President’s message

International conference success

Professor Graham Roberts

President

I’m writing this after our very successful joint conference with the World Allergy Organisation. For most of us, this has been the first international conference we’ve been to in nearly three years! We had over 800 participants, more exhibitors then we had space for in the exhibition hall plus some excellent Edinburgh weather. Those of you who have been involved in these meetings will know just how much work goes into planning them. They are only successful because of the dedication of many people. I would like to thank George Gkimpas for leading the scientific program committee helped by Nandinee Patel and Natasha Gunawardana. Also Tammy Rothenberg who expertly coordinated all the abstracts. Also our thanks needs to go to our WAO collaborators, particularly Motohiro Ebisawa and Bryan Martin and also to Medivents who again did a great job in organising the logistics behind the meeting. Lastly I’d like to thank the CEOs of both the BSACI and WAO, Fiona Rayner and Justin Dodge who expertly managed the whole conference.

We now have a bit of a break from conferences. The next scheduled BSACI conference is not until autumn 2023. This seems rather a long way away and I’ve already been asked about whether we should put on a small event before then. We would you be interested in your thoughts.

We are at one of those points in time when there is likely to be a massive change in service delivery. I know that many of you are wondering about how Palforzia can be incorporated into your clinical activity. We all need to take a deep breath, think about what is possible and which patients can benefit from peanut oral immunotherapy. As many of you know, there is a BSACI group working on guidance for our members. The aim is to have this published in October.

Last year’s National Allergy Strategy Group (NASG) Meeting the Challenges of the National Allergy Crisis report has helped establish an ongoing dialogue with government on the provision of allergy services. Recently there has been a question in Parliament on research into

We had over 800 participants, more exhibitors then we had space for in the exhibition hall plus some excellent Edinburgh weather.

allergy and the launch of the Allergy UK allergy patient charter. We all need to support the NASG group as they continue these discussions.

It’s good to be talking about something other than the pandemic! Hopefully the warmer weather will allow us all to catch up with our waiting lists. I hope you manage to have a good summer break.