Growing the Specialty

We support research and training in allergy / immunology through advocacy in related research, physician training programs and expanding specialty outreach. Here is what we are doing to make a difference. 

•  Comment on Draft USCDI v7.
We endorsed the addition of “Allergy Intolerance Criticality” to the United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) version 7 to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), requiring labeling severity of reactions in patient records. We urged ONC to designate this element as “Must Support” to ensure consistent adoption across electronic health records, which would highlight the importance of appropriate allergy information and improve patient safety. April 2026

•  Congress Must Pass a Fiscal Year 2026 Defense Appropriations Bill.
We joined a stakeholder effort to call for full funding levels for the Defense Health Research Consortium, including the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP), within the 2026 Defense Appropriations Act. Failure to pass a defense-funding bill would have repercussions for millions of Americans, especially current and former military service members and their families. November 2025

• Combatting the physician workforce shortage.
America’s physician and healthcare professional workforce shortage is not maintainable. To lessen the shortage, we and other stakeholder organizations called for congress to provide the highest possible funding for Title VII health professions and Title VIII nursing workforce development programs. November 2025

• Strengthening and protecting research funding.
We are working with national partners to ensure Congress strengthens National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for medical research through FY26, safeguards the NIH’s structure and removes harmful limits on research support. We have also joined 164 organizations supporting the Joint Associations Group on Indirect Costs (JAG) effort to develop a more transparent model that funds the real costs of advancing science. October 2025

• Support for NIH in appropriations outreach.
We joined 76 community stakeholders in writing to congress requesting at least $48.7 billion in funding for National Institutes of Health (NIH) in FY26 and also made sure any appropriations bills or continuing resolutions do not include harmful policy riders. September 2025

• Investigation needed following firing of CDC Director and others.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee announced oversight hearings on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after the dismissal of the Director and key leadership, and resignations of many additional senior personnel. We joined other physician and patient advocates in letters supporting the Senate HELP Committee hearing and requesting the House Committee on Energy and Commerce (E&C) do the same. September 2025

• AAAAI supports the SPARC Act for rural access to specialists.
We support the Specialty Physicians Advancing Rural Care (SPARC) Act (H.R.4681 / S. 1380), a bipartisan bill to create a new student loan repayment program to encourage specialists in training, including those in allergy / immunology, to practice in rural communities for at least six years. August 2025

• The U.S. should continue to lead the world in medical science research.
We joined other community stakeholders and wrote to Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios expressing the importance of investing in scientific research. August 2025

5/13/2026