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Feb. 25, 2009 |
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Welcome to ACAAI eNews - a bi-weekly aggregated news
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Conferences
On Line Allergy Initiative (COLA)
2008 ACAAI Annual Meeting CME Symposium
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2008 ACAAI/AAAAI Certification/Maintenance of Certification Board Review Course
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AllergyWatch
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MARCH
Michigan Asthma and Allergy Society
ACAAI Jointly Sponsored
March 4, Ann Arbor, Mich.
Contact: Gina Gibson
Tel: 517-336-5709
Email
2009 AAAAI Annual Meeting
March 13-17, Washington, D.C.
Tel: 888-869-0189 (US/Canada)
Tel: 415-979-2277 (International/Local)
Email
Link
First Middle East-Asia Allergy Asthma Immunology Congress
ACAAI Collaborating Partner
March 26-29, Dubai, UAE
Tel: +971 4 341 5663
Email
Link
MAY
2009 Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Society of Georgia Meeting
Pending ACAAI Joint Sponsorship
May 1-3, Pine Mountain, Ga.
Contact: Leslie Morris
Tel: 770-534-0534
Email
Atopy Patch Testing in Food Allergy
New York Allergy & Asthma Society
Pending ACAAI Joint Sponsorship
May 13, New York, N.Y.
Contact: Robert M. Klein, MD
Tel: 973-773-7400
Email
JULY
CSAAI’s 17th Annual Meeting
A Midsummer Night’s Wheeze
July 10-12, Huntington Beach, Calif.
Contact: David Arriola
Tel: 323-442-2546
Email
27th Annual Asthma Allergy Conference
Pending ACAAI Joint Sponsorship
July 29 - Aug. 1, Aspen, Colo.
Contact: Jill Hibbeln
Tel: 303-520-7660
Email
ONGOING
World
Allergy Organization Society Meetings
ACAAI
CME JOINT SPONSORSHIP ACCREDITATION
Contact: Mary Campbell
Tel: 847-427-1200
Email
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Top
Stories |
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Prenatal exposure to traffic pollution may increase asthma risk
Exposure in the womb to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, byproducts of burning fuel, may increase a child’s asthma risk, according to a study in PLoS One. Scientists at University of Cincinnati and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health studied umbilical cord blood from New York children in a longitudinal cohort. Mothers completed personal prenatal air monitoring for PAH exposure determination, and researchers used methylation sensitive restriction fingerprinting to analyze umbilical cord white blood cell DNA of 20 cohort children. They found evidence of a possible new epigenetic biomarker associated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, or PAH, exposure.
Housecleaning chemicals affect asthmatic women’s health
Women with asthma had more lower respiratory tract symptoms after housecleaning than women without asthma, according to a study in Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Scientists at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Ohio, compared cleaning-related health effects in 18- to 65-year-old women both with and without asthma during a 12-week, prospective, parallel-group study. No effect was observed between groups on peak expiratory flow rates after cleaning, and both groups exhibited increased upper and lower respiratory tract symptoms in response to cleaning agents. But the change in the number of lower respiratory tract symptoms (after cleaning minus before cleaning) was statistically significant for women with asthma compared with women without asthma.
Study: Indoor pollution increases asthma severity
Increasing levels of indoor particulate matter pollution have been correlated to severity of asthma symptoms among children, according to a study in Environmental Health Perspectives. Researchers at the Center for Childhood Asthma in the Urban Environment — a joint center of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine — followed 150 Baltimore children with asthma, 2 to 6 years old, for six months. They used environmental monitoring equipment to measure bedroom air quality during three separate three-day intervals: one at the beginning of the study, one after three months and one after six months. The children were mostly (91 percent) from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and spent the majority of their time indoors. After adjusting for other factors, researchers saw a 6-percent increase in the number of days of cough, wheeze, or chest tightness for every 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air increase in indoor coarse particle concentration. They saw a 7-percent increase in days of wheezing severe enough to limit speech for every 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air increase in fine particles measured indoors.
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A message from ACAAI President Richard G. Gower, M.D., FACAAI
The theme of the November ACAAI Annual Meeting in Seattle was “The Challenges of Change.” Throughout the meeting, programs addressed topics of interest and importance to help us all prepare for the coming upheaval in many aspects of patient care. That meeting and other College programs have, and will be, prepared in a very careful way by excellent and caring volunteers and staff. Most attendees of the meeting have been very pleased with the “value” of the meeting and the return they received for the time and money spent.
Data from the 2008 annual meeting are being compiled, but the 2007 Annual Meeting costs are available and revealing.
I wish to increase everyone’s awareness that attendee registration fees cover only about 26% of our annual meeting total expenses. About 74 percent of meeting expenses are covered by industry support.
