The Asia Pacific Society for Immunodeficiencies (APSID) conducted nine primary immunodeficiency (PID) Schools in 5 years since inauguration to provide PID care training for early career physicians in ...Asia Pacific, a region with divergent needs in PID resources and training.
To identify differences in PID patient care resource and training needs across Asia Pacific and propose a corresponding action plan.
The Human Development Index (HDI) indicates the degree of socio-economic development in each country/region. Information related to investigations and learning issues were extracted from the abstracts and personal statements from all Schools and mapped onto resource and training needs. Correlations between HDI and country/region-specific parameters were tested by two-tailed Pearson correlation.
A total of 427 abstracts were received in nine Schools between 2015 and 2020, predominantly on immunodeficiencies affecting cellular and humoral immunity. Genetic confirmation was described in 61.8% of abstracts, and its absence negatively correlated with HDI (
= -0.696,
= 0.004). Essential immunologic and genetic tests were not available in 25.4 and 29.5% of abstracts, respectively, and their absence negatively correlated with HDI (
= -0.788,
< 0.001;
= -0.739,
= 0.002). HDI positively correlated with average testing level (
= 0.742,
= 0.002). Cases from medium-HDI countries/regions focused on learning how to investigate a patient for PIDs in cases of severe or atypical infections, whereas those from very-high-HDI countries/regions, from which most faculty members originated, listed hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and gene therapy, newborn screening, and research as learning issues more frequently.
There are unique HDI-related PID resource and training needs in each country/region. APSID proposes HDI group-specific strategies to improve PID care and education in her member countries/regions. Further quantitative analysis of needs in PID care in Asia Pacific is needed for lobbying governments to increase their support for PID care and research.
With increased diagnostic capabilities and treatment modalities in the field of primary immunodeficiencies (PID), many pediatric patients survive beyond childhood and experience a change of care to ...the adult-oriented healthcare system. Unfortunately, the transition pathways for PID are less clearly defined, resulting in deterioration of quality of care in adulthood. Hence, this is the first regional study to address PID clinicians' opinions on practices and challenges of transition care in 7 Southeast Asia (SEA) countries.
We adopted a cross-sectional study design through an online survey platform to enquire opinions of transition practices from expert representatives in 7 SEA countries.
Regionally, 3 out 7 countries reported having no practice of transition care. Among cited challenges were reluctant adaptation by patients and caregivers to unfamiliarized adult healthcare systems, inadequate ratio of adult immunologists to patients and lack of facilities for transfer.
Our study provides evidence to advocate policy makers on the importance of standardized integration of transition practice towards betterment of transiting PID patients into adulthood.
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