Footnotes¹

Article Outline

• In Person
• AAAAI Offers Tool to Stay Current with New Research
  • What is F1000?
  • How does it Work?
  • Take Advantage of Member Discount
• Web Drilldown
  • Better Search Functionality a Primary Goal of New Website
• Practical Issues for the Practicing Allergist
  • AAAAI Signs on to AmericanEHR Partners Project
• AAAAI Launches New Training Option for Your Allied Health Staff

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In Person 

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This month, we interviewed one of the three newly-elected members of the Board of Directors.

David Peden, MD, MS, FAAAAI, is Chief of the Allergy Division, Associate Chair for Research and Professor of Pediatrics, Director of the Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma and Lung Biology, and Deputy Director for Child Health Research of the CTSA of the University of North Carolina.

What motivated you to accept the Program Directors' nomination for the AAAAI Board of Directors? I was honored to be nominated by the Program Directors for a position on the Board. The AAAAI has had a significant impact on my career. I have been fortunate enough to have been active in the ABAI, A/I RRC activities and many NIH initiatives. This has given me experience with various elements of training future allergist/immunologists, including the details (and frustrations) of running a training program, dealing with certification and attempting to fund training slots. By bringing these perspectives to the BOD, I hope to contribute to the ability of the AAAAI to support training and the new practitioners of our specialty.

Your research program examines the impact of air pollution in asthma, and you have a strong interest in the interface between the immune system and the environment. How can the allergist/immunologist impact this timely topic? The biological processes that modulate much of the effect of environmental agents on human health are also those immunological and inflammatory mechanisms which are the underpinnings of our specialty. Few physicians are better equipped to appreciate the effect of environmental agents and pollutants on human health than allergy/immunologists.

Allergic diseases alone represent a major focus of the impact of the environment on human health. Inflammation also accounts for much of the reason why environmental pollutants cause increased exacerbations of asthma, cardiovascular effects and other longer term problems.

Pollutants also impact host defense mechanisms. Finally, allergist/immunologists are more aware of the need to address environmental factors in disease prevention and mitigation than most other specialties. Thus, it is crucial for the A/I community to be actively engaged in the national discussion of the role of environmental and climate change on human disease.

You recently served as Vice Chair of the Complementary and Alternative Practices in Allergy Committee. What is the “fit” between the specialty and complementary and alternative medicines (CAM)? A large number of our patients are interested in complementary and alternative approaches to treating their allergic disease. We are obligated to better understand the role that CAM agents may play in the treatment of allergic diseases. Many of the CAM approaches that are employed are likely to emerge as mainstream interventions, including the use of antioxidants and traditional Chinese herbal treatments which have anti-inflammatory activity. Mind-body interventions and acupuncture are also modalities which can be helpful for many people.

Conversely, many of the alternative approaches being advocated could have significant toxicities or be ineffective. Thus, as a specialty, A/I should embrace the scientific investigation of CAM interventions and become aware of the potential toxicities of these agents. Our patients are using these, so we need to be aware of them.

As Chair of the Research & Training Division for the AAAAI, what are your priorities? First of all, we must be effective in representing the need for federal support for funding of research and training activities to ensure that effective treatments are developed for immunologically mediated diseases, and that there remains a group of clinicians able to use these new interventions.

Another priority is to support training programs and Program Directors with educational and curriculum materials which allow A/I programs to appropriately educate future A/I practitioners in accordance with RRC requirements. The AAAAI also needs to aid the efforts of Program Directors to discuss changes in RRC and certification requirements with the ACGME, ABAI and ABMS. Finally, continued AAAAI support for junior faculty and A/I fellows is crucial in maintaining the presence of A/I in medical schools and teaching hospitals.

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AAAAI Offers Tool to Stay Current with New Research 

Keeping up with the latest research presented in journals beyond the JACI can be extremely time-consuming and expensive. The AAAAI has partnered with Faculty of 1000 (F1000) to offer members a simple and economical service to remain up-to-date on important research advances.

What is F1000? 

F1000 is a web-based subscription service that gives you the content you want when you want it. With F1000, you choose the areas you're interested in and then you receive e-mail alerts when important research articles in those areas are published.

How does it Work? 

Instead of trying to keep pace with countless journals, F1000's group of experts in 42 fields does the work for you. Their medical editors review the literature—from well-known to niche journals—and then identify the most important new research regardless of where it's published.

To save time and focus your reading, the experts also rate the significance of the articles and provide short summaries of key findings.

“Faculty of 1000 highlights the best articles being published each month. This service benefits our members who won't have to sift through the large number of research, as well as the authors whose work is acknowledged by the Faculty of 1000 experts,” said Donald Y. M. Leung, MD, PhD, FAAAAI, JACI Editor-in-Chief.

