Some of you may be going on vacation this month. That is a great time to sit down and spend some time reading articles and features in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology that you may not have had time to read yet. In keeping with our “something for everyone in every issue” promise, I want to call a couple of articles to your attention.
The first is a review article by Michael Blaiss, MD, FACAAI, ACAAI executive medical director, and colleagues discussing the evidence for excessive physical, psychological and social burden of allergic rhinoconjunctivitis on adolescents. This literature is provocative when one considers it, but it is often passed over for other more “exciting” features. Yet this is an extremely important issue to many of our patients. Dr. Blaiss discusses the underlying theme that many individuals trivialize the impact of rhinitis symptoms on issues important to adolescents including wellness, quality of life, educational barriers and social consequences. These are data that validate in a scholarly fashion what all of us who care for these patients know and understand. It provides a basis for using effective therapies to control and possibly modify these disease entities.
Another interesting article is a new installment in our Giants in Allergy and Immunology series. This article honors Elliott Ellis, MD and is written by Stanley Szefler, MD, FACAAI, from Denver. Dr. Ellis was a true giant in our field and Dr. Szefler catalogues many of his great accomplishments. Yet he goes further by discussing and describing Dr. Ellis the man – and many of his attributes that made him special and keeps his memory alive for many of us. This feature is particularly important to our younger readers who did not have a chance to meet giants like Dr. Ellis in-person. They now can learn more about the heritage that we all enjoy because of their contributions. Look for articles about other giants in our field in upcoming issues of Annals.
It will only be a few months until we gather for our Annual Scientific Meeting in Seattle. I hope you will stay safe and healthy until we hopefully see one another at the meeting. If you have comments about Annals that you would like to share with me, please stop me at the meeting. I would love to hear from you.
Gailen D. Marshall, Jr, MD, PhD, FACAAI
Editor-in-chief
