Footnotes1

In Person 

This month, Gillian Shepherd, MD, FAAAAI, took time to answer a few questions. Shepherd is the new Chair of the Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Education and Research Trust (AR Trust).

In tough economic times, what is the case for supporting the AR Trust?It is imperative to support the AR Trust during tough economic times. Other sources of support have decreased. It is our responsibility to assure that the future of our specialty is secure. By investing in the AR Trust, we are helping to do this in multiple ways, particularly by supporting fellowship training programs and young faculty.

The return on this investment is a pipeline of highly qualified physicians who may stay in teaching programs and develop as investigators or join us in practice, but who will all contribute to the education of future colleagues.

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As the new Chair of the AR Trust, what are your top priorities in order to raise funds for this important initiative?I was actually the first elected chair of ERT in 1999 after John Anderson initially created the program. He deserves a lot of credit for this initiative. I am delighted to have an opportunity to help again.

My initial priority is to organize donations to the AR Trust into an annual fund with outreach to all members of the AAAAI community. To this end, we have developed a matrix of representatives of all major groups and constituents with their donation histories. Besides annual support, we are exploring other fund raising activities, particularly with the Associates. Additionally we are setting up planned giving programs to interest donors in including the AR Trust in their estate planning. Our benefit at the Annual Meeting is also very important.

My main priority is to expand the donor base beyond the AAAAI community. We are exploring reaching out to patients, foundations, industry, etc. We are working on being listed as a donor charity with large organizations such as Charity Navigator. If anyone has a potential “grateful” patient or a connection to a foundation or industry that might support us, please let me know. We will only approach these sources via the referring physician. We are also considering naming opportunities for fellowship and faculty support to be awarded on a competitive basis.

In order to expand beyond the AAAAI base, we have made the AR Trust a separate 501(c) 3 organization from the Academy with separate accounting and annual reports. The AR Trust endowment investment policy will still be directed by the AAAAI Board.

What are your interests outside of the practice of allergy/immunology and leading the AR Trust?I love teaching and educational issues. When the structure of the AAAAI Board was changed, I was the first Education Chair. I have carried this interest to outside educational institutions. My husband and I have been on the Boards of most of our children's schools. I enjoy it so much that I am still on the Board of Choate Rosemary Hall, a high school in Connecticut, although my last child graduated 6-years ago. I also love to ski, garden and cook. My challenge now is golf.

As the first Education Division Chair, you were involved with the AAAAI Web site during its initial years. What major changes have you noticed in Web design and content that the AAAAI should focus on during rebuilding of our current Web site?I remember sitting at a conference in Aspen with John Weiler 10 years ago. It was the dinosaur time and the Academy was just starting to discuss developing a major Web site. The initial plan was to organize it by disease. We proposed the current patient, member, media and professional “centers.” We created eAcademy with Burt Zweiman and Bryan Martin. I was the initial chair as we developed and expanded the site. We were thrilled to announce that our “hits” had increased to 5,000!

We've come a long way in the last decade and we now take the site for granted as our central communication and information source. I am sure the planned rebuild will expand all these wonderful capacities, particularly opportunities for online education. We hope to incorporate links to and information about the AR Trust in many areas, particularly the patient information areas.

What motivated you to become an allergist/immunologist?Before med school, I partially completed PhD work in Immunology. Plus I have allergies. My interest in immunology grew steadily during medical training. That joined with a desire to ‘cure myself’ obviously led to allergy and immunology. I did briefly flirt with obstetrics until my husband recruited my father and both took me to lunch to talk me out of this absurd idea.

Do you and Dr. Greenberger have any novel ideas for this year's AR Trust Benefit at the 2010 Annual Meeting?The main benefit always takes place Saturday night of the Annual Meeting. This year we have made a change to be more inclusive with the Big Bayou Benefit. Tickets are cheaper. The location is Generation Hall, an old sugar factory near the hotels with a format of live jazz, portrait artists, tarot card readers, magicians and a casino in three different areas with multiple food stations featuring New Orleans cuisine. It should be terrific, so we hope to see everyone!

Best Practices in PR

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Health Care and the Internet

Writing for your Web site

This is the second in a series of articles about promoting your practice on the Internet.

Getting the average Internet user to spend time on your practice's Web site can be similar to talking to a child with a short attention span. Here are some tips to catch and keep the interest of your Web visitors:

The five second rule. If people don't immediately see what they are looking for, they will move on to another Web site. Five to 10 seconds is all you have to grab attention.

First impressions are important. The single most important feature on a Web site is the “search” tool. Within those first five seconds on your site, research shows that 50% of visitors will use the search application.

Think billboard, not great literature. Yes, this thought process is contrary to what physicians typically want to convey to patients and referring physicians. Yet, an effective Web site home page is designed to be scanned, not read. Your content pages offer opportunities to build credibility and educate visitors about allergic disease.

Relationships start with a conversation. Welcome to the world of social media. Your Web site visitors are expecting you to carry on a conversation. On your home and landing pages, strive for short sentences that are easy to comprehend. If visitors want detailed medical information, they will dig deeper within your site.

Relate to your visitors. What questions do you hear from your patients and referring physicians? What is on the minds of your target markets? Your Web site copy should demonstrate that you can relate to their problems and needs.

