Section on Allergy and Immunology
Authors:   American Academy of Pediatrics
Published: September 2006

Founded in 1948, the Section on Allergy and Immunology is dedicated to ensuring that children receive the highest quality of allergy and immunology care. To accomplish its mission, the Section provides a number of educational, training, and research programs and continually advocates for improved allergy and immunology care and services.
The Section sponsors educational programs for both pediatric generalists and subspecialists at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition (NCE) each fall and at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology annual meeting each spring. The Section’s other educational endeavors include this annual “Best Articles Relevant to Pediatric Allergy and Immunology” supplement to Pediatrics, Visiting Professor Program, Pediatric Asthma Speaker’s Kit, online continuing medical education course on “asthma gadgets,” electronic quality improvement in practice program on asthma diagnosis and management (Education in Quality Improvement for Pediatric Practice [eQIPP], which meets the American Board of Pediatrics maintenance-of-certification criteria), school nurse allergy tool kit, and a number of public education materials. The Section’s Speakers Bureau and Visiting Professor Program offer pediatric allergists and immunologists to the public, pediatricians, and other health care professionals to speak on various topics. The Section’s annual asthma poster contest encourages young children to illustrate how well they have managed their asthma.
To support training and promote research in pediatric allergy and immunology, the Section awards travel grants to residents and training fellows to participate and present cases at the AAP NCE and provides outstanding abstract awards for training fellows and junior faculty for presentation at the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology annual meeting. In close collaboration with other subspecialty societies, the Section is actively involved with initiatives to improve subspecialty education such as the American Board of Allergy and Immunology maintenance-of-certification requirements. Section members represent the AAP in national and government conferences and provide input on federal legislation on behalf of the AAP. For more information on all AAP allergy and immunology resources and initiatives, visit www.aap.org/sections/allergy.
The reviews contained in the 2006 synopsis were written by Fellows of the AAP Section on Allergy and Immunology, guest reviewers, and fellows in allergy and immunology training programs who contributed reviews with their mentors.
The editor selected the journals to be reviewed on the basis of the likelihood that they would contain articles on allergy and immunology that would be of value and interest to the pediatrician. Each journal was assigned to a voluntary reviewer who was responsible for selecting articles and writing reviews of their articles. Only articles of original research were selected for review. Final selection of the articles to be included was made by the editor.
The 2004–2005 journals chosen for review were: Allergy, American Journal of Asthma & Allergy for Pediatricians, Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, American Journal of Medicine, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, Annals of Internal Medicine, Archives of Disease in Childhood, Archives of Internal Medicine, British Journal of Dermatology, British Medical Journal, Cell, Chest, Clinical and Experimental Allergy, Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Critical Care Medicine, European Journal of Pediatrics, European Respiratory Journal, Immunology, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Journal of the American Medical Association, Journal of Applied Physiology, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Journal of Immunology, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Journal of Pediatrics, Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Lancet, Laryngoscope, Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, Pediatrics, Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, Pediatric Asthma, Allergy and Immunology, Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, Pediatric Pulmonology, and Science.
The editor and the Section on Allergy and Immunology gratefully acknowledge the work of the reviewers and their trainees who assisted. The reviewers were: Allen Adinoff, MD, Denver, CO; James R. Banks, MD, Arnold, MD; Sally Joo Bailey, MD, New York, NY; Mary E. Bollinger, DO, Baltimore, MD; Francisco Bonilla, MD, PhD, Boston, MA; Bradley E. Chipps, MD, Sacramento, CA; Joseph A. Church, MD, Los Angeles, CA; John E. Duplantier, MD, Indianapolis, IN; Casey Geaney, MD, Colorado Springs, CO; James E. Gern, Madison, WI; Alan Goldsobel, MD, San Jose, CA; John M. James, MD, Fort Collins, CO; Stacie M. Jones, MD, Little Rock, AR; Michael S. Kaplan, MD, Los Angeles, CA; John M. Kelso, MD, San Diego, CA; Mitchell R. Lester, MD, Norwalk, CT; Andrew H. Liu, Denver, CO; Harvey Leo, MD, Ann Arbor, MI; Elizabeth C. Matsui, MD, Baltimore, MD; Cecilia Mikita, MD, Washington, DC; Mark Moss, MD, Madison, WI; Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn, MD, New York, NY; Tamara T. Perry, MD, Little Rock, AR; Wanda Phipatanakul, MD, Boston, MA; Christopher Randolph, MD, Waterbury, CT; Wayne G. Shreffler, MD, PhD, New York, NY; Scott H. Sicherer, MD, New York, NY; Elinor Simons, MD, Albany, NY; Helen Skolnick, Princeton, NJ; Brian A. Smart, MD, Glen Ellyn, IL; Jonathan M. Spergel, MD, PhD, Philadelphia, PA; David Tunkel, MD, Baltimore, MD; Julie Wang, MD, New York, NY; Larry Williams, MD, Durham, NC; and Robert A. Wood, MD, Baltimore, MD