Shingrix Vaccine to Prevent Shingles - September 2024 Update
New Activity Based Funding for subcutaneous immunoglobulin (SCIg) therapy
Recent ASCIA website updates that are relevant to anaphylaxis and allergy include:
ASCIA Oral Immunotherapy (OIT) for Food Allergy Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for patients and carers - updated to add statements about impact on daily life and factors that can increase the risk of allergic reactions (including anaphylaxis)
New ASCIA Anaphylaxis Refresher Training video – developed to provide training which is accessible and hands-free learning that takes around 16 minutes to watch. Feedback is welcome by mid October 2024 as minor updates will be made at the end of next month.
New ASCIA Management Summary for Allergic Conditions - developed for health professionals to complete, to support continuity of care including transition from paediatric to adult medical care.
ASCIA Anaphylaxis Checklist for Young Adults - updated to make it easier to read and to include a link to Allergy 250K for young adults.
How to position a person having anaphylaxis - updated to include new ASCIA infographic showing how to position a person when adrenaline is given.
ASCIA Quicklinks - developed to improve access to ASCIA website information using QR codes.
ASCIA Anaphylaxis Facts for Parents and Carers – updated to include current information and make it easier to read.
New peanut allergy treatment program for babies in Australia - ten paediatric hospitals across five states have introduced a global first nation-wide peanut oral immunotherapy (OIT) program.
ASCIA application for MBS item for supervised oral food challenges - ASCIA has lodged an application for an MBS item number to improve access to supervised oral food challenges.
ASCIA anaphylaxis e-training reports - for the first time since ASCIA anaphylaxis e-training was introduced in 2010, reports have been developed based on mandatory feedback surveys.
ASCIA Guidelines - Adrenaline (Epinephrine) Injector Prescription and ASCIA Guidelines - Acute Management of Anaphylaxis - updated to include EpiPen® Jr, EpiPen® and Anapen® 500 devices.
Request for initial adrenaline injector to be provided on PBS Authority prescription by clinical immunology/allergy specialist - updated to make the form easier to find on the ASCIA website.
ASCIA Adverse Reactions to Complementary and Alternative Medicine FAQ - updated to include information about allergic reactions to Andrographis paniculata.
ASCIA Guide for Milk Substitutes in Cow’s Milk Allergy - updated due to Alfaré® extensively hydrolysed formula being discontinued in Australia and removed from the PBS from 1 August 2024.
ASCIA is facilitating education and training initiatives to upskill health professionals, as part of the National Allergy Council Shared Care for Allergy project, funded by the Australian Government.
ASCIA invited Expressions of Interests (EOI) from ASCIA members (that were due by 8 May 2024) for funding of initiatives to improve access and timely delivery of allergy education and training for health professionals. ASCIA conducted the EOI process to try to best utilise the expertise and ideas of ASCIA members, as we believe it is the optimal way of allocating funding to provide programs for a range of health professionals. The quality of EOIs was very high, and the selection panel evaluated a range of elements in their decision making, including target audience, budget, impact and skill of the team.
A total of 18 EOIs were received and reviewed by a selection panel, with the following 5 initiatives selected for funding in the 2024 EOI round:
The Regional and Rural Maternal Child Health Nurses Allergy Education Program; Dr Paxton Loke, Marianne Tomlin, Elizabeth Steven-Smith (Budget - $69,430)
Develop ASCIA Food Allergy Dietitian Recognition Program and Certification Model; Corrina Michael, Caroline South, Prof Michaela Lucas (Budget - $64,650)
A Comprehensive Mental Health Training Program for Allergy Health Professionals; Monique Kerr, Emma Warner, Dr Richard Nolan (Budget - $57,279)
Total amount awarded - $312,119
For more details about these initiatives go to https://www.allergy.org.au/national-allergy-strategy
Important Dates
The allergy education/training initiatives were selected based on the following criteria:
All EOIs needed to outline how initiatives can fund education and training of multiple health professionals.
Funding is not available to support education and training of individuals, such as fees for established courses.
We thank ASCIA members for responding to this call for EOIs and look forward to reports on the progress of initiatives that have been funded in the 2024 EOI round.
