|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
Mar.
28, 2007 |
| |
|
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
bottom. |
| |
 |
Top
Stories |
|
|
|
|
|
Distance Learning |
|
|
|
|
|
Drugs and Devices |
|
|
|
|
|
Association
News |
| |
|
|
|
Fellows-in-Training |
| |
|
|
|
Periodicals |
|
|
|
|
Calendar |
| |
|
|
|
Archive |
|
|
|
|
|
|
FIT Archive |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Of readers responding, 39 percent said about half of their
asthma patients had already made the transition to HFA MDIs. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Distance Learning |
ACAAI
Podcast/Vodcast Library
Link
2006 ACAAI Annual Meeting CD-ROM
Plenary Sessions
Literature Review
International Food Allergy Symposium
Link
|
|
Periodicals |
•
Annals of
Allergy, Asthma and Immunology
Current issue
• AllergyWatch
Current issue
|
|
Calendar |
|
APRIL
2007 World Immune Regulation Meeting
April 11-15, 2007
Davos, Switzerland
Email
Link
Allergy and Clinical Immunology (65th Annual Course)
University of Minnesota
April 20, Minneapolis, Minn.
Tel: 612-626-7600 or 800-776-8636
E-mail
Link
International Conference on Asthma
Impacts of Air Pollution
South Coast Air Quality Management District
April 26-27, Anaheim, CA
Tel: 909-396-2432
Link
JUNE
2007 Annual Meeting of the Florida Allergy, Asthma &
Immunology Society
June 8-10, Sarasota, Fla.
Tel: 904-765-7702
Email
Link
2nd World Congress on Work-Related and Environmental Allergy
/ 6th International Symposium on Irritant Contact Dermatitis
June 13-16, Weimar, Germany
Tel: 49-0-3641-35-330
Email
Link
Asthma & Allergy Society of Virginia Annual Meeting
Pending ACAAI Joint Sponsorship
June 15-17, Winchester, VA
Tel: 757-481-4383
E-mail
The Pennsylvania Allergy and Asthma Association Annual
Scientific Meeting
June 22-24, Hershey, PA
Tel: 888-633-5784
Link
JULY
2007 International Congress on Respiratory Viruses
The Macrae Group
July 20-22, Colorado Springs, Colo.
Tel: 212-988-7732
E-mail
Link
25th Annual Aspen Allergy Conference
Pending ACAAI Joint Sponsorship
July 24-28, Aspen, CO
Conference Coordinator: Jill Hibbeln
Tel: 720-384-5917
E-mail
Link
ONGOING
World Allergy Organization Society Meetings
ACAAI CME Website
Contact: Mary Campbell
Tel: 847-427-1200
E-mail
|
Sponsored
By |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Top
Stories |
| |
More vitamin D during pregnancy
may cut baby’s wheeze risk
Increasing consumption of vitamin D during pregnancy may
lower the baby’s risk of wheeze in early childhood, according to
two studies in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
In one study, scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital in
Boston studied data from 1,194 mother-child pairs in Project
Viva—a prospective prebirth cohort study in Massachusetts. In
another, scientists from University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom;
Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's
Hospital, Boston; and Harvard Medical School, Boston, examined
data from 1,212 mothers and their children from a random sample
in Scotland. In the first study, mothers in the highest quartile
of vitamin D intake were 61 percent less likely to have a child
with recurrent wheeze compared with mothers in the lowest
quartile. And each 100-IU increase in vitamin D intake lowered
the child’s recurrent wheeze risk by 19 percent. In the second
study, compared with the lowest quintile, the highest quintile
of vitamin D intake appeared to reduce the children’s risk at 5
years of ever wheezing by 52 percent, wheezing in the previous
year by 65 percent, and persistent wheezing by 64 percent.
&
Rhinosinusitis overtreated
with antibiotics, corticosteroids
Both acute and chronic rhinosinusitis is being overtreated
with antibiotics and inhaled nasal corticosteroids, according to
a study in Archives of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery.
Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in
Omaha used data from 1999 to 2002 from the National Ambulatory
Medical Care Survey and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical
Care Survey to generalize the prescribing trends of U.S. patient
visiting health care providers because of acute or chronic
rhinosinusitis. Among patients with acute rhinosinusitis, 83
percent were prescribed an antibiotic. Among patients with
chronic rhinosinusitis, 70 percent were prescribed an
antibiotic. Among patients with either class of rhinosinusitis,
15 to 16 percent were prescribed nasal or inhaled
corticosteroids.
|
|
|
 A
message from ACAAI President Dr. Daniel Ein
Pay for Performance
I know we have covered Pay for Performance (or
P4P as we call it) in earlier editions of this
newsletter and have even published a link where you
can access an excellent
PowerPoint presentation on the matter.
But, at the risk of being redundant, I think another
opportunity to learn about this issue is merited
because of its importance. All of us who see
patients will be facing compliance with such
programs in the near future, if we are not already.
If you believe you know everything you need to about
P4P, you don’t need to read any further. But if you
are like I was until two weeks ago, I hope you find
this helpful.
This is a complex issue, and I hadn’t really
understood it very well, despite being on our Joint
Task Force on Performance Measures, despite viewing
the PowerPoint, and reading, etc. I recently had the
pleasure (I mean it!) of attending a meeting of the
Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement in
Washington, D.C. In fact, I was there at the request
of the AAAAI, substituting for Dr. George
Green who couldn’t make that meeting. The President
of the College representing the Academy must be a
first — and an indication of how much more
collaborative our two societies have become in
recent years.
This is what I learned.
The impetus for the program comes from several
sources. Everyone is concerned about quality of
care, especially after the Institute of Medicine
report from several years ago outlined quality
problems in our system and the frequent occurrence
of preventable medical injury. This led to
initiatives originating within the profession and to
the formation of an umbrella organization, the
Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance (AQA), founded by
ACP, AAFP, AHIP (the insurance companies), and AHGR
(Agency for Health Care Research, a federal agency).
Congress mandated that medicine develop performance
measures to ensure quality in exchange for a
temporary fix in the broken part of the Medicare
payment formula—the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR).
Since then, CMS has been instituting Value Based
Purchasing (known, obviously, as VBP). Because of
the rapid and unsustainable increases in Medicare
spending, CMS is no longer content to just be a
passive payer but is becoming an active purchaser of
health care services.
So, how is VPB to be accomplished? How will quality
be measured? Who will be eligible to participate in
the program or will everyone submitting claims to
Medicare be mandated to have their performance
assessed? How will they be paid? Will good
performance be rewarded or inadequate performance
punished? Is scoring quality enough or do we need to
gage efficiency of services (a different concept
than quality) as well?
There are several parts to the program.
First is the creation of quality measures.
This is done by two groups, the AMA-led Consortium,
whose meeting I attended, and the National Committee
for Quality Assurance (NCQA). Conditions or diseases
are selected for quality measure development are
called sets. Examples are hepatitis C, GERD, asthma,
prenatal care, etc. Each set contains one or more
quality measures. These measures are developed by a
work group, composed of experts in the field, and
are supposed to be strictly evidence based. There
is, naturally, much review and oversight, and
finally, approval, rejection, or editing by the
National Quality Forum (NQF). They are then ready
for prime time. They are also reviewed every three
years.
So, for allergy, there is the asthma set with two
measures: (1) use of appropriate medications for
people with asthma, for example, percentage of those
identified as having persistent asthma and
appropriately prescribed asthma medications (inhaled
corticosteroids); and (2) pharmacologic therapy, for
example, percentage of individuals with mild,
moderate or persistent asthma who were prescribed
either the preferred control medication or an
acceptable alternative. Each of these measures
contains detailed definitions, required tests (PFTs
for example), etc. Please be aware that the asthma
measures only apply to patients age 5 to 40, so very
few will be Medicare eligible. I expect that the age
limits will eventually be revised.
Two additional sets are being developed for
allergists: acute sinusitis and acute rhinitis. This
work is being done by the Joint Task Force on
Quality and Performance Measures in collaboration
with AAO-HNS (the major ENT society).
Secondly, there is the implementation of the
program. There will be a voluntary program from
July to December 2007, but only for Medicare
fee-for-service patients. After that, it will be
mandated. Of course, if you don’t see any Medicare
patients, this will not apply. Eventually, CMS hopes
this program also will push practitioners to adopt
an electronic medical record because this can help
compliance with the requirements.
Finally, there is payment. The payment system
is a reward, not a punitive one. One can earn a
bonus of 1 percent if one meets the standards set.
