Free Allergy and Immunology CME

Physicians specializing in Allergy or Dermatology.

Activity Description / Statement of Need:
In this online, self-learning activity:

Systemic mastocytosis (SM) is a heterogeneous group of disorders caused by proliferation of abnormal clonal mastocytes, which accumulate in the skin and/or other organ systems. Mastocytosis, including SM, was reclassified as a distinct disease subtype in 2016, when the World Health Organization (WHO) removed mastocytosis from the myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) group. The WHO defines 5 SM subtypes, ranging from indolent SM, which is associated with mild symptoms and near-normal life expectancy, to mast cell leukemia, which is an aggressive hematologic malignancy associated with median survival of less than 1 year.

Target Audience:
HCPs including: hematology/oncology specialists, allergists, and clinical immunologists, dermatologists; physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists who practice in those areas of specialty; and any other healthcare professionals with an interest in or who may clinically encounter patients with systemic mastocytosis.

Primary immunodeficiency disorders (PIDD) comprise a group of 430 different known inborn errors of immunity. The heterogeneous etiology of PIDD leads to a vast array of clinical presentations, including infection, malignancy, autoimmunity, and inflammation. Once thought to be exceedingly rare, PIDD is increasingly being recognized as an underdiagnosed disease affecting between one in 1,000 to one in 5,000 births.

Because a significant percentage of people with PIDD are undiagnosed, improving the recognition of PIDD signs and symptoms necessarily forms the foundation of PIDD-focused medical education efforts. Early treatment improves outcomes and health-related quality of life in children and adults with PIDD, yet time from symptom onset to diagnosis can exceed 4 years. Diagnostic lag has serious consequences for many patients with PIDD due to recurrent infections, which may take a toll on pulmonary function. In a large-scale analysis of patients with common variable immunodeficiency, a common form of PIDD, risk of death increased by 1.7% each year of diagnostic delay.  The most up-to-date guidance around the classification of PIDD and how to determine related genetic tests has been published relatively recently. Communicating related information to HCPs in a timely manner is a demonstrated need.