The ASCIA Annual Conference includes an Allergy Update meeting that is specific to dietitians, in addition to the food allergy sessions in the main program on Wednesday:
ASCIA is currently planning to host the next two ASCIA Food Allergy and Adverse Food Reactions courses in conjunction with ASCIA Annual Conferences as follows:
This course has trained over 200 dietitians since the course commneced in 2018. The course has been held in Adelaide (May 2024), Sydney (November 2023), Melbourne* (March 2023), Perth** (September 2019), Brisbane* (March 2019) and Canberra* (September 2018).
This course has an interactive in-person program that is focused on medical nutrition therapy in food allergy and intolerance
More information is available at https://www.allergy.org.au/members/dietitians
Due to the interactive nature of this course, it is only held liive and in-person only (not recorded).
In response to requests from ASCIA members and feedback from other health professionals, QR codes have been added to the ASCIA website to improve access and reduce the need for printing of ASCIA Information for patients and carers.
More than 100 topics have been updated in 2024 as part of the National Allergy Council Shared Care for Allergy project, to make them easier to read, and to promote patient/carer organisations, with weblinks at the top of each document.
New ASCIA Quicklinks A4 documents include QR codes and are available at www.allergy.org.au/about-ascia/quick-links
ASCIA PC QR Code Quicklinks1.71 M
Each of the following webpages include a QR code directly below the instructions "Scan the QR codes below to view ASCIA information on a mobile phone:"
Allergic rhinitis (hay fever) and sinusitis
Allergy and immunology testing
Food - other adverse reactions
The following subheading, infographic and wording have now been added to the ASCIA webpage "How to position a person having anaphylaxis" to provide guidance on how a person should be positioned when adrenaline is given to them, or self-administered.
When an adrenaline (epinephrine) injector device is being given (or self-administered) the person having anaphylaxis should be laying flat, in the recovery position or sitting with their legs outstretched. They should remain in this position (not standing or walking) after the device has been given, until they have fully recovered.
Instructions on how to use adrenaline devices is available at https://www.allergy.org.au/hp/anaphylaxis/how-to-give-injector
As a recent ASCIA meeting, specific requests were made by members for ASCIA to use more infographics and images on the ASCIA website (not just in ASCIA plans and e-training courses). This is the first webpage (of many to come) to be updated with this principle in mind.
The wording above has also been added to the following ASCIA webpages:
https://www.allergy.org.au/hp/anaphylaxis/how-to-give-injector
https://www.allergy.org.au/hp/anaphylaxis/how-to-give-epipen
https://www.allergy.org.au/hp/anaphylaxis/how-to-give-anapen
ASCIA’s main role in the National Allergy Council Shared Care for Allergy project is to improve allergy education, training and mentoring for health professionals, and advocate for funded food and drug allergy challenges.
To help achieve this, the objectives of the inaugural ASCIA meeting for Heads of hospital Allergy/Immunology Departments in Australia and New Zealand (held on 2-3 August 2024) were to define:
A total of 40 heads of departments, or their nominated representatives participated in the meeitng that was held at the RACP building, Macquarie Street Sydney. Heads of paediatric and adult departments met separately on Friday, then had a joint meeting on Saturday. We thank all paricipants for volunteering their time to contribute to this important meeting.
Based on discussions at this meeting, ASCIA plans to develop several new resources:
ASCIA also plans to develop innovative solutions to improve access and address a wide range of learning styles and health literacy, which was discussed at this meeting. Projects include:
ASCIA looks forward to providing updates on these projects in monthly ASCIA e-newsletters and at the ASCIA 2024 Conference.
A new ASCIA Clinical Care Standard for Inborn Errors of Immunity (IEI)/ Primary Immunodeficiencies (PID) has been developed s part of the ASCIA Immunodeficiency Strategy for Australia and New Zealand in consultation with relevant patient/carer support organisations, AusPIPS, IDFA and IDFNZ,
The main purpose of the ASCIA IEI/PID Clinical Care Standard is to assist in benchmarking and advocating for optimal services and treatment, and to guide resource development and updates.
Minor updates have been made to the following documents, which are linked to in the Clinical Care Standard:
ASCIA Treatment Summary for Patients on Immunoglobulin Therapy (previously called the ASCIA Transfer Care Plan)
ASCIA will also be developing a Clinical Care Standard for hereditary angioedema (HAE) in consultation with the patient/carer support organisation HAE Australasia,
