|  |  |
Vocational Training
Immunology
and Allergy
Supervising Committee
Joint Specialist Advisory Committee (JSAC) in Immunology and Allergy.
New
Zealand Trainees who are interested pursuing this option, should contact the New
Zealand College office in Wellington.
Definition
of Specialty
The diagnosis and management of disorders involving the
immune system.
General Principles
- Advanced training in paediatric immunology and allergy will be supervised
by the JSAC in Immunology and Allergy, with major responsibility being taken by
the paediatric representatives on the JSAC (paediatric immunologist/allergist
appointed by the BPC, and a CPPT representative).
- Advanced Training in
Paediatric Immunology and Allergy will be for at least 3 years following satisfactory
completion of basic paediatric training and success in the FRACP Examination in
Paediatrics.
- Training in clinical immunology and allergy may lead to practise
in 3 categories:
- paediatricians providing both patient care and laboratory
services
- Fellowship of both the RACP and the RCPA. This Joint training
program is supervised by both Colleges through the JSAC
- paediatricians
providing patient care only: FRACP is required
- pathologists providing
diagnostic laboratory services with minimal responsibility for patient care: FRCPA
is required.
- The following guidelines apply only to those training
for FRACP. Guidelines for joint training are outlined in the Requirements for
Physician Training, Adult
Internal Medicine 2003, however the content of the training and examination
would have a paediatric content and focus, with paediatric supervision and paediatric
examiners.
- All subspecialty paediatric trainees must complete the community
and child health requirements for paediatric training.
Note that the guidelines
differ between Australia and New Zealand.
Components of Training
Training will consist
of 2 years of core training, one year of non core training. The content of training
will be as follows: - The training emphasis is directed toward disorders
of childhood and adolescence.
- Predominantly adult diseases such as dysproteinaemias
and the lymphoproliferative disorders would receive less emphasis than the immunodeficiencies
and the common allergic complaints of early life.
Clinical Skills:- inpatient
and outpatient expertise in the evaluation and management of children with recurrent
infections;
- immunodeficiency disorders, their diagnosis and management;
- allergic
disorders, diagnosis, investigation, and management including skin prick/intradermal
skin testing, challenge procedures and immunotherapy (a major component of training);
- immunologic
and allergic disorders involving the respiratory, haematopoietic, nervous systems,
endocrine, collagen vascular and musculoskeletal tissues;
- the paediatric
rheumatologic disorders and the vasculitides;
- malignant disorders of children
from an immunologic perspective, including immunosuppression and the use of immunosuppresive
agents;
- solid organ and bone marrow transplantation.
Laboratory
Requirements
The trainee is expected to be familiar with the interpretation
of, but not practically competent in, laboratory techniques used to assess immunologic/allergic
disorders including:- total IgE;
- allergen specific IgE by RAST/CAP;
- assays
of specific antibodies;
- assays of serum immunoglobulins;
- IgG subclasses;
- flow
cytometry;
- lymphocyte function;
- neutrophil function;
- complement
protein quantitation and functional analysis;
- autoantibodies.
Knowledge
is also required of:- assays of acute phase proteins, cytokines and soluble
cytokine receptors;
- main laboratory techniques such as immunodiffusion,
agglutination, immunofluorescence, nephelometry, Elisa, RIA and molecular techniques
used in the diagnosis of primary immune deficiencies;
- the principles of
immunogenetics.
The knowledge of laboratory procedures should be at a
level where you can appreciate the complexities of the tests that might be requested
by a clinician and understand the interpretation of the results in a more complete
manner.
[ Table of Contents ]
|  |
