2022 Grantees
Sara Anvari, MD, MSc, FACAAI
Improving Access to Allergy Specialty Care in Houston Through a Novel Penicillin Allergy Stewardship Program
Sara Anvari, MD, MSc, FACAAI is leading a 12-month project to develop a protocol to ensure that low-risk patients in the Texas Children’s health care system are properly evaluated for penicillin allergy (PA). The evaluation will first take place via telemedicine, followed by in-person appointments where low-risk patients receive an amoxicillin challenge and high-risk patients receive a skin test to see if further testing for PA is necessary. The main objectives of Dr. Anvari’s project are to de-label children inappropriately labeled as penicillin allergic, while also identifying disparities in access to allergy services across the outpatient health care system and ensuring equitable access to care across the community.
Gerald Lee, MD, FACAAI
A Quality Improvement Project to Reduce Food Allergy IgE Panel Utilization
Gerald Lee, MD, FACAAI is leading a 24-month project to close the knowledge gap among primary care providers and caregivers related to proper diagnosis of food allergies. The goal of the project is to minimize misdiagnosis of food allergy via IgE panel testing and alleviate the unnecessary burden placed on children and their families due to false positive results. Dr. Lee has teamed up with The Children’s Care Network (TCCN), which is an integrated network that engages 120 pediatric practices to produce data-driven, high-quality care. He is assessing and addressing knowledge gaps among physicians within the TCCN to reduce inaccurate diagnoses of food allergies, which he hopes leads to a reduction in unnecessary interventions, improve quality of life, and reduce health care expenditures for the children within the network.
Jessica Macdougall, MD, MS
Food Allergy Transitions of Care for the Adolescent Population
Jessica Macdougall, MD, MS, is leading a 12-month project focused on transitions of care for adolescents to improve their understanding and management of their food allergies. The project establishes an evidenced-based transition curriculum that can be used by community and academic allergists; create patient education materials that are tailored to adolescents both in content and how they are delivered; and engage the community through webinars/events that are designed for adolescents who may be entering college or going into the workforce. By developing more cohesive guidelines to help adolescents manage their food allergies during their transition to adulthood, the project ultimately aims to reduce accidental exposures and anaphylactic reactions, lessen anxiety and increase participation in daily activities.
Lulu Tsao, MD
Promoting Evidence-Based and Equitable Penicillin Allergy Evaluation Among Pregnant Patients
Lulu Tsao, MD, is conducting a 12-month project to assess and bridge the gaps in knowledge, perceptions, and barriers to prenatal penicillin allergy evaluations among obstetrics (OB) providers and pregnant patients. Due to misconceptions about safety and feasibility of prenatal PA evaluations, they are often underutilized and not incorporated into routine prenatal care for patients across all care settings. The goal of Dr. Tsao’s project is two-fold: to increase uptake of evidence-based recommendations for prenatal PA evaluation among OB providers and allergists; and to develop a patient centered toolkit on prenatal PA evaluation that informs and encourages patients to get appropriate testing during pregnancy. Long-term, the project aims to evaluate the impact of the intervention toolkit on clinical outcomes, including prenatal PA referrals, PA evaluation and testing outcomes, β-lactam utilization, and pregnancy/neonatal outcomes (e.g., caesarean section rates, length of hospitalization).
“The Allergists’ Foundation has received a strong response to our call for proposals under the Community Grant Program, which makes our job of selecting projects for funding very challenging,” said Todd Mahr, MD, FACAAI, the chair of the Foundation’s Grants Allocation Committee. We are very much impressed with the quality and creativity of the proposals we’ve received so far and we look forward to seeing more project ideas with each new grant cycle.”
To learn more about the Community Grant Program and how you can help support it, download the brochure or contact us for more information.
