Interest Groups

Background:

PCIG EAACI was established during the 2013 meeting held in Milan. The objectives of the PCIG were manifold, but chief amongst them was the need to raise awareness of allergy within primary care.

We approached WONCA early in 2014 with a view to becoming a WESIG ( WONCA Europe Special Interest Group) with a view to raising awareness. We were accepted at the WONCA conference in 2014 in Lisbon and subsequently invited to submit symposia for the meeting in Istanbul this year. Our title within WONCA is PCAIG: Primary Care Allergy Interest Group. Initially two symposia were submitted but we proceeded with only one, which was reclassified as a workshop, due to financial restraints. Unlike other organizations WONCA does not provide any support to speakers, invited or otherwise.

Dermot Ryan attended the WONCA executive Committee in Istanbul meeting as an observer, and made contact there with Dr Andree Rochfort ( liaison officer) Professor Manfred Maier, Professor of primary care Vienna, who is assisting in establishing our primary care day in Vienna in 2016, Prof Roar Maaagaard, Professor of Primary Care , University of Aarhus, who will be organizing the next years conference in Copenhagen and Professor Amanda Howe, Professor of General Practice university of East Anglia, President elect of WONCA World.

The second and much more important meeting that we were invited to, and attended, was WONCA Europe Executive Board meeting with WONCA Europe Special Interest Groups. This was attended by five special interest groups (SIGS). A full and open discussion was held in which the proponents of all SIGs made the case for their existence and importance in terms of improving the quality of care.

An undertaking was made to ensure that SIGs achieved greater visibility within the organization. Dermot Ryan highlighted the almost complete absence of knowledge of allergy within Europe and how this was damaging patients.

The workshop, which had three items:

Poorly controlled asthma

Dermot Ryan

Developing information systems to improve allergy care

Miguel Román Rodríguez

Anaphylaxis: A Primary Care Approach

Elizabeth Angier

was well attended by around two hundred delegates. Excellent presentations were made and many questions were asked.

PCIG was also requested to present in a Grand Session on SIGs and their contribution to Family medicine. Presentations were given by the Respiratory, Gastrointestinal, Allergy and Diabetes SIGS. This session, held in a hall capable of holding 400 people attracted no more than a handful of delegates as it coincided with a key note speech. All SIGs were very disappointed.

What have we learnt:

WONCA is a good forum within which to work.

•     There is an appetite to learn more about allergy.

•     There is an expectation that we will provide educational resources on our website for Family Physicians.

•     Our profile at this meeting needs to be enhanced by the provision of a stand with paper inserts about the group and sessions as part of the conference pack

•            We need to publicize that membership of EAACI is free for all those under 35 years of age. The vehicle for this would be through the Vasco de Gama movement (The Vasco da Gama Movement is the WONCA Europe working group for new and future GPs) http://vdgm.woncaeurope.org/

Next steps

•     A bid has already been submitted for a budget to support a symposium provided by EAACI to WONCA  Europe 2016 in Copenhagen 15th -18th June.

•     To contact the Vasco da Gama movement

•     To work with other SIGs on areas of mutual clinical interest and  primary care policy

•     To develop a range of educational tools for our website or to provide reciprocity ( as we have done with the Irish College of General Practitioners and the Coeliac guidelines)

•     To request of the EAACI executive to have a stand at this meeting but also at the IPCRG world meeting to be held in Amsterdam in 2016 http://www.ipcrg2016.org/home 25-28 May. We are hosting a symposium there. IPCRG are having a symposium at EAACI in Vienna and have been invited to supply one for Helsinki for 2017.

•     To work to provide one symposium at WONCA 2016

•     We have also agreed with IPCRG to submit a joint symposium between IPCRG an EAACI

•     To work towards some pricing structure with the EAACI Executive to encourage membership. ( Suggest reduced fees with online journal access for members of National Colleges and Associations

Dermot Ryan

Liz Angier

Catalina Panaitescu

Miguel Roman-Rodriguez

Link to WONCA Europe website – click here