ASCIA Progress Report - National Allergy Council (NAC) Shared Care for Allergy (SCA) Project 

ASCIA’s involvement in the National Allergy Council Shared Care project includes:

• Advocacy to increase access to care, including food and drug challenges, to improve diagnosis and management of allergic conditions.
• Education, training and mentorship of health professionals, to improve knowledge and experience in managing allergic conditions.

For the latest update go to https://www.allergy.org.au/about-ascia/info-updates/ascia-update-shared-care-project

Shared Care Consultation Meetings

ASCIA actively promoted the Shared Care consultation meetings to ASCIA members and other health professionals through e-newsletters, direct email and social media. This resulted in a range of health professionals being well represented at these meetings throughout Australia. Feedback to ASCIA from meeting participants has been positive and they have welcomed the opportunity to provide input.

Gap Analysis – Anaphylaxis and Allergy Training

ASCIA is undertaking scoping work to determine the current allergy training being provided in medical and allied health professional undergraduate degrees/certificates.

ASCIA has progressed an extensive gap analysis to scope the current anaphylaxis and allergy training provided to undergraduate students for a range of  health disciplines. ASCIA will engage with relevant stakeholders to determine the benefits, enablers and barriers for incorporating anaphylaxis and allergy training into undergraduate courses.

• An initial scoping report of current providers of undergraduate healthcare degrees has been completed.
• ASCIA has developed a comprehensive list of contacts for tertiary institutions that provide degrees for medical practitictioners (including general practitioners, physicians and paediatricians), nurses, nurse practitioners, psychologists, dietitians, and paramedics.

Surveys evaluating ASCIA anaphylaxis and allergy e-training courses for health professionals have been undertaken:

• Data from voluntary post-training evaluation surveys for ASCIA anaphylaxis e-training for health professionals from December 2021 to December 2022 has been analysed and results entered into a report which is available here.
  HP Anaphylaxis Report 2022694.21 KB and also on the ASCIA website https://www.allergy.org.au/ascia-reports
• Data collected from January 2023 to December 2023 from mandatory e-training surveys will be analysed and reports will be developed in early 2024
• Further reports will be developed from survey data collected on annual basis.

The following surveys to determine the current anaphylaxis and allergy training in undergraduate health professional degrees have been developed in Qualtrics 

• Survey 1 in July-August 2023 for health professional graduates to understand their undergraduate experience of anaphylaxis and allergy training. This survey was implemented by promotion through health professional organisations, e-newsletters, direct email and social media. 
• Survey 2 in October-December 2023 for representatives from institutions and is available at https://www.allergy.org.au/hp. This survey is being implemented by contacting relevant stakeholders. ASCIA has developed a comprehensive list of contacts for tertiary institutions that provide degrees for health disciplines which are approved by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).  

The results of all of the surveys listed above will be summarised in reports to:

• Highlight factors influencing the decision to incorporate anaphylaxis and allergy training in undergraduate degrees.
• Provide insights into the benefits of including anaphylaxis and allergy training for future health professionals.
• Outline potential improvements in ASCIA e-training courses based on feedback in the reports on ASCIA anaphylaxis and allergy e-training courses for health professionals.
• Provide feedback to assist in developing consistent minimum standards/competencies for anaphylaxis and allergy training across institutions.

Gap Analysis – Resource Management

A comprehensive review of ASCIA website resources accessible to patients, carers and health professionals has been completed on 31 May 2023. Each individual resource has been catalogued in a spreadsheet that now forms an integral part of the collaborative gap analysis. This spreadsheet will be maintained and updated on a continual basis as new and revised resources become available.  The intention is to have this available open access on the ASCIA website www.allergy.org.au/about-ascia/website-information#s1

Promotion of Patient/Carer Support Organisations 

• ASCIA Fast Facts have provided concise, reliable and easy to read information about allergies and other immune system disorders since they were first developed in 2019. ASCIA Fast Facts are the first online resources for patients and carers that have been reviewed and updated in 2023 to ensure that plain language is used where possible, and links to patient and carer support organisations are included at the top of each document. These updates have been made by ASCIA as part of the National Allergy Council Shared Care for Allergy project. The updated ASCIA Fast Facts are available at www.allergy.org.au/patients/fast-facts on 20 topics.
• ASCIA Dietary Guides for Food Allergy have been updated with links to patient and carer support organisations included at the top of each document. The previous versions had blue “Dietary Guide” headers which are no longer used, as it is important to make it clear that these resources are for patients and carers and “Dietary Guide” is now stated in the title of each document. In October 2022 each of the 11 Dietary Guide webpages were updated to include ReadSpeaker, to improve accessibility. The updated ASCIA Dietary Guides for Food Allergy are available at www.allergy.org.au/patients/food-allergy/ascia-dietary-avoidance-for-food-allergy for 10 allergen groups, as well as general information in a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for patients and carers.
• ASCIA Dietary Guides for the Four Food Elimination Diet (4FED) and Two Food Elimination Diet (2FED) for Eosinophilic Oesophagitis (EoE) have been updated with links to patient and carer support organisations included at the top of each document. The previous versions had blue “Dietary Guide” headers which are no longer used, as it is important to make it clear that these resources are for patients and carers and “Dietary Guide” is now stated in the title of each document. ReadSpeaker is available on the Dietary Guide webpages to improve accessibility. The updated ASCIA Dietary Guides for EoE are available at 
  www.allergy.org.au/patients/food-other-adverse-reactions/eoe-2fed
  www.allergy.org.au/patients/food-other-adverse-reactions/eoe-4fed

This news item was issued on 19 July 2023 and updated on 23 November by Jill Smith, CEO of ASCIA, the peak professional body for clinical immunology and allergy in Australia and New Zealand.