The European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology - EAACI is one of the biggest medical associations in the World in the field of allergy, asthma and immunology. The continuation of this growth and success will be possible by:

a) Extensive and efficient communication of the science and novel developments in the field of allergy, asthma and immunology to the rest of the world by organization of beautiful annual meetings, focused meetings, schools; through our scientific journals, newsletter, website, press releases, and focused communication campaigns.

b) Strengthening of our specialty.

c) Increasing membership together with increasing involvement of the members in decisions with full member satisfaction.

d) Professionalization of our Academy in a steady way on solid grounds.

Headquarters

One of the key strategies of the EAACI will be to build up a strong administrative structure that can help our Academy to grow and further develop for the long-term future.

Our Headquarters located in Genferstrasse 21, Zurich has been fully operational since July 2009. In the last two terms, the political organisation of our Academy has developed into three major areas: congresses, education - and specialty, and communication and membership, with three vice-presidents specifically focused to each of these areas. The objective of the new Headquarters will be to take extensive to almost full administrative responsibility for all of the EAACI activities. Development of a strong Headquarters will be the basis of professionalization of our Academy on solid grounds.


The EAACI events

Congresses
The EAACI congresses have developed into the largest global congresses for the number of participants and total number of submitted abstracts in the field of allergy, asthma and
clinical immunology.  In the following  two years after Istanbul, our congresses will take place in Geneva and Milan (2012-2013). The EAACI congresses will provide the whole World of allergy, asthma and immunology - namely to all stakeholders - an efficient platform to communicate good science and novel developments in our field.

Focused Meetings
EAACI has organised several smaller congresses over the last decades. They are now called Focused Meetings. The Pediatric Allergy and Asthma Meeting (PAAM), the International Symposium of Molecular Allergology (ISMA) meeting, the Skin Allergy Meeting (SAM), the European Rhinitis and Asthma Meeting (ERAM), the Symposium on Experimental Rhinology and Immunology of the Nose meeting (SERIN), the  Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Meeting (FAAM) and the Drug Hypersensitivity Meeting (DHM). We will be working very hard to strengthen these focused meetings, with the aim of establishing them as leading meetings in their respective and focused fields. Our goal will be to bring in the experts in these topics to the EAACI platforms to further strengthen our Academy. Focused meetings will not aim to diffuse attention and resources from our annual congresses. It is very important to maintain and further develop the relationship with all possible sponsors with an open, transparent and thoughtful/reasonable approach.

Our major aims will be:

1) To bring in an increasing number of participants and sponsors to the EAACI events and provide them with entire satisfaction. We will continue to improve the EAACI meetings as top international events in allergology and clinical immunology for every individual and stakeholder interested in the field worldwide. We will understand allergies as a worldwide problem; engage into discussion/communication with all organizations in the field worldwide, and provide them the best science and communication platform)

2) Best scientific programme will be brought together by full involvement of individual members, sections, interest groups, and local flavour. As much as possible scientists will be embraced by and engaged to our congresses.

3) Young scientists, developing group leaders and JMA will be supported to develop future opinion leaders in the field.

4) Best social programme will be organized to improve personal as well as transcultural communication.

5) A healthy economy and budget of all of the events and other means of fund-raising will be sought and implemented.

6) Membership, participant and sponsor satisfaction will be continuously measured.

7) The educational aspect of the annual congresses and focused meetings will receive utmost attention.

Education and Specialty
Considering the large variation in training and education in allergy, Europe needs high standards of education in allergology, which should disseminate to all European countries. All of the EAACI events have strong educational focus. In addition, we will continue to provide a strong basis of training through our Allergy School activities and will provide extended web-based education.

The knowledge test in allergy and immunology will continue to further support this development. We currently have 14 running task forces and 7 task forces are under planning.

Our major aims will be:

8) We will continue to organise 3-4 Allergy Schools per year, which will focus on specific areas of allergy and immunology. All of the School activities will be sponsored by our Academy with the only aim of education.

9) We will develop comprehensive educational material in allergy and immunology, in print or to be available on our web-site.

10) Dissemination of EAACI Knowledge Examination will be a special focus.
We will aim at continuing to support the increased number of participants  that will take the knowledge examination.
11) We will increase the collaboration with UEMS (Union Europeenne des medecins specialistes/ European union of medical specialists) to develop a simplified and more efficient way of establishing Continuing Medical Education (CME)-granting scientific and educational events. The development of a Europe-wide curriculum for education in allergology will be pursued.

12) EAACI is committed to support the development of the specialty of allergology in Europe by providing a platform for clinical and scientific communication (Allergy Schools and the EAACI Congresses); providing a platform for efficient allocation of CME-credits to courses; providing support for national societies needing to develop the specialty of allergology in their country.

13) EAACI shall provide administrative and financial support for the development of task forces for guidelines, position papers and consensus reports and provide the best scientific platform to communicate the outcome of the task forces through our meetings and journals.

14) EAACI will be focused to embrace and educate family physicians and general practitioners, who are interested in allergic patient care and education. Our new JMA mentorship program will be established on solid grounds so that our EAACI culture of good science and education disseminates to the whole Europe and further to the rest of the World.

15) EAACI will be focused on the development of new interest groups according to the needs of our community such as epidemiology of allergy and asthma, biologicals, pharmacoeconomics etc.

Communication
Our communication strategy will further develop with the aim to increase world-wide education, awareness and understanding of allergic diseases and asthma.