The value of meeting materials per person is $125 (includes valise, syllabus, abstract book, program guide, convocation brochure, nominating slate, advance registration, abstracts on disk, syllabus on disk, etc.)
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The value of food and beverage per person throughout the meeting is $741 (includes breaks, breakfasts, lunches, dinners throughout the week and Welcome Reception)
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The above figure does NOT include food/beverage served at special/optional events including: the fundraiser, FIT Bowl, FIT Breakfast, FIT Reception, Women in Allergy Lunch, Allied/AHP Programs, Hospitality Suite, etc.
The total value per attendee is $866.
2008 registration fees were $195 for College members and $465 for non-members. Physicians could potentially earn 51.75 CME Credit Hours for attending all sessions and largely satisfy most states’ requirements for CME and licensure retention. In my opinion, this is good value.
The entire ACAAI leadership is aware of the changing times, limitations of funding opportunities, and implications for future educational programs. Jan. 1 was the first day of the new PhRMA guidelines, and this will likely impact the significant support we have enjoyed in the past from our pharmaceutical colleagues. We will need to make adjustments and respond to these changes, but the quality of educational programs and patient care will remain our primary focus.
The College launched a highly successful ACAAI Allergist Buyers Guide Jan. 14. The Guide is the first product marketplace representing the field of allergy/immunology. Online users of the Buyers Guide will be able to search for value by locating products and services that will allow them to buy better and perform more efficiently in their practices. In the same spirit, the ACAAI leadership is reviewing the entire 2009 ACAAI budget and programs so the College will be able to continue providing value to its members for many years.
Some projects, organizations, and members of the ACAAI will see some changes in the manner in which goals are accomplished, but I pledge the leadership of the College will continue to provide excellent value to our members. Please contact me (president@acaai.org) or the other officers if you have suggestions about how we can adjust and improve.
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Association
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Join the College's campaign to help people
Find an Allergist, Find Relief
All ACAAI member-allergists have an opportunity to be part of the largest, most
expansive public education and advocacy campaign about the benefits of seeing
an allergist.
Allergy and asthma sufferers need you, but may not know about you. That's the
reason for the coordinated national and local strategies to spread the word
about allergists. You can be part of this mobilization by joining the Allergy
and Asthma Relief Team.
All Relief Team members receive a "toolkit" for spreading the word in their
communities and for marketing their own practices. The toolkit includes:
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patient education brochures
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advertising templates
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a window cling featuring the new allergist logo
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community and media tips
Join the estimated 500 ACAAI members who have already joined the Relief Team.
Visit www.AllergyAndAsthmaRelief.org/order
to register and receive your free toolkit.
Register for the Nationwide Asthma Screening Program by March 15
Registration is now open for the 13th annual Nationwide Asthma Screening Program, the College’s campaign to help people with breathing problems find out if they have asthma and help diagnosed asthmatics take control of their conditions. The public service campaign promotes early detection and effective treatment of asthma, and the role of allergists in helping patients find relief. The deadline to register for the 2009 program is March 15.
Come to Miami for the ACAAI Annual Meeting
Save the date for the 2009 ACAAI Annual Meeting, “Expanding the Spectrum,” at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami, Fla., Nov. 5-10.
“With the general theme in mind, the program will include presentations aimed at expanding and strengthening the practice of allergy and clinical immunology,” said ACAAI President-Elect and Program Chair Sami L. Bahna, M.D., Dr.P.H., FACAAI.
“In the plenary sessions, top experts will address topics on exciting areas in medicine, clinical immunology, infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders, asthma, and related respiratory illnesses, occupational allergies, and current challenges for allergists. In addition, numerous symposia, workshops, and seminars will cover a wide variety of commonly encountered disorders and procedures,” Dr. Bahna said.
The meeting will kick off with the 13th International Food Allergy Symposium Nov. 5, first initiated by the College in 1972. The full-day program will provide cutting-edge information on the basic and clinical aspects of food allergy prediction, prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
Miami Beach is world famous for its Art Deco architecture, renowned nightclubs and designer fashions. This trend-setting arts and entertainment mecca offers visitors a dazzling array of amenities to enjoy, including more than seven miles of beaches, three golf courses and 20 parks.
Miami Beach Convention Center
Check out the new ACAAI Allergist Buyers Guide
The College created the ACAAI Allergist Buyers Guide — the first product marketplace representing the field of allergy-immunology – to provide you with a fast and easy way to search for industry resources online. Your online searches will easily locate products and services unique to allergy-immunology without the clutter of a general Internet search engine, so you can quickly find and research those hard-to-locate items. The fully searchable site features listings of companies — including ACAAI Annual Meeting exhibitors — grouped into business segments, such as clinical support services, medical equipment, practice management and pharmaceuticals.
