The
next morning DERM FEST will feature a broad-ranging
symposium on “The Immune Response in Dermatologic
Allergy.” Highlighting DERM FEST will be the
Stanislaus Jaros Lecture, “Immunomodulation in
Dermatology,” presented by Dr. Gailen D. Marshall,
division of clinical immunology and allergy,
Department of Medicine, University of Mississippi
Medical Center, Jackson.
The final DERM FEST discussion and last plenary talk
of the Annual Scientific Meeting, “The Skin is a Route
for Food Allergens,” will be presented by Dr. Sami L.
Bahna, professor of pediatrics and medicine, and chief
of allergy/immunology at the Louisiana State
University Health Sciences Center, Shreveport.
“It’s a nice tie up with what we started with on
Tuesday with the Food Allergy Symposium,” he said.
Other lectures during the week include:
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John
L. McGovern Lecture — “Immunotherapy Mechanisms,”
presented by Stephen R. Durham, MD, Imperial
College, London, Saturday, Nov. 11 |
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Edward J. O’Connell Lecture — “Pathogenesis of
Asthma: the Role of Cytokine Dysregulation,”
presented by Lanny J. Rosenwasser, MD, Children’s
Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Mo., Saturday, Nov.
11 |
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Bela
Schick Lecture — “Nation at Risk: Costs of Health
System Reform,” Richard G. Gower, MD, Marycliff
Allergy Specialists, Spokane, Wash., Tuesday, Nov.
15 |
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Bernard Berman Memorial Lecture — “Adverse Effects
to CAM Agents,” William S. Silvers, MD, Englewood,
Colo., Tuesday, Nov. 15 |
Returning by popular
demand is the Great Raft Debate, on Saturday. Experts
in asthma management will present their respective
cases as to why their therapy is the best. This year’s
topic is “Controller Therapy for Asthma.” Each
lecturer will have just 15 minutes. Following a
“free-for-all,” audience members will vote on who gets
tossed overboard and who survives.
Also back is Friday’s Annual Literature Review,
“Everything You Should Have Read Last Year, But
Didn’t!” This session helps allergists/immunologists
keep abreast of the latest clinical developments by
reviewing important, clinically focused literature of
the specialty published between October 2005 and
August 2006, with an emphasis on clinical relevance.
“The Annual Literature Review always gets high
grades,” Dr. Ein said. “It’s a terrific way for people
who may not always have time to read to have the
important advances highlighted. It really helps in
catching up on what has been important in the past
year.”
On Tuesday morning, a plenary session, “Clinical
Controversies: Point-Counterpoint,” will feature three
debates with each side presenting his or her argument,
followed by rebuttal. The audience will have the
chance to vote on the winner. Debate topics include
“Long-Acting Beta Agonists Are Safe,” “SLIT vs. SCIT,”
and “Mild Persistent Asthma Requires Regular Inhaled
Corticosteroids.”
A few new items to the Annual Scientific Meeting have
been added this year. On Monday, an intense general
session on indoor air quality, “Primer on Building
Science for the Allergist,” will include four talks on
how allergists assess air quality in homes and
offices.
Also on Monday is “Medical Crossfire: The Role of
Modifying Therapy in the Treatment of Asthma.”
According to Dr. Ein, feedback from surveys and focus
groups are showing that College members are growing
weary of the traditional didactic lecture where the
speaker talks and presents slides, then ends the
session by answering questions from the audience.
“People are looking to us to provide different, more
entertaining ways of learning, so we’re experimenting
with doing a Medical Crossfire session,” he said. “I
think the session will be a lot of fun. The four
panelists will debate and exchange their thoughts — a
lot of back-and-forth between them.”
Dr. Ein, clinical professor of medicine at George
Washington University School of Medicine and chief of
the division of allergy at GWU Medical Center,
Washington, D.C., stressed that there is a big push
for maintenance of certification, so programming for
the Annual Scientific Meeting has been adjusted to
meet the needs of College members.
“In order to obtain your certification now, you have
to show evidence of ongoing education, intellectual
growth and clinical capacity, and there are formal
examinations given to maintain certification,” he
said. “We are trying to tie our programs, not just the
plenary sessions, to specific maintenance of
certification objectives.”
College members will notice that symposia and plenary
sessions have been assigned to a specific core
competency — Patient Care, Medical Knowledge,
Practice-Based Learning and Improvement, Interpersonal
and Communication Skills, Professionalism, and
System-Based Practice — allowing members to pick and
choose from the area(s) they feel they need to
improve.
“This is another value-added service for our members
when they come to the meeting,” said Dr. Ein.
For those wavering on attending the Annual Scientific
Meeting, Dr. Ein reminds members that the meeting is a
one-stop shopping experience for continuing medical
education.
“You can listen to experts on issues that you deal
with everyday in your office if you’re a clinician. If
you’re an academician, it presents an opportunity to
learn about things you may not be dealing with in your
laboratory,” he said. “But it certainly gives everyone
an opportunity to learn from each other, and see how
everyone handles certain situations — not just in a
formal setting, but also informally.
“This is a great opportunity to catch up, to know
what’s been learned in the past year, and be
introduced to new ideas and potential new therapies
that are coming down the road.”
It’s almost as if The Carpenters are singing a line
from “We’ve Only Just Begun” specifically to College
members — “Sharing horizons that are new to us.”
View the program and
register online
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