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News -> November, 2000 News
The Committee was involved this past year in sponsoring the 13th Annual Cherry Blossom Conference. It
was entitled "Adult and Pediatric Rhinosinusitis - Contemporary and Controversial Issues", and covered
a wide variety of topics ranging from the definitions of rhinosinusitis and the prevalence and economic
impact of rhinosinusitis to the management of difficult patients and medico-legal issues. A monograph
summarizing the meeting will be published shortly. Congratulations to co-directors Craig S. Derkay, M.D.,
and James A. Duncavage, M.D..
Our Committee was also involved in sponsoring a Mini-seminar on "The Etiology and Management of Sinus and
Nasal Polyps" at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the Academy. This program included talks on the etiology of
polyps and the medical and surgical management of polyps. Congratulations to Howard L. Levine, M.D., for
organizing an excellent panel of experts. Plans are currently in the works for submitting next year's
mini-seminar. It will cover the topic of image-guided surgery and include comparisons of image-guided
systems and the economic and legal implications of image-guided surgery.
In the upcoming year, there are several initiatives that this Committee plans to address. First and
foremost is to increase communication between our Committee and members of the Academy as well as other
societies such as the American Rhinologic Society. We gladly welcome any concerns or problems that members
of the Academy have regarding their clinical practice from a rhinologic standpoint. A project that is
currently being undertaken with the American Rhinologic Society is to develop an outline of the scope of
knowledge in rhinology that residents would be expected to know on completion of their training. Further
collaborations are hopefully forthcoming.
Secondly, a Subcommittee has been formed to further develop topics on the Academy's website. One subject
that has been proposed for development concerns the responsible use of antibiotics for upper respiratory
and sinus conditions. Much of this material will make use of an excellent publication by the Sinus and
Allergy Health Partnership on "Anti-microbial Treatment Guidelines for Acute Bacterial Rhinosinusitis"
that was recently published in the Academy's journal. Additionally, rhinosinusitis guidelines were also
proposed for development on the Academy's website.
Thirdly, our Committee will be developing a position statement on image-guided surgery for submission to
the Academy.
Fourthly, the Academy's principle patient education campaign, sinusitis awareness month, is scheduled for
March, 2001. This will be the third consecutive year that the Academy has launched this campaign.
Committee members will be participating in a variety of ways including providing and reviewing material
for fact sheets that will be made available to the press and public and will also be acting as spokespeople
regarding our Academy's campaign.
Lastly, the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery has
determined that forthcoming Academy initiatives should incorporate evidence-based medicine into further
edtions of the Clinical Indicators Compendium. Consequently, another Subcommittee has been formed to
develop a priority list of topics, which are needed in order to strengthen the "research evidence" leg of
evidence-based medicine. This could possibly serve as a launching pad for further research.
James Chow, M.D.
Chair
AAO Rhinology & Paranasal Sinus Committee
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