From the President

Dear Colleagues,

You might recall that in addition to my presidential initiative to improve the care of asthmatic children within the school setting, I had another: to create a separate AAAAI meeting on asthma pathogenesis and treatment.

I am pleased to announce this initiative is becoming a reality in 2016. The Life Spectrum of Asthma course will be held July 29-31 at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Chicago.

Why Attend?

The incidence and prevalence of asthma has increased considerably in recent years. We know that asthma is not a single disease and its expression, remission, progression and severity can vary based on age and gender. Thus it is crucially important for allergist/immunologists, as specialists in the diagnosis and management of asthma, to understand how to select the most appropriate patients for the use of immune response modifiers and how to assess and manage the risk-benefit ratio of treatment.

The Life Spectrum of Asthma course will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of how to do exactly that, by incorporating cutting-edge science and discussion of newly approved biologic therapies and those coming down the pipe.

What Will You Learn?

The title of the course says it all. It was purposefully designed to cover the entire life spectrum of asthma—something no other AAAAI educational offering has done before. This unique course is built around four major themes:

• Asthma inception and progression
• Reducing and/or eliminating asthma exacerbations
• Preventing and treating severe asthma
• Asthma and COPD Overlap Syndrome (ACOS)

Looking at the themes above, you can see how we are following the nuances of the clinical presentation of asthma over time. We start with asthma inception and progression, covering the mechanistic characteristics of asthma in young children and appropriate treatment methodologies. Once asthma is established, the question becomes: how do we deal with preventing and treating asthma exacerbations? For this second theme, we will describe the biological characteristics of asthma exacerbations and outline the appropriate use of biologic therapies to treat them.

Next is preventing and treating severe asthma. If an individual’s asthma worsens, how do we reduce the disease burden in such a patient? We will cover the mechanistic and clinical characteristics of severe asthma and how to differentiate difficult to treat from severe asthma. Finally, we cover further progression of the disease to where a person has clinical features of both asthma and COPD—known as Asthma and COPD Overlap Syndrome (ACOS). This fourth theme will compare and contrast the biological and environmental characteristics of asthma and COPD, as well as define appropriate treatment strategies of ACOS.

How is the Course Structured?

The weekend course begins Friday at 1:00 pm and ends at 12:00 pm on Sunday, minimizing the amount of time you are away from your practice or institution.

Each of the four themes will have its own plenary, a series of 3 symposia lectures comprised of basic, clinical, and translational applications, and case discussion workshops so you can immediately put into use what you have learned.

Other features of the Life Spectrum of Asthma course include:

• Wine and cheese poster session
• Exhibit Hall filled with the latest products and services

How Do I Register? Will There Be Abstract Submission?

Registration and abstract submission open January 15 at the AAAAI website. For your convenience, you will receive an email January 15 with more information. Registration will be processed through our newly improved online Continuing Education Center. This is a good time to point out that further details on the changes to the AAAAI Continuing Education Center are included in this issue of eNews.

To ensure you pay the lower fee, I urge you to register for the Life Spectrum of Asthma course by April 30. Rates to attend the course will go up slightly after April 30. Another important date to note is July 22, which is the last day for online registration. Only onsite registration at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Chicago will be available from that point forward.

In order to give you ample time before and after the 2016 AAAAI Annual Meeting to submit your asthma-related research for consideration, the abstract submission deadline is not until March 31. This will be the only abstract submission period for the Life Spectrum of Asthma course. Accepted abstracts will be highlighted at the wine and cheese poster session that concludes the first day of the course.

Circling back to why you should attend, it is known that children with asthma often become adults with asthma. There is a genuine need to discuss this progression and potential interventions to stop it—which is why the Life Spectrum of Asthma course is being offered. You will not want to miss this unique educational opportunity.

Sincerely,

Robert F. Lemanske, Jr., MD, FAAAAI

AAAAI President

Last updated: February 12, 2016