Annual Meeting vodcasts available weekly
The College is now offering complimentary vodcasts of 2008 ACAAI Annual Meeting scientific sessions for viewing or downloading from the Distance Learning page of the ACAAI Web site.
Members can view new streaming 30-minute vodcasts of key sessions on their computers weekly, or download them as files directly to portable media players. The first vodcasts contain the slides and audio from Tracking Oral Immunotherapy: Should We Begin the Slit Express? and Dermatology and Your Practice, the 2008 half-day conferences in Seattle:
- “Allergen Immunotherapy Tablet (AIT) Development Status” (2/23) – Presented by Hendrik K. Nolte, M.D., Ph.D. – FACAAI (SC)
- “Liquid Update: The Status of the Greer Studies” (3/2) – Presented by Robert E. Esch, Ph.D.
Future vodcasts will feature selected sessions from the Literature Review Course and the named lectures. This convenient service is sponsored by an educational grant from GlaxoSmithKline.
“Hot Topics in Allergy” airs daily on ReachMD XM Satellite Radio
The “Hot Topics in Allergy” series airing daily, exclusively on the ReachMD XM Satellite Radio (Channel 160), is created in partnership with ACAAI.
New programs, with hosts Todd A. Mahr, M.D., FACAAI, and Ketan K. Sheth, M.D., M.B.A., include the following topics:
- Food Allergies: The Patient's Perspective (3/2) – Anne Munoz-Furlong
- Exercise-Induced Asthma (3/9) – William S. Silvers, M.D, FACAAI
- The Spectrum of COPD (3/16) – Sidney Braman, M.D.
ReachMD offers breaking medical news, roundtable discussions, medical education and other unique programming 24/7 to more than 250,000 weekly listeners. Listen at XM160 or online with promo code: ACAAI.
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AMA Corner
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Welcome to the AMA Corner, prepared by Alnoor A. Malick, M.D., FACAAI, the College’s Delegate to the AMA House of Delegates. AMA Corner helps keep you abreast of important AMA news and developments impacting allergy-immunology.
AMA announces physician class-action suits against Aetna and Cigna
The AMA and several state medical associations, including the Medical Society of New Jersey, joined individual physicians in filing separate class-action lawsuits against Aetna and Cigna, claiming the health insurers used rigged data to dramatically under-reimburse physicians. The lawsuits contend that for more than a decade, the two health insurers used a corrupt system to underpay physicians for out-of-network medical services and forced patients to pay an excessive portion of the costs. The AMA will continue to pursue the lawsuit with Cigna despite the health insurer’s settlement with the New York attorney general’s office.
Medical students benefit from AMA’s efforts to fight insurer plan
The AMA is alerting medical students and residents that they may be entitled to settlement money if they were covered by Aetna Student Health while attending college in the past decade. Aetna Student Health, formally known as Chickering Student Health, is a health plan administered by Aetna and sponsored by colleges and universities.
Aetna recently announced an agreement with the New York attorney general’s office requiring the insurer to pay $5 million plus interest and penalties to 73,000 students from more than 200 colleges across the United States who were shortchanged on reimbursements for out-of-network care. The inadequate reimbursements stem from outdated information that Aetna Student Health used from the database of Ingenix, a UnitedHealth Group unit.
Medical students and residents covered by Aetna plans during college from 1998–2008 are encouraged to contact Aetna at (866) 805-7643 to see if they are eligible under the settlement.
Blue Cross Blue Shield coding provisions now in effect
Several coding provisions of the Blue Cross Blue Shield settlement agreement, which provide for greater transparency in claims processing and payment practices, took effect Jan. 21. Under the agreement, Blue’s plans are required to follow guidelines, conventions and Current Procedural Terminology (CPT), which include:
- Recognition of CPT-designated “add-on” codes, CPT modifiers 25 and 59, and CPT supervision and interpretation codes
- Ensuring no global period for surgical procedures will be longer than the period designated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
- Blue’s parties not automatically changing a CPT code to one reflecting a reduced intensity of service
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Fellows-in-Training |
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Have any questions, suggestions or comments? Feel free to contact your regional or national FIT representatives listed on the Fellows-in-Training page of the College Web site.
Board Review Corner
Welcome to the Board Review Corner prepared by Jennifer W. Mbuthia, M.D., and Christopher R. Martin, M.D., Senior and Junior Representatives of ACAAI’s fellows-in-training (FITs) to the Board of Regents. The Board Review Corner is an opportunity to help hone your Board preparedness.
To refer to a previous Board Review Corner, click the "FIT Archive" link in the
left column.
Review Questions: Chapter 47 of Pediatric Allergy: Principles & Practices, edited by Donald Y.M. Leung, et al. Review questions were written by Martha Karakelides, M.D., Mayo Clinic, and Jennifer W. Mbuthia, M.D., Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
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