November 17, 2011

Dear Colleague:

I want to thank you for making our 19th Annual "Mid Summer Night’s Wheeze" a great success in July. In spite of the drastic changes in the economy and declining pharmaceutical support, we managed to have a great meeting in Huntington Beach. We had great speakers, who received excellent evaluations from our attendees. The location was great. One of our exhibitors commented that it was hard to concentrate with an ocean view from the exhibit hall. Thanks again to all of you who were present and made the meeting a success!

I am thrilled to say that we are in the midst of planning our next annual meeting. It will be held in Northern California in San Francisco. The Westin-St Francis is a world famous hotel that is located right on Union Square, and is close to many fine stores and restaurants. It’s only blocks away from the cable car that goes to Fisherman’s Wharf. It is a great location to enjoy a few days off with your family while you are learning. This meeting is a special one for us since it marks the 20th year that CSAAI has sponsored excellent CME programs geared for allergists. The following is the information about our meeting. Please mark your calendars to attend.

20th Annual "Midsummer Night’s Wheeze"

July 6, 7, and 8, 2012

Westin-St. Francis, San Francisco, CA

For this meeting, we are excited to bring great speakers on topics of practical interest to allergists. Dr. Jacob Offenberger is our Vice-President and Program Chair this year and he is working hard to put together a great meeting for us.

The end of 2011 is upon us. With so many changes happening in many areas, I am proud to say that our Allergy/ Immunology specialty continues to thrive. At the CSAAI, we are here to represent the Allergy/Immunology community of the state of California. We have an active representation at the CMA by Dr. Larry Posner and Dr. Myngoc Nguyen who take part in the discussions and decisions that are of importance to allergists in California.

As a group we have been asked to comment on new procedures being evaluated by insurance companies. We’ve also sent letters to our elected officials to represent the allergists’ viewpoint about national cutbacks for specialty reimbursement.

We also have the platform of “Facebook”, where you can post any comments or concerns that you would like to share. I would encourage all of you to take advantage of this platform and share your thoughts. Please visit www.csaai.org and go on to the forum on Facebook. Dr. Sunil Perera has done a great job in maintaining our web site.

I encourage all of you to plan to be at the next annual meeting in July 2012. I can assure you that the meeting will be both enjoyable and informative.

Best wishes to all of you for 2012 and I look forward to seeing you at the annual meeting!

James Orlowski, M.D.

President, CSAAI