Food allergy conference to tackle immunotherapy, biologics, other topics

Key takeaways:

• The Food Allergy Support Team will spotlight oral immunotherapy for beginners.
• The grassroots organization prioritizes collaboration.
• Best practices for diagnostics and treatment will be discussed.

Immunotherapy, biologics, difficult cases, practice management and more are on the schedule of the seventh Food Allergy Support Team Annual Meeting, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, June 21 and 22, in Dallas.

“We get together, and we collaborate on best practices for food allergy diagnostics and treatment,” Douglas H. Jones, MD, FAAAAI, FACAAI, president of the Food Allergy Support Team (FAST), told Healio.

The program will begin with sessions on patient selection for oral or sublingual immunotherapy, the goals of this treatment, and office space and staffing needed for it, followed by a Q&A with an expert panel, all recommended for clinicians who have started OIT for fewer than 30 patients.

“We always want to welcome new people because when people are trying to figure out how to implement food allergy treatment into their practice, there’s a lot of fear and anxiety of the unknown,” Jones, who also is a member of Healio’s Allergy and Asthma Peer Perspective Board, said.

Jones noted the angst in not knowing what to do in providing food allergy treatments that new clinicians may experience may be due to a lack of proper instruction from national organizations as well.

“So, we wanted to provide a track specifically for not only the experts, but for those who are new or want to do it, so that they feel like they’re empowered with that education to then go out and offer this,” Jones said.

“We want to have as much reach as possible and get choices and options into the hands of as many clinicians and make it available to as many patients as possible without sacrificing the quality of care,” he continued.

Sublingual immunotherapy also will be explored, including food preparation, escalation protocols, and taste aversion tricks.

“Oral immunotherapy has been one of the mainstays now for over a decade in the U.S. Sublingual immunotherapy has been around for that long as well. It just hasn’t been as popular,” Jones said. “But it’s currently gaining a lot more popularity.”

Biologics are another hot topic on the schedule, Jones said, including a literature review, practical recommendations, and pros and cons. Discussion will include the recent approval of omalizumab (Xolair, Genentech/Novartis) for food allergy and how that impacts clinical practice.

“There’s a lot of discussion amongst allergists and patients on how to use it, how to implement it,” he said. “What are ways that we can truly put this into effect for our patients, and what’s the data behind it?” Jones will be presenting on this topic, specifically.

There will be interactive panels on difficult cases, too.

“Ahead of the conference, we have people submit their challenging cases,” Jones said.

Experts on the conference faculty will discuss the details of these cases and try to provide guidance, as members of the audience offer their opinions as well. Further, there will be an interactive real-time polling and response system in place to gather data from those in attendance.

FAST cofounder Richard Wasserman, MD, whom Jones called one of the original champions of food allergy treatment, will moderate these discussions.

“We are all beneficiaries of Dr. Wasserman’s courageous and relentless pursuit of excellence in this space,” Jones said.

“We’re able to really take some of these seemingly unsolvable situations and be able to provide some solutions back to those doctors on how to handle some of those situations,” Jones said. “It’s been very enlightening and meaningful.”

Jones noted the importance of collaboration in diagnosing individual patients.

“We’re really able to take that care and translate it from the bench to the bedside and get down to that level of the individual. I have never been a part of a more giving and collaborative group professionally,” Jones said.

“These allergists and their teams truly embody the meaning of teamwork and a community of professionals coming together for the good of patients. I can’t describe how much selfless service goes into this group,” he continued.

Additional clinical topics will include oral food challenges, anaphylaxis readiness, unusual and cross-reactive foods, the components of consent, maintenance protocols, gastrointestinal issues and laboratory monitoring.

After-hours coverage, the business of food allergy treatment and other aspects of practice management will be covered in several of the sessions too since these topics are not taught in medical school or in other allergy training approaches, Jones said.

“If you don’t know how to do the practice management, then you’re not going to be able to sustain treatment,” Jones said. “We want to make sure that we’re providing those opportunities so that doctors, again, feel empowered.”

In addition to welcoming attendees as each day’s schedule begins, Jones will participate in panels on allergic immunotherapy, difficult questions to consider, practical experience with biologics, gastrointestinal problems with OIT and sustained unresponsiveness.

Paul F. Detjen, MD, allergist and physician owner with Kenilworth Medical in Kenilworth, Illinois, and member of FAST’s leadership team, will be a speaker in sessions on patient selection, OFCs, pre-day one, difficult cases, and preventing and managing reactions.

“Paul is an exceptional allergist,” Jones said, adding that Detjen works well with new and veteran doctors alike. “He brings so much experience and practicality to the table.”

Atul N. Shah, MD, founder of the Center for Asthma & Allergy in New York and member of FAST, also will participate in the panel on difficult questions to consider as well as on the panels discussing adult OIT, maintenance protocols and sustained unresponsiveness.

“We always look forward to his presentations and expertise,” Jones said.

Huamin Henry Li, MD, PhD, FAAAAI, FACAAI, of the Institute for Asthma & Allergy in Maryland, will be part of the panels on laboratory monitoring for outcome prediction and sustained unresponsiveness.

“Henry Li is going to give us some presentations on the latest in diagnostics, because there’s a number of new diagnostics that are coming out,” Jones said.

Calling FAST and its annual conference a grassroots effort that has “gone under the radar for a number of years,” Jones said that the nonprofit 501c3 group is “dedicated to education for food allergies and helping families lift that burden. It is time our efforts come to light as it has shaped the nature of food allergy treatment for almost a decade. We are now on the cusp of really making a global impact.”

Membership is open to allergists and their support teams, including nurses and other members of the office staff, in addition to anyone else in the community who supports patients with food allergy.

Along with the conference, FAST’s leadership has published multiple articles on OIT for food allergy and fosters collaboration between clinicians.

“We don’t see this a lot in some of our other groups or organizations. Everyone’s open to sharing. We collect data,” Jones said. “It really has helped advance a lot more rapidly the delivery and availability of food allergy treatments to patients.”

Registration for the conference is available online.

Jones also encourages pediatricians to connect with FAST and its roster of OIT experts across the country. Pediatricians who do not have any local allergists in their referral networks can contact FAST and find one.

“I would encourage them to reach out to me, and I will try to find someone in their area that they can really have as a go-to source for the patients that they’re caring for so they don’t feel alone or unsupported,” Jones said. “We want our primary care networks to really feel supported by the allergist community.”

For more information:

Douglas H. Jones, MD, FAAAAI, FACAAI, can be reached at rmaaimd@gmail.com.