Empathy, Understanding, and Objectivity

[twinturbo]

Got this quasi-abstract from an FAI email. Looks good but $31.50 to read I'll see if I can bum access off a doctor buddy. It's research but intriguing that a call is going out from within medicine for doctors to ensure least restrictions possible for patients in schools. Of course, I'd have to read the actual article to know for sure what's being said.

"Empathy, Understanding, and Objectivity" Are Key to Managing Food Allergies at School
    Citing a recent controversy in which parents protested the food allergy management policy of a school in Edgewater, FL, a guest editorial in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology called for "empathy, understanding, and objectivity to prevail" for students with food allergies. "Allergists have a unique responsibility and ability to promote food allergy awareness, highlight the difficulties of food avoidance, and emphasize the need for shared responsibility," noted Drs. Matthew Greenhawt (University of Michigan), Todd D. Green (University of Pittsburgh), and Michael Pistiner (Children's Hospital of Boston), who wrote the editorial with Linda Mitchell of the Kids with Food Allergies Foundation. In addition to being a patient advocate, the authors note, the allergist should serve as "the voice of objectivity and reason," helping to establish policies that keep food-allergic children safe while encouraging input and participation from non-food-allergic families. "Knowing the risks of potential reactions, and how these are likely to occur, is an absolute must," they assert. "We must work with school communities to aggressively devise tenable compromises that allow children to attend school with as few restrictions as possible."

[not a regular]

Not sure if the guest editorial contains more info but here is the original article (press release).

http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/press_release.html