Test your knowledge with our Question of the Month, organized by our Patient & Professional Relations (PPR) Committee! These allergy trivia questions and answers are a fun way to learn fun ENT facts while keeping your knowledge sharp. Question: Early-Life…
CEO Update, May 2026
“Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is that time of year when everything looks new, fresh, excited. Trees, despite their pollen, and gardens are all awake and blooming with all their glory. Our vegetable patch is doing nicely, which should make the deer really happy with the ensuing smorgasbord. Despite our rain, I am sure some folks got to don their new beachwear over the Memorial Day weekend.
AAOA has new offerings too. With a focus on member engagement and how best to meet you where your needs are, we are rolling out some new opportunities.
From the membership perspective, your Board just approved a new “bring a colleague” concept. With details still to be worked out, the concept is to encourage Fellows to bring a physician colleague to a meeting. This could be a doc in your group or practice, a colleague from residency, or even your physician spouse. Maybe their interest in better understanding around how allergy diagnosis and management fits within ENT. Maybe their interest is a getaway to a great destination. Afterall, Loews Ventana Canyon, Tucson (Annual Meeting Live component September 11-13) and The Hythe, Vail (Explorers 2027) offer great escapes from everyday life with a CME option. Something to consider.
The other colleague option for Fellows is to bring your APP. More and more of our members are engaging APPs as part of the practice team. In many states, these APPs can add efficiency to your practice by helping with patient flow. Sharing the AAOA CME experience with them is a great way to showcase the role and impact of allergy and inflammatory disease, while also learning the latest and the greatest.
If you are interested in exploring our new “bring a colleague” option, contact Kate Chenal (kchenal@aaoallergy.org) in our office.
CME and our courses are likely your first thought when you think of AAOA programming. We get it. For many of you, our Basic Course was your entry ticket to the AAOA. But our tools and resources designed to help support you are growing in both broad and targeted ways. Our website is your go to source for access.
Under the patient resources page, we offer several patient resources to help you and your staff help your patients their allergies and treatment pathway. New to the page are “Breaking Down Viral ENT Health Hacks,” “Expert Tips for Surviving Pollen Season,” and “The Twelve Days of Allergies.” Dr. DeMason even highlights planting protocols to help reduce pollen burden by choosing insect-pollinated over wind-pollinated species.
Under the practice page, we showcase everything from our USP general chapter <797> compliance guidance and tools to our practice resource tool kit, and more. Our newest add is out Practice Management Corner blog. Here AAOA leaders share insights into transitioning immunotherapy, Medicare’s new guidance on virtual direct supervision, what needs to be in your anaphylaxis crashcart, understanding billable units in immunotherapy, migraines and allergies, and more. Have a topic you would like us to address? This is a great place to build our community around shared struggles. Share your ideas with Evan Parker (eparker@aaoallergy.org). Growing our content here is a win-win.
Our Partner Resource Center offers access to some of our corporate colleagues. Think of it like a virtual exhibit hall with access year-round.
Your Board is committed to expanding our resources. We are looking into creating an Allergy Practice Playbook with different modules to help each of you access the tools you need now —whether onboarding new staff, adding or expanding allergy, or reviewing you payer interface. This new concept will offer some key action items and take aways to help you truly make an impact. Stay tuned for more as Dr. DeMason, Dr. Lee, Dr. Kamil, and our Socioeconomic Committee map out this new member resource.
It is hard to believe a new Summer is creeping up on us. I could do with a few more Spring-like jacket evenings watching nature unfold. Guess that is the beauty behind nature’s plan.
