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News -> July, 1999 News
The Sinus and Allergy Health Partnership has evolved from a Coalition
formed by the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck
Surgery, the American Academy of Otolaryngic Allergy and the American
Rhinologic Society in the Spring of 1998. It promulgates our views on
sinus and allergy conditions to the general public and to primary care
physicians. Since formation, organization members (Drs. James Denneny,
Jack Anon, Ivor Emmanuel, Michael Benninger, James Stankiewicz, Jami
Lucas, Michael Maves and the authors) have raised $987,500 in support
for 1999 activities and already $125,000 for 2000, via unrestricted
educational grants from pharmaceutical companies (including Schering,
GlaxoWellcome, SmithKline Beecham, Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer, UCB
Pharma, Ortho McNeil and Bayer).
The firm of WidmeyerBaker has been retained to create a Partnership web
site to disperse information on sinus and nasal allergy conditions to
the public. Over 2,500 slide sets on the management of sinusitis and
allergy have been distributed to otolaryngologists for presentations
to primary care providers. A "Distinguished Lecture Series" is being
offered for the annual meetings of each national primary care organization
and each state medical organization. A working group has been formed with
the Centers for Disease Control to assemble a position paper on the
management of sinusitis from drug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae.
The latest project is a "Visiting Professor of the Day" for the 100 largest
primary care residencies that are not associated with an otolaryngology
training program (476 family medicine residencies and only 104 otolaryngology
residency programs). The "Visiting Professor" will have a standardized slide
set for a 45 minute lecture on rhinosinusitis and on allergic rhinitis, and
will spend lunch and most of the afternoon with the residents, discussing
problem cases and the like. It is through endeavors such as the aforementioned
that the Partnership hopes to raise the awareness in both the general public
and primary care physicians that otolaryngologists are the most appropriate
source for comprehensive evaluation and management of nasal conditions.
Note that the place of our specialty in such has been challenged in the
past few years by our allergy/immunology colleagues, and to a lesser degree
by those in infectious disease. As an example, peruse the "Parameters for
the Diagnosis and Management of Sinusitis" published in the Journal of Allergy
and Clinical Immunology this past December. The treatment algorithm for
sinusitis recommends, after failure of primary care management, consideration
of consultation with an allergist/immunologist. Only after such and consideration
of extended antibiotic therapy, anti-inflammatory and/or decongestant therapy,
evaluation of immunodeficiency and structural abnormalities, sinus CTs and the
like does consultation with a surgeon enter the algorithm. It is emphatically
the position of the Partnership that, after failure of primary care management,
the best medical and cost-effective action is referral to an otolaryngologist.
The Partnership appreciates the rank and file otolaryngologist support it is receiving. Expect a further update from us (your representatives) this Fall.
J. David Osguthorpe, M.D., Professor
Medical University of South Carolina
Department of Otolaryngology and Communicative Sciences
Charleston, South Carolina
James A. Hadley, M.D.
University of Rochester Medical Center
Division of Otolaryngology
Rochester, New York
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