Jay A. Lieberman, MD, FACAAI: Clinical Pearls and Hands-On Educational Opportunities at ACAAI Annual Meeting

Dermatology Times invited Jay A. Lieberman, MD, FACAAI, program chair of the 2023 American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting, to share insights about the meeting as well as tips for attendees. Lieberman is also professor at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

Dermatology Times: Can you tell us about what went into the planning of the meeting this year and what attendees might expect?

Jay A. Lieberman, MD, FACAAI: The good thing is it takes a village. So we have our dermatology committee help us and program based on input from the members of the college, as well as what they think are upcoming and important topics in dermatology.

There are a couple of different themes of the conference, but the overall theme is to incorporate updates into clinical practices; we want it to be practical, but to contain information that is cutting edge and up to date.

There's a few things I'm excited about. I'm excited about the Thursday program. Now, that only has a little bit of dermatology, as it includes a whole topic of anaphylaxis and mast cell disorders. But the mast cell disorders do have a lot of dermatologic conditions such as hives and swelling. So that's a full day update on mast cell diseases and anaphylaxis.

From the dermatology side, there's a few hot topics that I'm really excited about. We have an entire plenary on Monday. The Plenary is an unopposed session where we have experts give talks regarding dermatology. The update will be called, “Don't Be Scared of the Skin,” and topics will range from atopic dermatitis treatment, urticaria, and angioedema. Some of the world's experts will be giving talks on those topics.

Dermatology Times: What can you tell us about the Dermatology Jeopardy program?

Lieberman: The dermatology Jeopardy program is an annual favorite. It keeps coming back because we get such great response from it—from our committee members and from our members. So that is where we have a panel of experts who will over scenarios. There are usually pictures of different dermatologic conditions, rashes, etc. We give the audience a little clip and some clinical background. And then they are given some options and questions to answer on their own. And then we have our experts go over the correct answer and why that is why it's the correct answer.

It's a great it's a great session that gets audience response and everybody enjoys it.

Dermatology Times: What can dermatologists expect, especially in regards to collaborating with their colleagues in allergy and immunology?

Lieberman: We have a lot of options for dermatologists. We have a lot of dermatologists who give talks during the conference, and there will be some dermatologists on the panel for the Jeopardy.

We want further input from our dermatologists. For our guidelines that are going to be coming out soon for atopic dermatitis—those will be highlighted at this meeting. And we had a lot of dermatology input on those guidelines. So, we are always looking for collaboration with our dermatologist colleagues.

There are going to be hands-on sessions, too, for allied health professionals, nurse practitioners, and physicians. Hands-on patch testing for the expert, hands-on patch testing for the allied health and nurse practitioner, as well as a session on physical urticaria.

Transcript has been lightly edited for style and length.

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