Where there are fewer than three measures, as with
asthma, 80 percent of (one’s Medicare) patients must
meet both standards. If there are three or more
measures, the physician picks the three he or she
wants to be judged on and 80 percent of the patients
must meet that standard to qualify for the bonus.
Unlike other changes in Medicare reimbursement,
which are budget neutral, this is additional
money authorized by Congress.
If you do a quick calculation, you can see that this
is a small incentive to get the latest in medical
record technology. But one needs to remember that,
as goes Medicare, so go the private payers. In fact,
private insurers in some areas of the country have
already started P4P programs. At least under
Medicare, the measures are physician-derived and
evidence-based. And this is only the beginning. If
the program is successful, then the incentives may
grow and may represent a much larger proportion of a
physician’s compensation. As the measures become
more comprehensive and complex, electronic record
keeping and reporting may be the only way to meet
the standards.
There are many other aspects to this truly daring
attempt to reign in costs and improve quality at the
same time. But they will have to wait for another
time.
You can get further details about the requirements
by visiting the following Web sites:
www.acaai.org/member
www.ACPonline.org/quality
www.aafp.org
www.cms.hhs.gov/PQRI
www.physiciansconsortium.org |
|
|
|
|
Association
News |
| |
|
View the new
Food Allergy Symposium vodcast
 The
College posts a new 30-minute
vodcast (video podcast) of a key 2006 Annual
Meeting scientific presentation on its Web site every other
week. Each vodcast contains the original audio and
presentation slides and can be viewed from a computer or
downloaded to a portable media player (like an iPod).
Previous vodcasts are archived for continued viewing.
New vodcasts from the Food Allergy Symposium include:
• “Luisa Businco Memorial Lecture: Infant Weaning and
Food Allergy – Alessandro Fiocchi, M.D., Milan, Italy (March
28 – April 10).
• “Traditional Chinese Medicine for Food Allergy” – Helen
H.L. Chan, M.D., Hong Kong, (April 11-24)
The ACAAI vodcast program is sponsored by an unrestricted
educational grant from GlaxoSmithKline.
Register online by April 11 for the Board Review Course
Online registration is fast and easy for the ACAAI/AAAAI
Certification/Maintenance of Certification Board Review
Course, April 19-22, at the Renaissance Hotel in Chicago.
Online registration closes on Wednesday, April 11, at 11:59
p.m.
The 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.
The Board Review Course is sponsored by IVAX Laboratories,
Inc., a member of TevaGroup.
Resources are available for planning your asthma camp
It’s getting to be that time of year for many of you in
terms of preparation for your 2007 Asthma Camp season.
Valuable resources are available from the Consortium on
Children’s Asthma Camps
Web
site.
The Controlling Asthma Pre-Camp Guide will help you maximize
your current pre-camp materials. Content, graphics — it’s
all there for your consideration. Many camps that were in a
late cycle last year used the materials and were very
pleased with the outcome.
Also, if you have not done so — or if you know of a new
asthma camp in your area — please register your asthma camp
in the Consortium on Children’s Asthma Camps online Asthma
Camp Directory. To add a camp, please e-mail
asthmacamp@alamn.org
for a password or if you forgot your existing password.
The Consortium on Children’s Asthma Camps was founded in
1988 by six sponsoring organizations, including the College,
which is recognized on the Consortium’s Web site for its
ongoing support. ACAAI’s representatives on the Consortium’s
Board of Directors are Drs. Sherwin A. Gillman, Mario
Cruz-Rivera, and Margaret F. Guill, who also serve on the
College’s Ad Hoc Committee to Advise the Consortium on
Asthma Camps. |
|
|
|
Fellows-in-Training |
| |
Board Review Corner
Welcome to the Board Review Corner prepared by Dr. Soo Kim-Delio,
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 “FIT
Archive” link in the left column.
Review Questions: Chapter 90 of the 6th edition of
Middleton’s Allergy Principles and Practice, edited by N.
Franklin Adkinson, et al. Review questions were written by Dr.
Kim-Delio, Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
|
|
|
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.
THIS E-MAIL WAS SENT FROM A “SEND-ONLY” MAILBOX. Please DO NOT REPLY
to this e-mail. |
|
ACAAI eNews is sent as a membership benefit of the American
College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. If you would prefer not
to receive future issues and want to remove your name from our
mailing list, please
-click here- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
