Allergy core curriculum seeks to fill unmet need in advanced practice provider training

ByMoira Mahoney

Fact checked byKristen Dowd

Key takeaways:

The curriculum for advanced practice providers in allergy is anticipated to premiere on the AAAAI website this spring.
Experts rated competency in referrals and identifying red flags as highly important.

A new core curriculum specifically for advanced practice providers, or APPs, is under development to fill a gap in the field of allergy, Maureen Bauer, MD, told Healio.

As Healio previously reported, there are currently no post-graduate training programs available for physician assistants (PAs) in allergy, leading to a significant education gap when they join a practice.

Further, there is no set of national guidelines standards available to PAs after graduation from an accredited allergy program. As a result, PAs are trained according to the customs of the practice they join, which may cause them to be underutilized or improperly utilized due to lack of clarity regarding their role.

To address this educational need, Bauer, associate professor of pediatrics and director of the Allergy and Immunology Fellowship program in the section of pediatric allergy and immunology at Children’s Hospital Colorado and the University of Colorado School of Medicine, is working in collaboration with the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology to develop a core curriculum specifically for APPs, including nurse practitioners (NPs).

“The intended audience of the program is APPs new to allergy and immunology. The goal is to teach the fundamentals of the field as a complement to the clinical training at the practice site,” Bauer told Healio, adding that the curriculum is anticipated to premiere this spring on the AAAAI website.

Healio spoke with Bauer about her career path, the curriculum, the lack of formal allergy training for PAs and her presentation on this topic at this year’s AAAAI.

The joy of teaching others

Initially, Bauer was interested in a variety of subjects, especially those that are more history-focused and involve following patients over time. After obtaining her MD from the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine in 2010, Bauer began a general pediatrics residency at the NYU School of Medicine. Once she completed an elective in allergy and immunology, she found that it was the specialty she liked best.

“I picked allergy and immunology because I enjoy the subject material — it’s a bit of detective work — where you can partner with patients and follow them longitudinally,” Bauer told Healio.

Subsequently, she finished her residency in 2014 after serving as chief pediatric resident and completed an allergy and immunology fellowship at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2016.

Bauer considers her role as a fellowship program director to be one of her greatest career accomplishments.

“Since medical school, teaching others has been one of the most rewarding parts of my job,” she told Healio. “I love seeing fellows grow and expand their knowledge from the first day of their fellowship until the end of their second year. I personally find it very rewarding to feel like I played a small part in where they go next.”

When teaching fellows, who have already completed a pediatric or internal medicine residency, her philosophy is to provide them “with the evidence behind our medical recommendations so they can develop their own style,” she said. In this way, “medicine is like art,” she added.

Even despite finding her niche in medicine, after having two children, Bauer grappled with less flexibility and balancing her time between work and her family. However, she found that improved self-awareness and setting boundaries helped her to overcome this challenge.

“I am more thoughtful about what I say yes to and knowing when to decline a request if I really don’t have the bandwidth to do it well,” she told Healio.

Filling the gap

Bauer was inspired to create a core curriculum for APPs while working with allergy NPs and PAs who expressed a desire for a training program specifically designed for their role, she told Healio.

“I have an interest in medical education and have developed curriculums for fellows so I thought this would be a good challenge to take on,” she said.

Since she has not served as an NP or PA, Bauer has relied upon the help and opinions of health care professionals with experience working with or working as an APP in allergy.

She theorized that the lack of post-graduate training programs can be explained by several factors, including that scope of practice in terms of required supervision differ by state.

“Additionally, through talking to APPs in the field, I learned that the needs of individual institutions/practices vary significantly. Thus, I think the lack of a uniform role across the U.S. for APPs has limited the development of a national curriculum,” Bauer told Healio.

At the 2025 AAAAI/World Allergy Organization Joint Congress, Bauer and colleagues presented an abstract detailing the latest developments in this project. After performing a gap analysis and targeted needs assessment, the team worked with an expert panel of five MDs and APPs to create a draft of core allergy competencies adapted from an existing graduate physician medical accreditation training program.

The initial draft included 112 competencies which were rated based on relevancy to clinical practice by experts with extensive experience training APPs in allergy, including 12 physicians, nine NPs and eight PAs. Next, Bauer and colleagues eliminated competencies with lower scores, creating a final version with 99 competencies.

“Competencies with the highest scores typically included standard diagnosis and management, identification of red flags and when to refer,” Bauer and colleagues wrote.

They plan to use the proposed competencies to help craft the curriculum, which will consist of online modules and act as a “boot camp” for APPs entering the field, Bauer told Healio. Completion of the program will not result in a certificate and does not indicate readiness for independent practice. The curriculum will include clinical cases but will not have a clinical component, she added.

“I’m really hopeful that once we implement this curriculum, it will help APPs to learn the fundamentals and get a jump start on their experience in allergy and immunology,” she said, adding that Megan O. Lewis, MSN, RN, CRNP, NP with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Maria Crain, MA, APRN, CPNP-PC, pediatric NP at UT Southwestern Medical Center, played a pivotal role in helping with the project.

Advocate for yourself

APPs in allergy looking to expand upon their training can utilize online resources designed for fellows, such as the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology COLA lectures, Bauer told Healio.

“I would also encourage them to advocate for themselves at their practice site when hired, as individuals hiring them may not be aware that NP/PA school does not provide extensive education in all subspecialities,” she added.

Bauer reassures early-career women allergists that they have made an excellent choice in entering this specialty.

“It’s a great field to enter,” she told Healio. “You will be busy and see a good variety of diagnoses.”