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Jan.
3, 2007 |
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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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Top
Stories |
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Distance Learning |
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Drugs and Devices |
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Association
News |
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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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Who should take the lead in advocacy issues
affecting allergists in Washington, D.C.?
Which of the following should be the top lobbying
priority? |
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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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Living near major street
affects respiratory health
The closer a person lives to a major road, the more likely
he or she is to suffer from respiratory problems, such as
breathlessness and wheezing, according to a study in the
American Journal of Epidemiology. Scientists at the
University of Basel, Switzerland, studied 9,651 randomly
selected men and women from 18 to 60 years old who enrolled in a
1991 study. Of those subjects, 8,047 re-enrolled for the second
phase of the study in 2002. The subjects’ risk of attacks of
breathlessness increased by 13 percent for every 500-meter
portions of a major street located within 200 meters of their
homes. Subjects whose homes were within 20 meters of a busy road
were 15 percent more likely to regularly have phlegm in their
breathing passages, while they were 34 percent more likely to
have wheezing with breathing problems. However, the respiratory
effects from traffic were stronger for men and people who had
never smoked.
Study: No association between low serum IgE, rhinosinusitis
Despite previous studies suggesting a relationship between
low-IgE and chronic rhinosinusitis, very low serum IgE levels
were not associated with chronic rhinosinusitis, according to a
study involving pregnant women in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma
& Immunology. Researchers from the Medical College of Georgia,
Augusta, looked at the clinical history of respiratory illness
in 626 pregnant women (who were participating in a study about
allergies in offspring) in relation to serum IgE concentrations.
Of those women, 21 had serum IgE levels below 2.0 IU/mL. Of the
19 participants with low IgE levels for whom clinical data were
available, none reported physician-diagnosed sinusitis. In
addition, more women (15.8 percent) with normal IgE than with
low IgE (5.3 percent) had physician-diagnosed hay fever.
More than a third of poor, urban toddlers overweight
More than one-third of low-income, urban toddlers are overweight
or obese, according to a 20-city study in American Journal of
Public Health. And Hispanic children were twice as likely as
either black or white children to be overweight or obese.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison studied
nearly 2,000 children using survey, in-home observation, and
interview data collected at birth, 1 year, and 3 years. Of all
the children in the study, 35 percent were overweight or obese.
Of Hispanics, 44 percent were obese.
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 A message from Dr. J. Allen Meadows, Board of Regents,
2003–2006
College activities on Capitol Hill, future
opportunities for members
Greetings from the sunny south. Our president, Dr.
Daniel Ein, asked me to update you about our
legislative activities and an exciting new opportunity
for College members. For the last three years, the
Board of Regents has been meeting in the spring with
our congressmen and senators, advocating for a number
of issues important to allergists. At its November
meeting, the Board voted to extend an invitation to
the general membership to join in our advocacy
activities on Capitol Hill. Before I explain how you
can help, let’s examine our current activity and
accomplishments:
First and foremost, as Dr. Ein discussed in his last
ACAAI eNews
column, Congressional action taken before
the end of 2006 has stopped the forecasted 5-percent,
across-the-board cut in physician payments scheduled
for 2007. Your ACAAI Board, working with others
including the AMA, has made fixing the Medicare
payment crisis a priority during each of our visits to
Capitol Hill. Although getting the legislation passed
and stopping the cuts was critically important, it was
only a temporary reprieve. The bill did not provide a
permanent fix to the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR)
formula, which means that unless further action is taken in
2007, cuts will be on the horizon for 2008.
The legislation also established a Medicare Physician
Quality Reporting program beginning in July 2007.
There is a great deal of ambiguity in the bill’s
language as to how the reporting will be implemented,
but it appears that physicians who agree to submit
data on at least three quality measures will be paid a
bonus of 1.5 percent. It is unclear if the bonus will
be paid for all claims submitted by the reporting
physician or only those claims for which the data has
been reported.
The Boards of the College and AMA expect that much
work will be needed with the new Congress to improve
the quality-reporting framework and to find a
permanent fix to the Medicare payment formula. Our
membership can help with this goal.
In addition, working with Nancy Sander and AANMA as
the primary sponsor, legislation was passed allowing
children to carry albuterol at school. We also were
encouraged to learn that one of our own, Rep-elect.
Steve Kagen (D-Wis.), a practicing allergist from
Appleton, Wis., was elected to the U.S. Congress this
fall. We are hopeful that the Family Asthma Act will
move forward in the new legislative session.
Perhaps most important is the GME issue of diminishing
federal support for allergy training programs. I will
not repeat in this column the past discussions so
eloquently outlined by Dr. William Dolen (Dec.
7, 2005 and
Dec. 21, 2005),
and in the
GME
White Paper written by the committee chaired by Dr. John Moffitt,
but this appears to be an issue threatening the core
of our specialty. The White Paper leads us to an
inescapable conclusion about the source of funds (the
federal government) needed for allergy GME.
Other specialties have many members attend a
legislative day annually in Washington D.C. In my home
state of Alabama, more than 150 doctors make an annual
trip to Capitol Hill. In March 2006, an estimated 450
ENTs made calls on their congressmen, making them the
primary voice for clinical allergy in Washington. Your
Board of Regents has decided to expand the activities
of allergists on the Hill.
In 2007, the Board is issuing an open invitation for a
limited number of members to join us at their own
expense (travel and hotel) on Thursday, May 3, to meet
with their congressional representatives and their
staffs. We are particularly interested in having
former and potential future Regents join us, as well
as anyone who wants to be more involved. While
experience visiting legislators is helpful, it is not
required. We are planning an educational session on
Thursday morning before our visits to the Hill to help
prepare us and to give us materials about the issues
we will be addressing. Activities will include
role-playing, a presentation by our ACAAI lobbying
firm, and a presentation by our AMA lobbyist.
