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Information updates

Recent ASCIA Website Updates - Anaphylaxis and Allergy

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.

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Health Professional Allergy Education and Training Initiatives

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:

  • Associateship of Clinical Allergy (ACA) and Rural and Regional Clinical Allergy Network (R2CAN); Dr Melanie Wong, Dr Peter Goss (Budget - $100,000) 
  • 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)

  • Virtual Immunology Clinic for General Practice Rural Initiative for Practice Education (VIC-GP RIPE); Prof Dominic Mallon, Dr Michael O’Sullivan, Dr Jack Bourke, Terri Williams (Budget - $20,760)

Total amount awarded - $312,119

For more details about these initiatives go to https://www.allergy.org.au/national-allergy-strategy

Important Dates

  • Call for EOIs opened: 14 March 2024
  • Call for EOIs closed: 8 May 2024
  • Funding announced: 26 August 2024
  • Progress reports due: March, July and September 2025
  • Final report due: March 2026

The allergy education/training initiatives were selected based on the following criteria:

  • Provide standardised, evidence-based and best practice postgraduate allergy education and training for one or more of the following health professions;
    • General Practitioners
    • Paediatricians
    • Other Medical Practitioners (other than clinical immunology/allergy specialists and trainees)
    • Dietitians
    • Nurses
    • Pharmacists
    • Psychologists
  • Improve access to postgraduate allergy education and training for health professionals, including those in regional, rural and remote areas
  • Have a budget of $10,000 up to $100,000 AUD per initiative
  • Be piloted within 18 months (by March 2026)
  • Have the potential to be scaled up
  • Have measurable outcomes
  • Involve at least one Full ASCIA member 

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.

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ASCIA Food Allergy and Adverse Food Reactions Course for Dietitians

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: 

  • The ASCIA 2024 Conference Allergy Update Day for Dietitians was held on Friday 6th September at the Adelaide Convention Centre, South Australia
  • The ASCIA 2025 Conference Allergy Update for Dietitians will be held on Thursday 4th September at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Queensland and registration will open at https://ascia2025.com/ in May 2025.
  • The ASCIA 2026 Conference Allergy Update for Dietitians will be held on Thursday 3rd September at the Christchurch Convention Centre, New Zealand and registration will open in May 2026.

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:

  • Friday 5th to Saturday 6th September at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Queensland.
  • Friday 4th to Saturday 5th September at the Christchurch Convention Centre, New Zealand.

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).  

*Held in conjunction with Dietitians Australia (DA) Centre for Advanced Learning (CAL) 
**Held in conjunctuion with the ASCIA Annual Conference and Dietitians Australia (DA) Centre for Advanced Learning (CAL) 

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).

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ASCIA Quicklinks improve access to ASCIA information

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

pdfASCIA PC QR Code Quicklinks1.71 M

ASCIA PC QR Code QuicklinksEach 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:"

Allergy and anaphylaxis

Allergic rhinitis (hay fever) and sinusitis

Allergy prevention

Allergy and immunology testing

Allergy treatments

Asthma and allergy

Autoimmunity

Drug allergy

Food allergy

Food - other adverse reactions

Immunisation

Immunodeficiencies

Insect allergy (bites and stings)

Other allergies

Skin 

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New ASCIA Infographic - How to position a person when adrenaline is given

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.

How to position a person when adrenaline is given 

adrenaline self and giving positions 

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

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Inaugural ASCIA meeting for heads of allergy/immunology departments

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:

  • Scope of allergy services (including education, training, mentoring) provided in public hospitals with paediatric and/or adult allergy/immunology departments.
  • What resources (tool kits) should be developed by ASCIA to enable equitable access to allergy care in hospitals, and by other health professionals outside of public hospital allergy/immunology departments.
  • How oral food and drug allergy challenges are conducted for paediatric and adult patients.
  • What are the most urgent and long term allergy workforce issues that need to be addressed.
  • How can the transition from paediatric to adult allergy services be improved.

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:

  • New ASCIA Referral toolkit, including referral templates for GPs (to refer to private or public paediatric or adult allergy services), letter templates for redirecting referrals, and patient management summaries (for example, to assist young adults with transition or transfer from paediatric to adult medical care). These resources will be located  on the ASCIA website www.allergy.org.au/patients/allergy-and-clinical-immunology-services and will be developed in consultation with ASCIA committees and the National Allergy Council. 
  • New ASCIA Guides for health professionals including algorithms or flowcharts on urticaria, food allergy, skin testing, eczema flares and different types of rhinitis.
  • New ASCIA FAQ for patients and carers on a range of topics, including non-allergic rhinitis, vocal cord dysfunction, large local reactions to venom and food allergy in adults. 

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:

  • Developing animated video versions of ASCIA anaphylaxis refresher training courses - ASCIA has worked with a world leading video production company that specialises in healthcare and the video will be available in early September 2024.
  • Improving distribution of ASCIA online resources through QR codes and other technology - work is already underway on this project with the popular Quicklinks initiative. www.allergy.org.au/about-ascia/quick-links
  • Adding more images (infographics and charts) in ASCIA online information.

ASCIA looks forward to providing updates on these projects in monthly ASCIA e-newsletters and at the ASCIA 2024 Conference.

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New ASCIA Clinical Care Standard for inborn errors of immunity / primary immunodeficiencies

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 ASCIA IEI/PID Clinical Care Standard is now available open access on the ASCIA website: 

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 SCIg Treatment Plan

ASCIA SCIg Travel Plan

ASCIA will also be developing a Clinical Care Standard for hereditary angioedema (HAE) in consultation with the patient/carer support organisation HAE Australasia,

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