What is ASCIA?
The Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) was established in 1990 as the peak professional body of clinical immunology/allergy specialists in Australia and New Zealand. This year’s annual conference was their largest summit ever, attracting international visitors from all over the world, online audiences, as well as media representatives from SBS and independent media outlets. This summit offered an excellent opportunity for colleagues and friends to network and exchange their expertise in a variety of areas. Topics were very varied, from diagnostics, the latest nursing practices to the showcasing of findings by publicly funded research groups.
Conference highlights
As per ASCIA’s website, the conference maintained an international standard of Continuing Professional Development (CPD), featuring presentations on the latest research and developments in allergy and clinical immunology. Over 60 speakers, including five international ones—A/Prof Edmond Chan (Canada), Prof Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn (USA), Prof Anne Puel (France), Dr Lluis Quintana-Murci (France), and A/Prof Elizabeth Tham (Singapore)—graced the event.
A presentation by A/Prof Edmond Chan was particularly interesting as it was discussing the Canadian model of how to introduce oral immunotherapy treatments for food adverse reactions. Considering that Australia is the food allergy capital of the world, Canadian translational experiences are very valuable and attracted a significant interest.
Following the opening plenary’s deliberations, questions were asked from the audience, for example by Dr Richard Loh from Perth. Dr Loh specifically asked the journalists in the audience to report on his question, which was why Australia has lagged other countries such as the United States of America (USA) where oral immunotherapy has been in use for over a decade by doctors such as Dr Douglas H. Jones from Utah—one of the world’s leading allergists/immunologists in this field — who has helped more than 50 Australian children to achieve full food freedom over the past decade.
The conference broke records with 26 Clinical Grand Rounds (CGR) presenters, 139 posters, and held concurrent Allergy Updates for Medical Practitioners, Nurses, and Dietitians.
Industry and NGO representatives
ASCIA 2023 featured some leading industry bodies and pharmaceutical companies, and a small number of non-governmental organisations. It would be perhaps useful in the future to broaden the range of NGOs from the food allergy space and to “dress it in teal” (food allergy awareness colour) in order to combine patient advocacy networks’ voices with concurrent medical professionals sessions.
Conference dinner
There were six social events for attendees across four evenings, including a Nurses dinner with a fun trivia night, as well as the formal conference dinner with world-class entertainment. Overall, this year’s hybrid ASCIA conference in Darling Harbour was a huge success, leaving next year’s organisers with big shoes to fill.
ASCIA 2024 under the stewardship of a Balkan woman
Next year’s ASCIA conference will take place in Adelaide from 3rd to Friday 6th September 2024 at the Adelaide Convention Centre (ACC), South Australia under the chairwoman Jovanka King, who probably has Balkan origins.
A new tide towards OIT introduction in Australia
Despite the initial setback in the field of oral immunotherapy, as acknowledged in the 2020 Commonwealth parliamentary report Walking the Allergy Tightrope, there is now a promising sign that Australia and New Zealand will soon catch up with countries such as Canada and USA to introduce oral immunotherapy in private and public practices.
If every GP clinic could offer medically supervised OIT under ASCIA’s guidelines and the oversight of an OIT trained allergist, Australia would hopefully reverse the current food allergy epidemic much quicker than it has been anticipated. It would thus break a world record in this space as the hub of innovation and a proactive approach to one of the greatest public health concerns of our day and age—food allergy.
