Nutritional Strategies for Severe Food Allergy: CMA, FPIES, and EoE

Mirna Chehade, MD, MPH, is associate professor of pediatrics and medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine and Kravis Children's Hospital at Mount Sinai. She completed her medical degree and internship at the American University of Beirut, a residency at SUNY Children's Hospital of Buffalo, and a fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology at Mount Sinai, where she also received her MPH degree.

Dr. Chehade is the founding director of the Mount Sinai Center for Eosinophilic Disorders at the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute. Patients benefit from a multidisciplinary approach provided by gastroenterologists, allergists, dietitians and a psychiatrist. Care plans may include special diets, medications, psychiatric consultations, as well as a support group to help young patients manage behavioral and emotional issues associated with their disorders.

The principal investigator for several multicenter trials on eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) disorders, Dr. Chehade received the 2018 Hope APFED/AAAAI Pilot Grant Award, funding her research on the effects of proton pump inhibitor therapy on genes associated with EoE for two years. The award recognizes new and inventive ideas likely to lead to improved patient outcomes.

Dr. Chehade is an active member of many national and international organizations. She is the author of numerous publications, a frequently invited speaker, and an invited reviewer for several medical journals.

David M. Fleischer, MD, is associate professor of pediatrics, director of the Food Challenge Unit, and associate medical director of the Research Unit, at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine and Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora. He received his medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine, and completed an internship and residency in pediatrics, followed by a fellowship in pediatric allergy and immunology, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. Fleischer directs one of the world's largest food challenge and allergy units. The goal of the unit's multidisciplinary team is to utilize the most current research to provide medical, psychosocial and dietary support to patients at a young age to enable them to successfully manage their food allergies into their adolescent and adult years.

Dr. Fleischer's clinical interests include allergy, eosinophilic gastrointestinal disease, and atopic dermatitis. His research focuses on the natural history of food allergy and on novel treatments including oral and sublingual immunotherapies. He is the principal investigator for several national and international clinical trials.

Dr. Fleischer has published numerous chapters and articles of food allergy and gastrointestinal disease. He serves on the board of a number of national and international organizations devoted to food allergy research and education and is a reviewer for several medical journals.

Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn, MD, PhD, is a professor of pediatrics and director of clinical research at the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. She received her medical degree from Collegium Medicum Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland, where she also completed an internship. Dr. Nowak-Wegrzyn completed pediatric residencies at Polish-American Children's Hospital in Cracow, and the University of Maryland in Baltimore. She was awarded a fellowship in allergy and immunology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Nowak-Wegrzyn received her PhD degree from the University of Warmia and Masuria in Poland.

Dr. Nowak-Wegrzyn has an international reputation as an expert in pediatric food allergies, anaphylaxis and food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome (FPIES), and her clinic is a national referral center. She is the principal investigator for a number of clinical trials, and her research interests include egg and milk allergy, food-induced anaphylaxis treatment and risk factors, diagnostic issues in food allergy, and FPIES. She chaired a multinational workgroup that published the first international consensus guidelines for the diagnosis and management of FPIES.

Dr. Nowak-Wegrzyn has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences throughout the world; has contributed numerous book chapters and reviews; and developed several CME webinars for clinicians. She serves as an editor for Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, Clinical and Experimental Allergy, World Allergy Organization Journal, and Practical Medicine-Pediatrics, a leading Polish medical journal.

Carina Venter, PhD, RD, is assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine and Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora. She earned her doctorate in allergy/immunology at the University of Southampton in England and is a registered dietitian in the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Africa.

Dr. Venter manages children and adults with allergies including food protein enterocolitis syndrome, eosinophilic gastrointestinal diseases, and IgE and non-IgE mediated food allergies, with an emphasis on the role of nutrition in the prevention, diagnosis and management of allergic diseases.

A founding member and chair of the International Network for Diet and Nutrition in Allergy, Dr. Venter developed evidence-based guidelines and protocols for the diagnosis and management of patients with adverse reactions to food. As a member of the NIH-sponsored Expert Panel of the National Institutes for Allergy and Infectious Diseases she was involved in creating guidelines to aid clinicians in the early introduction to infants of peanut-containing foods to prevent the development of peanut allergy.

Dr. Venter has authored more than 100 chapters and articles on food hypersensitivity, pregnancy, lactation, weaning, and allergy prevention, and her work has been published in international journals. She is a frequently invited speaker at national and international conferences.