In 2008, we are planning a more extensive meeting,
granting CME credit for the educational activities
preparing you to go to the Hill. Both meetings will be
held in conjunction with AANMA’s Asthma Awareness Day
on Capitol Hill, May 2. If you are interested in
attending, contact Rick Slawny
(rickslawny@acaai.org)
for more details.
Voice your opinions by
voting in the poll. |
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Association
News |
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Annual Meeting
programs are now available as video podcasts
Utilizing the latest information delivery technology, the
College has launched a new initiative to electronically
deliver scientific presentations from this year’s Annual
Meeting directly to its members as video podcasts, or
vodcasts.
 You
can retrieve the files manually from the College Web site, or
subscribe (at no cost) to an RSS family of Web feed formats,
which will automatically send an alert when a new presentation
is posted.
Members can view streaming bi-weekly, 30-minute vodcasts of
key sessions on their computer or download them as a file
directly to a portable media player.
Subscribers can consume content on-demand and don't need
keyboard or mouse interfaces to choose channels and items. New
episodes show up automatically, so the technology is ideal for
on-the-go portable media players and mobile phones.
This new and exciting service is sponsored by an education
grant from GlaxoSmithKline.
The first vodcasts contain the slides and audio from the 2006
XII International Food Allergy Symposium. Future vodcasts will
feature the symposia “Asthma Control: How Are We Doing?” and
the Literature Review Course. Other key scientific sessions
and non-meeting related material also will be broadcast
throughout the year.
The College invites Fellows to apply for leadership
positions
The ACAAI is accepting applications for Vice President for
2007-2008, Treasurer for 2007-2008, and for a position on its
Board of Regents for 2007-2010.
All interested Fellows are encouraged to submit a standardized
questionnaire with a cover letter and curriculum vitae
to ACAAI no later than Feb. 15, 2007. Applicants for the
position of vice president must have previously served a
three-year term on the ACAAI Board of Regents.
“The College’s application submission process gives everyone
the opportunity to express his or her interest in being on the
Board of Regents or on track to the presidency,” said ACAAI
Past President and Nominating Committee Chair Dr. Myron J.
Zitt. “The standardized Nominating Form allows the Nominating
Committee to fairly evaluate each candidate’s potential.
“Priority is given to Fellows who have actively participated
on College committees or programs. Qualified individuals who
applied last year are strongly encouraged to apply again,” Dr.
Zitt said.
The Nominating Form will be mailed to all members and is now
available
online.
Job Source offers job seekers free personalized services
The “Job Source” on the ACAAI Web site has several features to
make job searches and career advancements easier than ever.
| Easy-to-use Resume Builder allows job seekers to: |
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Build a
professional resume with template content |
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Customize a
resume with fonts, colors, and content |
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Upload an
existing resume and maintain its formatting |
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Store
multiple resumes |
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Post a
resume online so that employers can find you
(confidentially, if desired) |
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Create and
send a cover letter along with a resume.
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My Site section
allows you to: |
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Easily create and maintain your own password-protected
career Web site |
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Include a home page with an introduction |
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Upload a photo or image of your choice |
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Post your resume |
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List your references |
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Upload or link to articles you’ve written or published |
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Provide your unique Web site URL to anyone you wish,
including potential employers |
All features are
free to job seekers and easy to use with simple instructions
and templates. Visit
www.acaai.org/Member and select JOB SOURCE to learn
more and get started today. If you have any questions about
the ACAAI Job Source, contact our customer care team at
888-884-8242 or
infor@healthecareers.com.
A.L.E.R.T. releases third edition of Emergency Medical
Services:
Guidelines for the Care of the Latex-Allergic Patient
The American Latex Allergy Association (A.L.E.R.T., Inc.) has
released its third edition of Emergency Medical Services:
Guidelines for the Care of the Latex-Allergic Patient.
This 84-page manual contains resources to educate and assist
Emergency Medical Service (EMS) personnel as they strive to
create a latex-safe patient care environment. New to this
edition is a section detailing each state's epinephrine
policies.
Epinephrine is the treatment of choice for anaphylactic
allergic reactions, and state policies vary widely as to which
EMS personnel are allowed to carry and administer epinephrine.
The state policies outlined in the updated manual will be of
help to people who wish to determine the level of care in
their area, as well as to those who are working toward policy
and/or legislative changes in their states.
The manual has been partially funded by Dey Pharmaceuticals,
and is now available from the
American Latex Allergy Association (A.L.E.R.T., Inc.)
for $45. |
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Fellows-in-Training |
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Immunology Review Corner
Welcome to the Board Review Corner prepared by Soo Kim-Delio,
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.
We are looking forward to yet another productive year and we
need your continued participation and infusion of new ideas.
Please send your questions, ideas, and comments to your regional
representative,
Dr. Bret Haymore, Junior Representative to the BOR, at
bret.haymore@cen.amedd.army.mil
or myself at
drsooheekim@yahoo.com.
The review column will soon be finishing out the clinical
chapters from Middleton’s Allergy Principles and Practice, 6th
edition. We will be selecting a new text to review, so if you
have any suggestions, please contact us.
Immunology Review Corner: Chapter 85 of the 6th edition
of Middleton’s Allergy Principles and Practice, edited by
N. Franklin Adkinson, et al. Review questions were written by
Drs. Bret Haymore, Walter Reed Army Medical Center; Soo Kim-Delio,
Walter Reed Army Medical Center; and Nana Mireku, Children’s
Hospital of Michigan.
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Copyright
© 2007 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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