Foundations of Allergic Disease

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Communicate the scientific basis of allergic disease in an appropriate manner using lay language.
• Explain the key symptoms of allergic disease and elaborate on their underlying immunological basis.
• Discuss the scientific basis of clinical tests available for investigation and diagnosis of allergic disease.
• Appraise the impact of allergic disease on patients and their families, considering their quality of life and taking into account individual ethnicity, cultural and social circumstances.
• Discuss and differentiate the immune mechanisms involved in the development of sensitisation and tolerance.

The syllabus for the Foundations of Allergic Disease module has been divided into broad themes:

• The relationship between the immunological mechanisms and symptoms of allergic disease.
• A clinical overview of allergic disease, including anaphylaxis, food allergy, asthma, rhinitis and allergic skin disease.
• The diagnosis of allergic responses, including clinical testing and result interpretation.
• Understanding the patient’s perspective, including quality of life.

Teaching and learning methods

This online module is a blend of synchronous live and asynchronous recorded sessions and provides a flexible learning environment that gives you control over how, when and where you study. We strongly encourage you to plan your time so that you can attend our live teaching and make the most of being able to take part in rich discussions and interact with the teaching staff and your fellow students.

A variety of online learning and teaching methods will be adopted to promote the development of a wide range of skills. Specialist lecturers from a range of academic and healthcare professional backgrounds will be used to ensure a breadth and depth of perspective is offered, giving a good balance between background theories and principles and practical management advice. In addition, by sharing their experience of living with allergy, patients and parents will give an insight into their perspective, enabling you to develop your patient-centred approach.

As well as the formal live teaching and recorded sessions, we offer group online tutorials to support student learning. There is also a guided immunology e-learning package with self-assessment available for students to take advantage of in their own time. The self-assessment is formative and automated feedback is provided.

Resources & Reading list

General Resources

1. Talis reading list. Additional resources can be found on our Talis reading list which you can access from the module’s Blackboard site

4. Useful Journals. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in Practice Clinical and Experimental Allergy Clinical and Translational Allergy Paediatric Allergy and Immunology Allergy

3. Global Atlas of Allergy. EAACI have produced an online Global Atlas of Allergy. To access the atlas, visit http://www.eaaci.org/globalatlas/GlobalAtlasAllergy.pdf.

2. e-Books. There are many e-books available from the University of Southampton library in both allergy and related academic subjects. https://www-lib.soton.ac.uk/

Textbooks

Sompayrac (2019). How the immune system works. Wiley-Blackwell.

Holgate, Church and Lichtenstein (2011). Allergy. Basic Science: Chapters 14-21. Mosby International Ltd (available as e-book from our library).

O'Hehir, Holgate and Sheikh (2017). Middleton's allergy essentials. Elsevier (available as e-book from our library).

Rich, Fleisher et al. (2019). Clinical immunology: principles and practice.. Elsevier (available as e-book from our library).

Assessment strategy

The assessment for the module provides you with the opportunity to demonstrate achievement of the learning outcomes and to (1) demonstrate the depth and breadth of your knowledge of allergy, along with (2) showing higher cognitive skills and your ability to make sound judgements. There is one assessed component which brings together various study skills and includes integrated elements relevant to clinical practice. The pass mark for the module is 50%.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External