Over the last few months, I’ve been keeping you informed on target initiatives during my term as College president. A major focus of my presidential year is to raise awareness among primary care providers about the benefits of referring their patients to allergists for care, especially if their symptoms are not well controlled.
I’m happy to report that our digital outreach campaign targeted to primary care NPs and PAs is being noticed. Our audience is reading the campaign information at the rate of thousands per month. The end of this campaign will segue into the late summer launch of our next exciting effort – a big digital advertising campaign designed for primary care physicians. We have a celebrity lined up to be our spokesperson for the campaign, and we can’t wait to share the ads with our members. We’ll be looking for your help to amplify the campaign messages in your community.
Another priority for this year – the work of supporting our members through the various phases of the COVID-19 pandemic – has eased somewhat, and yet we know that COVID is still with us. Interesting and necessary developments continue to be in the news, and we will keep curating this information so we can report what is most useful for allergists/immunologists. The College and its members have contributed to the body of knowledge on this subject in meaningful ways, and that will continue.
As we officially enter the summer months, we are deep into planning the Annual Scientific Meeting, which will be in my hometown, Louisville, KY, November 10-14. As always, we have a robust and exciting educational program planned, with an emphasis on learning that will take you “from podium to practice.” Plus, we’ve lined up plenty of fun social and networking events, including the Welcome Reception at historic Churchill Downs on Friday, Nov. 11. Plan to join your colleagues at the most important allergy meeting of the year! Registration will open this August.
Don’t forget to take full advantage of College webinars. There are two coming up on food allergy immunotherapy and RPMs/RTMs in your practice. We’ve had some excellent ones recently on using social media for marketing; Relative Value Units, and staff recruiting and retention in your practice. If you missed them in real time, be sure to visit the College Learning Connection to view recordings of any webinars that interest you.
Finally, if you haven’t engaged in ACAAI DocMatter in a while, I encourage you to do so. This HIPAA-compliant discussion platform just for ACAAI members is a great place to talk about clinical cases, treatments, the latest research and more. In the past week there has been an interesting discussion on venom immunotherapy. Watch for an upcoming “test your knowledge” activity from our Dermatology Committee.
As always, thank you to all of the committee volunteers, editors and other experts who give their time and energy to all of the products and activities that make the College such a valuable professional home for its members.
