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Welcome

Celebrating Over 80 Years Of Service!

The American Academy of Otolaryngic Allergy (AAOA) represents over 2,700 Board-certified otolaryngologists and health care providers. Otolaryngology, frequently referred to as Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT), uniquely combines medical and surgical expertise to care for patients with a variety of conditions affecting the ears, nose, and throat, as well as commonly related conditions. AAOA members devote part of their practice to the diagnosis and treatment of allergic disease. The AAOA actively supports its membership through education, research, and advocacy in the care of allergic patients.

"Advance the comprehensive management of allergy and inflammatory disease in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery through training, education, and advocacy."

AAOA Member Benefits

  • Up to 60% discount for CME programs and free Annual Meeting. All AAOA’s CME programs meet ABOTOHNS Continuing Certification.
  • AAOA US ENT Affinity program, where AAOA members can gain savings on antigen, allergy supplies, and any of the other 5 service lines US ENT offers. For more email info@usentpartners.com.
  • Tools and resources to comply with US General Chapter 797 and practice management tools.
  • Advocacy support.
  • And much more! Learn More

ADVOCACY UPDATES

Upcoming Dates

04/01/24: Fellow Exam Application Deadline
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06/01/24: Research Grant Cycle
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06/25/24: Membership Application Deadline to be eligible for AAOA Member rate for the 2024 Basic Course

08/02/24: Scientific Abstract Submission Deadline
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12/01/24: Research Grant Cycle
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EDUCATION

AAOA Advanced Course

The recorded course content is available until April 30, 2024. This year’s Advanced Course featured Laryngology and Skull Base Surgery with Nausheen Jamal, MD and Garret Choby, MD as featured faculty.

RESIDENTS

For information about Resident membership, opportunities, DosedDaily, research grants, and other resources. Learn More

IFAR

Available Now

aaoaf-ifar

IFAR Impact Factor: 2.454

IFAR Featured Content: COVID-19 - Free Access
Endonasal instrumentation and aerosolization risk in the era of COVID‐19: simulation, literature review, and proposed mitigation strategies . Read More

Changes in Managing Practices

Working together with AAOA staff, volunteer leadership and members will enable us to have a positive impact on our members’ practices.

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Live and Online CME

2024 AAOA Advanced Course in Allergy & Immunology - Hybrid
On-Demand Content Access Deadline:
April 30, 2024
Learn More and Register

2024 AAOA Basic Course in Allergy & Immunology - Hybrid
July 25-27, 2024
The Diplomat, Hollywood, Florida
Learn More and Register

2024 AAOA Annual Meeting - Hybrid
November 8-10, 2024
Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas
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USP 797 Online Module
Learn More and Register

AAOA Educational Stacks
Next Availability - April 1, 2024

News and Updates

Choose the IndependENT 2018 AAOA Annual Meeting!

Building off the success of our radically re-designed Chicago Annual Meeting, we look forward to…

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Why 2017 AAOA Advanced Course in Allergy & Immunology

By Cecelia Damask, DO, Director of Educational Programs Due to popular demand, the AAOA is excited…

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College Allergy Symptoms Treatment Back to Shcool

PRACTICE RESOURCES

AAOA Practice Resource Tool Kit

The American Academy of Otolaryngic Allergy (AAOA) Practice Resource Tool Kit is intended as a guide to help AAOA members integrate allergy into their otolaryngology practice and to continually improve on this integration as new information, regulations, and resources become available.

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PARTNER RESOURCE CENTER

AAOA has launched a Partner Resource Center to bring you partner resources that can assist your practice and patient care.

Visit the New Center>

PATIENT CORNER

Journey Mapping

By Haidy Marzouk, MD

If you’re like me, you may feel that the past two years have been one long stress test for your practice.  Between PPE, staff shortages, OR access issues, and telemedicine, we have all had to adapt.  This holds true for our patients as well.  Part of that adaptation is reassessing the patient experience in the new normal we are developing.  It has become necessary to put our practices under the microscope with regards to workflow to do more with less and in different ways while still creating a positive patient experience.

While under the microscope, how does one decide priority efforts in the midst of a complex medical practice with multiple service lines including allergy? While trying to navigate through all this, I came across the concept of patient journey mapping.  Journey mapping has long been used in the marketing and consumer industry to improve the customer experience.  It describes graphically the multidimensional relationship between a “customer” and service.  Within healthcare, this concept has recently been adapted across systems to integrate the patient experience with work-flow processes to improve quality, efficiency, and patient satisfaction.  There have been publications in other medical specialties describing journey mapping and its impact on healthcare including breast cancer, geriatrics, dermatology, among others.

The patient journey map is a visual timeline starting with the first interaction a patient has with a particular provider or office; for example, when the referral is received by the office.   This visual then goes through each step of the patient interaction with one side of the map depicting what the patient sees and experiences and the other side depicting the behind-the-scenes steps that the office performs to provide care for the patient.  These descriptions include the process, how it’s done, and by whom.  This layout is then continually modified and improved to optimize both sides of the map, the workflow process and the patient experience.  

With the ever changing and evolving nature of health insurance, office staffing, and medical information, having an evolving journey map creates a vast number of opportunities for physician practices and larger healthcare entities.  When strategically planning areas for growth and improvement within a practice, a patient journey map can highlight areas for targeted improvement in patient access, patient experience, efficiency, redundancy, quality, and automation. It also can enable the identification of barriers and potential biases to providing care. Seeing the largest gaps in these issues through the map can help make a strategic short- and long-term plan for a practice with appropriate modifications or tweaks along the way.

For those of us who are new to this concept, I found some tips that may be helpful when creating your patient journey map.  Firstly, include your core staff and stakeholders in the process.  This not only gives unique insight into the nuances of the workflow, but also creates more staff/provider engagement and buy-in.  Secondly, obtain and use patient feedback.  Third, continued education in practice management is key to the evolution of the patient journey map to keep a practice both current and optimized.  Below is a very basic sample taken from the Mayo Clinic’s paper that describes a patient journey mapping (3):

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The AAOA continues to provide excellence in education regards to clinical and scientific aspects of care and strives to set up all its members to successful practice through the ever changing aspects of practice management and healthcare.  We hope that all members benefit from the information provided through multiple outlets throughout the organization. 

References:

  1. Ly S, Runacres F, Poon P. Journey mapping as a novel approach to healthcare: a qualitative mixed methods study in palliative care. BMC Health Serv Res. 2021 Sep 4;21(1):915. doi: 10.1186/s12913-021-06934-y. PMID: 34479541; PMCID: PMC8417950.
  2. Ciria-Suarez L, Jiménez-Fonseca P, Palacín-Lois M, Antoñanzas-Basa M, Fernández-Montes A, Manzano-Fernández A, Castelo B, Asensio-Martínez E, Hernando-Polo S, Calderon C. Breast cancer patient experiences through a journey map: A qualitative study. PLoS One. 2021 Sep 22;16(9):e0257680. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257680. PMID: 34550996; PMCID: PMC8457460.
  3. Philpot LM, Khokhar BA, DeZutter MA, Loftus CG, Stehr HI, Ramar P, Madson LP, Ebbert JO. Creation of a Patient-Centered Journey Map to Improve the Patient Experience: A Mixed Methods Approach. Mayo Clin Proc Innov Qual Outcomes. 2019 Sep 24;3(4):466-475. doi: 10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2019.07.004. PMID: 31993565; PMCID: PMC6978601.
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