ASCIA’s role in the National Allergy Council includes implementation of the following projects, supported by funding from the Australian government:

• Schools/Childcare project – to provide and facilitate anaphylaxis and allergy education and training for people working in schools, children’s education/care services and the community.
• Shared Care for Allergy project - to provide and facilitate anaphylaxis and allergy education and training for health professionals, and to promote patient/carer support organisations.
• Drug (Medication) Allergy project - to provide and facilitate drug (medication) allergy education and training for health professionals.

Achievements for activities allocated to ASCIA in 2024 and activities due for completion in 2025 are outlined below.

National Allergy Council Schools/Childcare project - achievements for activities allocated to ASCIA in 2024:

• Evaluation reports based on feedback surveys (completed by 43,945 users in 2023 and 5,254 users in 2022) from ASCIA anaphylaxis e-training courses for schools, children's education/care and community. www.allergy.org.au/ascia-reports#nacscec
• Development of a new ASCIA Anaphylaxis Training Refresher Video for schools, children's education/care and community, based on feedback from course participants and the content of ASCIA anaphylaxis refresher e-training courses. www.allergy.org.au/ascia-videos
• Ongoing maintenance and support of ASCIA anaphylaxis e-training courses for schools, children's education/care with 2,119 help requests received and resolved in 2023 and 1,058 help requests received and resolved from January to June 2024.

The following activities are due for completion in 2025:

• Evaluation reports based on 2024 feedback surveys in ASCIA anaphylaxis e-training courses for schools, children's education/care and community. 
• Development of a scoping report for undergraduate education/training for people studying to work in schools and children's education/care. (Due date March 2025).
• Updating of ASCIA website and e-training learning management system (LMS) to improve the user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) for patients, carers, schools, children's education/care and community.

National Allergy Council Shared Care for Allergy project - achievements for activities allocated to ASCIA in 2024: 

• Funding support for 5 health professional education and training initiatives through an EOI process. www.allergy.org.au/national-allergy-strategy
• Increased promotion of ASCIA clinical, education and training resources through the ASCIA website, e-newsletters and social media, with a reach of more than 12,000  followers/subscribers each month and more than 3 million website pageviews each year (250,000 each month).
• Participation in 12 medical conferences with more than 14,000 delegates, to promote ASCIA education, training and clinical resources. www.allergy.org.au/ascia-reports#sca
• Evaluation reports based on feedback surveys (completed by 1,730 users in 2023 and 1,176 users in 2022) from ASCIA anaphylaxis e-training courses for health professionals. www.allergy.org.au/ascia-reports#scap
• Updating of more than 100 ASCIA patient/carer educational resources to promote patient/carer organisations and improve readability. www.allergy.org.au/patients
• Improved access to more than 400 ASCIA online education, training and clinical resources through development and promotion of ASCIA Quicklinks. www.allergy.org.au/about-ascia/quick-links
• Application submitted for MBS food challenge item number. www.allergy.org.au/about-ascia/info-updates/ascia-application-for-mbs-item-for-supervised-oral-food-challenges
• Planning for development of an ASCIA referral toolkit. www.allergy.org.au/patients/allergy-and-clinical-immunology-services 
• RACGP (Royal Australian College of General Practitioners) accreditation of ASCIA anaphylaxis e-training for health professionals (2025 version).
• PSA (Pharmaceutical Society of Australia) accreditation (under the authority of the Australian Pharmacy Council) of ASCIA anaphylaxis e-training for health professionals (2025 version). 
• Ongoing maintenance and support for ASCIA e-training courses for health professionals.

The following activities are due for completion in 2025:

• Further accreditation of ASCIA anaphylaxis e-training for health professionals (2025 version)
• Updating of ASCIA health professional resources to promote patient/carer organisations. 
• Evaluation reports based on 2024 feedback surveys in ASCIA anaphylaxis e-training courses for health professionals. 
• Development of ASCIA anaphylaxis refresher training video for health professionals, based on feedback from course participants and the content of ASCIA anaphylaxis refresher e-training. 
• Resubmission of application for MBS food challenge item number. (Due March 2025) 
• Development of a scoping report for undergraduate education/training for people studying to work as health professionals. (Due date March 2025).
• Updating of ASCIA website and e-training learning management system (LMS) to improve the user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) for health professionals.
• Development of an updated ASCIA Food Allergy Course for Dietitians to include online webcasts and a Masterclass with case-based learning to be held in the ASCIA Annual Conference week. 

National Allergy Council Drug (Medication) Allergy project 

The following activities are due for completion in 2025:

• Development of new ASCIA drug (medication) allergy etraining course for health professionals.
• Development of other ASCIA drug (medication) allergy resources, including penicillin antibiotic allergy delabeling guidelines and drug allergy terminology, working in collaboration with the National Allergy Council.
• An application to MSAC for an MBS item number for drug challenges will be developed in 2025.

Visit the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care website to learn how the National Allergy Council (a partnership between ASCIA and Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia) collaborate with the National Allergy Centre of Excellence (NACE).

The National Allergy Council works together with NACE to help improve allergy care and research in Australia. Allergic diseases are one of the country’s major public health challenges. The collaboration is supported by funding from the Australian Government.

This news item was issued on 18 November and updated on 11 December 2024 by Jill Smith, CEO of ASCIA, the peak professional body for clinical immunology and allergy in Australia and New Zealand.