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News -> March, 2003 News
J. David Osguthorpe, M.D.
Charleston, SC
The Sinus and Allergy Health Partnership (SAHP) was launched in 1998, a cooperative effort of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS), the American Academy of Otolaryngic Allergy (AAOA) and the American Rhinologic Society (ARS). The Partnership's initial efforts were outreach campaigns to primary care practitioners and the general public in order to counter the "Sinusitis Initiative" the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) had launched in 1997. As the AAAAI effort ran out of steam, the SAHP began to devote more activity toward scholastic pursuits and research. Recent activities of the SAHP are summarized as follows:
- The "Professor-of-the Day" outreach to family medicine residencies has reached nearly 200 training programs, and over the upcoming year will be expanded to nurse practitioner programs, given research indicating that nurse practitioners, who are seeing an increasing number of patients in the U.S., are likely to utilize specialist consultation. The POD program has consisted of 2 "canned" 1-hour lectures, on rhinosinusitis and on allergic rhinitis, that will now being changed by J. Stankiewicz from the overview format of recent years to a problem patient-based format, in order to introduce new material to family medicine residencies that have previously hosted a POD.
- The SAHP has developed, with input from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a study that will compare direct maxillary sinus taps with endoscopically-directed middle meatal cultures in patients with bacterial rhinosinusitis. It is the hope of the SAHP that a concordance rate of 80-85% between direct maxillary taps and endoscopically-directed cultures can be demonstrated, and hence the FDA may allow such instead of requiring maxillary sinus taps for all phase II and III trials of antibiotics for rhinosinusitis. If so, otolaryngologists in the United States, in particular, should have a much better opportunity to participate in the sponsored trials.
- In 2000 the SAHP published a "white paper" on "Antimicrobial Treatment Guidelines for Acute Bacterial Rhinosinusitis" (Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg, 2000;123:S1-S32), with over 250,000 copies distributed. An updated version is being planned for release in May 2003. A SAHP-organized Task Force is now studying chronic rhinosinusitis. Expect a publication to result within the next 12 months. The goal is to summarize the "state of the art" in acute and in chronic rhinosinusitis at the AAO-HNS "Cherry Blossom Conference" in the Spring of 2004 (plan to attend; contact AAO-HNS for registration).
- The SAHP has revamped its website under the leadership of Dr. William Kinney, and such can be viewed at www.sahp.org. The website is now linked to our parent organizations, the AAO-HNS, AAOA and ARS.
- A National Health Museum has been launched as a virtual site at www.nationalhealthmuseum.org, and plans for a physical site just off the Mall in Washington, DC are well under way. To "reserve" a place on both the web site and in the building, the SAHP has contributed $100,000 for the design and development, joining a large number of medical organizations. The donation was made on behalf of the parent organizations of the SAHP, and should preserve the appropriate place of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery in materials promulgated to the public, on either rhinosinusitis or allergic rhinitis, by the National Health Museum.
The Sinus and Allergy Health Partnership (Drs. M. Benninger, I. Emanuel, J. Hadley, D. Kennedy, D. Lanza, D. Osguthorpe, and J. Stankiewicz) wishes to thank our parent organizations, and the members they represent, for the continuing support of our educational and research endeavors. Please direct your questions and/or suggestions for the SAHP to either the parent organizations or the SAHP via its Executive Director, Jami Lucas, or Coordinator, Willis Shawver, at 1990 M Street, NW, Suite 680, Washington, DC 20036 (Phone: (202) 955-5010, ext 104; FAX (202) 955-5016; e-mail: sahp@sahp.org).
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