We will continue to influence the policy and expand resources aimed at research, education and care of allergic diseases and asthma by aiming at politicians, as well as other stakeholders. This will include advocacy at local, national and international levels with public education for the improvement of the overall health of individuals with allergic diseases and asthma.

Our major aims will be:

16) Allergic diseases are a growing health problem world-wide. At the same time the knowledge of the opportunities to prevent and treat allergies is limited among politicians, policy makers, patients, public and even many health care professionals outside the allergy specialty. A five years communication strategy will be developed to reach and fulfill the needs of all these stakeholders.

17) The EAACI Journals Allergy,  Pediatric Allergy and Immunology (PAI) and Clinical and Translational Allergy (CTA) shall further develop as strong key journals in the field of allergy asthma and clinical immunology. Strong collaboration between the journals and other EAACI bodies will be established.

18) The EAACI web-site shall be the most comprehensive, updated and interactive platform of allergy news for allergy specialists, lay people, medical students, patients and industry with the latest sources of information.  Other e-platforms such as The Allergy News (our news portal) or Infoallergy (the EAACI public website) shall continue to grow in their function to inform professionals and general population in the field of allergy.

19) Major areas of allergy will be supported with EAACI public campaigns, each of which will be launched every year.

20) A five years membership strategy plan will be developed.

21) Member satisfaction will be continuously measured. Internal information of activities within EAACI shall be increased in order to pursue membership involvement and satisfaction. The Newsletter and other online tools will be used for this purpose.

Finances
The healthy financing of our Academy is crucial for its successes in all areas with the highest priority. There are new scenarios in the medical industry field that can change the revenues of the EAACI and may endanger its financial solidity and its mission. Companies’ perspectives are changing on a short-medium range of investments, some of them are merging and some others are not considering allergy a source of profit.

There is a need to adapt to this changing environment by implementing strategies to address the needs of  new potential targets i.e. in the field   of nutrition, skin care and biotechnology products.  In addition, the increase of  the public awareness of the importance of research and education in our field as well as  the increased profile of our Academy in the community  will allow to establish partnership with private sources such as foundations in order to  support specific projects. 

Our major aims will be:

22) A five years fundraising strategy will be developed that can allow EAACI to keep its financial strength and independency.

23) Our Academy has a long-term history of a respectful collaboration with its “Founder Sponsors”. The support received has been primarily focused on annual meetings. This collaboration will be further developed, supporting scientific communication by developing strategic partnerships with different pharmaceutical companies.

24) The existing healthy, transparent and professional way of book keeping will be further improved with the application of standard operating procedures for newly developing areas.

External bodies and outreach strategies
We believe that a worldwide consensus between the major academies and national societies is essential. An outreach body for a coordinated effort in communication on allergic diseases and asthma, as well as developing international consensus in many fields of allergy is needed. In this consensus, EAACI will pursue the aims:  to promote basic and clinical research; to collect, assess and diffuse scientific information; to act as scientific reference body for other scientific, health and political organizations;  to encourage and provide training and continuous education; and to collaborate with patient organizations to achieve these goals.

Our major aims will be:

25) Our strong relationships with organisations such as GA2LEN, GARD and relevant societies such as the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, Immunology (AAAAI) and World Allergy Organization (WAO) are central for EAACI and these relationships will be strengthened.
26) Other partnerships will be pursued in particular associations with organisations in adjacent areas to EAACI. Special attention will be given to relationships with regulators and especially at the EU-level.

27) EAACI will work on establishing new collaborations with different external bodies, such as companies in the field of allergy, and other funding entities such as different foundations.

28) The EAACI collaboration with WAO will actively continue, as EAACI and WAO are organising the EAACI/WAO Congress in 2013 together in Milan. A scientific programme committee  and procedures for developing the programme are being established. We together with WAO are committed to provide an exciting and very attractive congress for the whole World.

29) The EAACI collaboration with AAAAI has primarily been focused on the PRACTALL, “Practical Allergology” program to develop transatlantic position papers in specific fields. EAACI is committed to continue this program with at least one PRACTALL per year.

30) EAACI is focused to work with patient organisations and establish a patient organization committee or an interest group.

Democracy & Elections & Gender Balance & Regional Balance
The EAACI Family has now reached to more than 160 members:

•    Sections:           5 X 7= 35 (1 chair, 6 board members)
•    Interest Groups:    12 X 7= 84
•    JMA board               16
•    Ex-com+Adj. Memb.           20  (Excluding section chairs [5])
•    Past presidents             8
•    Headquarters staff:             8
•    Total                      171

31) EAACI shall continue for open and transparent elections for more than 140 positions in the EAACI family. This is currently being implemented by web-based electronic voting for Section and Interest Group Boards.

32) EAACI shall focus on keeping gender balance and regional balance in its committees, sections and interest groups.

Ethics
The Ethics committee is one of the permanent bodies of our Academy.  The committee aims at ensuring high ethical standards in all areas of EAACI activities. The responsibilities of the Ethics committee are described in the Bylaws. In 2006 a position paper by the Ethics Committee entitled "The Code of Ethics of the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology (EAACI)"  was produced and published on the EAACI website.

33) EAACI shall be fully committed to keep very high ethical standards and transparency in all its activities. The ethics committee will develop new documents according to the needs of the academy due to new activities

I believe in teamwork, transparency, communication and feedback, which will bring efficiency, quality and success. I thank you for your support and look forward to working with you to strengthen our Academy on solid grounds.

Cezmi Akdis
EAACI President 2011-2013