Allergy Academy

The 2007 House of Lord’s Science and Technology committee report on the provision of allergy services identified a significant lack of educational opportunities. There was little available to the many groups of healthcare professionals who were on the front line of delivering care to increasing numbers of patients with allergic disease. The Asthma, Allergy & Lung Biology Division of the KCL School of Medicine, under the leadership of Prof Tak Lee, had a long history of commitment to Allergy education and in May 2008 founded the Allergy Academy. Partnerships were made with industry to allow the development of a comprehensive range of courses – from large group lecture programmes to small hands-on workshops. A deliberate move was made away from generic courses aimed at increasingly diverse groups of health professionals but instead towards programmes specific to the needs of different groups, who would be involved in every aspect of course development, faculty and evaluation. Our courses were developed with the practising clinician in mind and our corporate partners have provided us with the support to ensure that cost would not be a barrier to education amongst those who wanted it.