Spotlight on Annals

Happy March to all! It looks like the end of winter is in sight for most of our country. We are all beginning to see a warming trend coming. It is this time of year that news media, patients’ and providers’ thoughts turn to allergy. While pollen may be a big part of the discussion, many are turning their attention to factors that may influence whether – and how much – they may suffer from allergies this season. A recent emphasis that has an ancient history has captured the attention of many patients, providers and the public and is the emphasis of this month’s Annals issue – the microbiome. We have some very interesting papers that I believe you will find engaging, informative and useful in your patient care efforts.

As we move rapidly toward March, things are starting to warm up and bud all over the nation. I hope you have had time to look at the table of contents from the February issue of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. We have a number of features that cover a broad part of our field. I would like to call several to your attention in case you may have missed one.

It’s been a cold and wet winter across much of our country. The month of February holds promise for a warmer spring, and soon trees will begin blooming across our country. From my home in central Mississippi, I’m already beginning to see buds on the oak trees. And this means increased numbers of patients in our offices who will present with both seasonal and nonseasonal symptoms. The February issue of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology contains a great deal of information for you, the practicing clinician, at whatever level of experience you have and whatever practice setting you occupy.

For many of us, this month is cold and rainy, and down time can be spent with a warm beverage and your January copy of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. There are a few features you might find of interest for you as well as benefit in the care of your patients.

It is amazing that 2019 is already upon us. The contents of this month’s Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology feature an emphasis on our old friend, chronic rhinosinusitis. Those of us who see patients regularly are faced with increasingly severe presentations of this family of diseases as the more straightforward nasal symptoms are increasingly cared for by primary care providers and/or patient self-management. Accordingly, we have multiple articles that focus on more severe presentations that should help our readers better care for these patients. There are a couple of articles I would like to call to your attention.

We are well into the holiday season and tomorrow is New Year’s Day. Hopefully you are contemplating your New Year’s resolutions and you have spending more time reading the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology on your list. We have many good features in our December issue that can assist you in your practice.

The year is rapidly drawing to a close. Holiday preparations abound, and we are all looking forward to the new year. Many of us are thinking about how we can operate our practices more efficiently, take better care of our patients and enjoy what we do even more in 2019 than we have this year. For many of us, we are anticipating a bit of downtime mixed in with bustling activity over the next several weeks. I hope you will save some time to spend with your print or online copy of the December issue of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. This issue is dedicated to addressing challenges that occur in many of our offices.

Hopefully it has finally cooled off (but not started snowing) where you live. October is a transition month as many of us will see an increasing amount of asthma patients in our practices during these fall and winter months. The complexity of asthma patients has steadily increased in the years I have been practicing. Some wonder if the disease is different now than it was 30 years ago or whether we are just more skilled at understanding the spectrum of disease. Two review articles in this month’s Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology can help shed some light on this conundrum.