Document Release: Clinical Practice Guidelines on Diagnosing Persistent Wheeze in Infants

“Official ATS American Thoracic Society Clinical Practice Guidelines: Diagnostic Evaluation of Infants With Recurrent or Persistent Wheezing” was published by the ATS in the Aug. 1 American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Authors consider recommendations conditional, and suggestions for infants younger than 24 months with persistent wheezing despite treatment with bronchodilators, inhaled corticosteroids, or systemic corticosteroids include:

• An airway survey via flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy.
• Bronchoalveolar lavage.
• 24-hour esophageal pH monitoring rather than upper gastrointestinal radiography.
• 24-hour esophageal pH monitoring rather than gastrointestinal scintigraphy.
• Video-fluoroscopic swallowing studies.

Clean Power Plan Anniversary

Today is the one-year anniversary of the Clean Power Plan announcement to limit carbon pollution from existing power plants and help protect the health of Americans. The federal plan marks a significant step forward in the fight against climate change, and when fully in place, the Clean Power Plan will prevent up to 3,600 premature deaths, 90,000 asthma attacks in children, and 1,700 heart attacks each year. Learn more by viewing the Environmental Protection Agency fact sheet.

More on Society involvement on this issue.

Call for Nominations ATS Assemblies

The 14 ATS Assemblies are now preparing for the Assembly elections opening on Dec. 1.  Members are invited to submit nominations for the following positions:

• 2016‒18 Assembly Chair; (2018‒20) only for (BSHSR, CP, MTPI, NUR, RCMB, RSF)
• 2017–18 Program Committee Chair-Elect: all Assemblies (this person will serve as Program Committee Chair from 2018–19)
• 2017–18 Nominating Committee Members for all Assemblies (two members will be elected)

To nominate yourself or a colleague, contact the Assembly mailboxes by Aug. 31. All nominations will be considered and discussed by the Assembly Nominating Committees. Submission of a nomination does not guarantee selection. All final candidates will be notified by the committee chair and/or committee members.

JAMA Letter to the Editor

The Critical Care Assembly working group, Women in Critical Care, along with the Health Equalities Subcommittee, drafted a letter to the editor calling for greater inclusion, in response to the new Sepsis-3 consensus definitions. View the article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, co-authored by Ellen L. Burnham, MD, and Jesse Roman, MD.

Reuben Cherniack, MD, 1924‒2016

Former AJRCCM editor (then the American Review of Respiratory Diseases) Reuben Cherniack, MD, died at age 92 on July 14. Dr. Cherniak was instrumental in establishing the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and sat on the 11-member task force that worked to establish the Institute between 1971‒1972. As editor of the journal, Dr. Cherniack’s legacy includes raising the bar of the publication and scientific caliber of the Society. He was a professor (emeritus) in the Pulmonary Division of the Department of Medicine at National Jewish Medical and Research Center, and Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado. In 1998, the ATS recognized him with a Trudeau Medal, its highest honor, for his lifelong dedication to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of lung disease.