Search for the right words. Most people are familiar with meta tags and other tools designed to get your URL at the head of the Google list. These Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools can be useful, as long as they don't compromise the quality of your content. A very profitable cottage industry has grown from SEO vendors—each company or service touting its scientific method for search engine optimization. Yet, studies have shown that building your content around search mechanisms can lead to dead end copy and visitors who wander off to other sites, so keep your content relevant.

Keep it current. Web users return to sites that offer new information on a regular basis. A sure-fire method for achieving this is by linking to news stories or other Web sites of interest to your visitors.

Call to action. What do you want visitors to do? Call your office to make an appointment? Sign up for a newsletter? Have a family physician make a referral to you? Let visitors know what the next steps are, and make the transition easy for them.

AAAAI Takes the Lead on H1N1 

During this flu season, you expect rapid response—and the AAAAI delivers. In order to place the expertise of the allergist/immunologist front-and-center, the AAAAI has taken the lead in providing clinicians and patients alike with continued guidance on the novel H1N1 virus via www.aaaai.org and other outreach efforts.

The AAAAI's Physician Resources for Novel H1N1, housed within the Members Center of www.aaaai.org, features a comprehensive Web-based library of resources on the novel H1N1 virus—especially as related to allergic and immunologic diseases—including treatment recommendations, vaccine news, case studies and information for patients.

AAAAI resources within this site include:

Since its inception in September, thousands of healthcare professionals, patients and media/blog outlets have visited Physician Resources for Novel H1N1, positioning the allergist/immunologist as the go-to experts regarding seasonal and novel H1N1 flu viruses and vaccinations for patients with asthma, allergies or immune deficiencies.

In fact, the AAAAI's news release containing flu vaccine guidance for patients with immune deficiency was the focus of a recent front page story on HealthDay. This same story appeared on HealthFinder.gov, in addition to being picked up by numerous media outlets.

The AAAAI has also been working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), providing the valuable perspective of the allergist/immunologist, while the CDC gives us useful information to share with our members before it is released to the public.

As members' only benefits, the AAAAI also offers news release templates to modify and send to local media and timely tips to enhance the visibility of the allergist/immunologist and educate the public during flu season.

This large, rapid response initiative was possible through the mobilization of AAAAI member expertise. Together, we are placing the expertise of the specialty up-front-and-center as we work to achieve optimal patient care.

Practical Issues for the Practicing Allergist 

•New Electronic Health Records Resources on www.aaaai.org

Currently, only about 20% of allergy practices have implemented an ambulatory EHR in any form. Yet, successful implementation of an EHR requires planning and analysis.

In response to this need, the AAAAI's EMR Subcommittee has launched a resource on the AAAAI Web site that includes links to valuable information about EMR selection, implementation and government policy and programs.

“There is a tendency to want to take the easy way once the decision to adopt an EMR is made. Historically, about half of EMR implementations have failed. This is sometimes due to software issues, but more often due to lack of planning and analysis of work flows in the practice before starting to search for an EMR. It pays to do your homework and for the physician and all stakeholders to be involved in the process,” said EMR Subcommittee member Russell B. Leftwich, MD, FAAAAI.

In 2009, legislators passed the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The intent was to encourage adoption of health information technology that will allow sharing of clinical data, computerized ordering and prescription writing, support for clinical decision making and analysis of clinical data to support quality assurance efforts and analysis of population health.

“With government incentives raising our interest in the use of health information technology, there are still many questions. Education and guidance from our medical societies is needed to help physicians sort thru all the information,” commented EMR Subcommittee member Melinda M. Rathkopf, MD, FAAAAI.

The next step for the EMR Subcommittee is a survey to help the committee and the AAAAI in providing valuable resources on EMRs. A longer term mission is to develop an outline of allergy specific EMR content to guide members in EMR selection and to guide vendors in allergy software module development.

A link to the new EMR resources can be found on the homepage of the AAAAI Web site.

•Practice Management Workshop DVD Released

Don't miss out on valuable information attendees received during the sold-out Practice Management Workshop. An audio version of the workshop with synchronized slides is now available on DVD, with reduced rates for members and fellows-in-training. To receive the “special rate” discount codes, contact the AAAAI Practice Management team Monday through Friday between the hours of 8 am and 5 pm (Central Time) at (414) 272-6071 or via e-mail at practicemanagement@aaaai.org.

Web Drilldown 

No matter who or where you are, novel H1N1 is a prevalent topic. This flu season, the AAAAI is working to increase the visibility of the allergy/immunology specialty.

As the AAAAI has taken the lead in providing government and media with the latest information on H1N1 related to allergic disease, Web site statistics show a high number of direct hits from media giants like CNN, US News & World Report, USA Today, MSN TV, CBS, FOX, and a multitude of major newspapers.

With this extensive media coverage, Web site stats indicate people are looking at www.aaaai.org and adding the information to blogs and other online communications. On the social media front, people are connecting to and with www.aaaai.org though Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter accounts.

	17,854	The number of page views during the first three weeks of September to articles posted in the Media Center and Physician Resources for Novel H1N1 Virus sections
	6,064	The number of visits to the vaccine egg allergy case study and egg allergy vaccine guidelines within AAAAI's Physician Resources for Novel H1N1 virus in September
	563	The number of fans keeping up with H1N1 and allergic diseases through the AAAAI Facebook page