“We also hope to use this service to increase visibility for the JACI. JACI articles are regularly selected by Faculty of 1000 experts, which puts them in the company of the top articles from other journals,” added Leung.

Take Advantage of Member Discount 

As an AAAAI member benefit, you may purchase a 12-month subscription to F1000 for $99. This is one-third of the regular subscription rate of $305. To lock in the discounted rate, subscriptions must be purchased before December 31, 2010.

This new benefit is available to AAAAI members at any level of paid membership. To purchase your subscription, e-mail info@f1000.com, use “AAAAI subscription” as the subject line and include the special marketing code “F1000AAAAI” in your text.

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Web Drilldown 

Better Search Functionality a Primary Goal of New Website 

After a thorough discovery process, the AAAAI website redesign project has entered the development and build stages. The results of the discovery phase clearly indicated the need for improved search mechanisms. In order to make this priority a reality, a search engine optimization (SEO) terminology plan will be implemented.

SEO is part art and part science. It is the art of understanding how people typically search for information in order to optimize the user experience. The science side is leveraging keywords or “tags” within documents in order to improve a website's ranking in search engines.

The process of building SEO into the AAAAI website began with development of hundreds of terms/phrases visitors might typically use in a general Internet search or an internal AAAAI site search. The list focuses on patient and consumer options, as well as technical medical terms.

These terms will then be intermingled in copy throughout the site, so they trigger search results. This process is vital. If Internet search engine mechanisms do not find relevant site copy for the searched keywords and phrases, results will not populate or they will be ranked low on the page hierarchy.

In another layer of the process, each page migrated to the new site will include behind-the-scenes programming of the keywords and phrases, so the search engine mechanisms find the AAAAI links and post results.

These steps are important in the development and migration phases and will continue to remain a priority throughout the life of the website. Ongoing attention to SEO detail will ensure search mechanisms are performing at the highest level possible at all times.

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Practical Issues for the Practicing Allergist 

AAAAI Signs on to AmericanEHR Partners Project 

The AAAAI recently accepted an invitation from the American College of Physicians (ACP) to sign on as an association partner to AmericanEHR Partners, a web-based resource for EHR system selection and implementation. Central to this project is getting feedback from specialists regarding what is most important in the development of EHR systems that will best fit their practices.

As a partner association in the AmericanEHR Partners project, the AAAAI strengthens its ability to communicate the needs of the practicing allergist/immunologist. While allergy/immunology is a small specialty, being involved in the early stages demonstrates to vendors that we have specialty-specific needs that we are serious about getting met. Much of our input will come from a survey to AAAAI members that will include a subset of questions unique to our specialty that will add relevance to the data collected.

This input will serve as the foundation for product design of a web-based resource for practices and their office teams. As a member of the AAAAI, you will have free access to a custom web-based dashboard providing valuable metrics on EHR selection, adoption and satisfaction.

To lead the AAAAI's role in this activity, President Mark Ballow, MD, FAAAAI, has elevated the Health Informatics, Technology and Education (HITE) EHR subcommittee to a task force and expanded its inclusivity. This task force is closely aligned with the AAAAI's new Strategic Plan, which places a strong emphasis on emerging technologies. Representative task force membership includes: the Practice Management, Quality, Adherence and Outcomes, and HITE Committees; the New Allergist/Immunologist and RSLAAIS Assemblies; and the Health outcomes, Education, Delivery and Quality (HEDQ) Interest Section. Melinda Rathkopf, MD, FAAAAI, and Russell B. Leftwich, MD, FAAAAI, will serve as co-chairs.

The AAAAI shares AmericanEHR Partners' goal of creating a credible and relevant resource for our respective members. The opinions and feedback of AAAAI members will drive the results, so we are counting on you to engage in this discussion.

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AAAAI Launches New Training Option for Your Allied Health Staff 

As a cost-effective way for allergy practices to train their allied health staff, the AAAAI is now offering the Allied Health Virtual Meeting.

For the low rate of $25, your staff can review select allied health educational sessions from the 2009 and 2010 Annual Meetings and have the opportunity to claim CE or CME credits.

The Allied Health Virtual Meeting provides access to 28 sessions covering a variety of topics in A/I, including:

The total credit for the Allied Health Annual Meeting is over 60 CE and over 50 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits of CME. However, if any of your allied health staff already claimed credit at the Annual Meeting for any of the sessions in this collection, they may not claim credits for the same sessions again. Credits can be claimed through March 2011 for the 2009 sessions, and through March 2012 for the 2010 sessions.

Non-members may also purchase the Allied Health Virtual Annual Meeting for $49. Internet access is required to purchase this package, view the sessions and claim credits.

For more information or instructions on how to place an order, contact Lynn Gransee at lgransee@aaaai.org or (414) 272-6071.