Allergy, Asthma and Immunology

All students are encouraged to explore Penn State Health’s Allergy, Asthma and Immunology program.

Allergy/immunologists are physicians who are trained either in internal medicine, pediatrics or medicine/pediatrics and have completed two to three years of subspecialty fellowship training in the field of allergy and immunology. This training enables the allergists to provide care for:

• Patients with asthma, allergic and non-allergic rhinitis/rhinosinusitis, allergic conjunctivitis, atopic dermatitis, food allergy and/or intolerance, hymenoptera venom sting allergy, drug allergy, anaphylaxis, urticaria and angioedema.
• Patients with various immunodeficiency problems.
• Patients who require allergen immunotherapy and immunomodulation for allergic and immunologic diseases.
• Patients in the hospital with various allergic reactions, most commonly reactions to medications.

Structure of the elective

The majority of the elective time will involve providing care to patients in the outpatient clinic with a team consisting of an attending physician, fellows, residents and other students. There may be residents who also rotate on the service. The nurses in clinic perform skin testing, spirometry, drug testing, and assist with skin biopsy and rhinoscopy. Patch tests are performed by the physicians.

Every Wednesday from 8 to 11 a.m., there is allergy-immunology conference when all members of the training program including adult and pediatric allergists, fellows, residents and students attend.

Every Monday from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. there is a textbook review that you are welcome to attend.

Student Role and Activities During the Elective

In the outpatient clinic, students work directly with the attending and fellows, seeing new and return patients. For the first few days or so, each student observes the attending, fellows and residents. The program strongly encourages students to observe each attending, fellow and resident, after which they are encouraged to see patients independently. Students are expected to present history, physical exam findings, laboratory tests, assessment and recommendations to the attending in the room with the patient. Students are encouraged not to recite from notes. Following presentation and discussion of the case, students should dictate their note.

Students may be assigned specific topics to review and to present to the team.

It is required that students attend the following educational activities:

• Medicine Grand Rounds on Tuesday mornings in Lecture Room D
• Wednesday conferences from 8 to 11 a.m. in C5860

Contact Us

Timothy Craig, DO
Allergy section chief
717-635-5909

Gisoo Ghaffari, MD
Faculty adviser
717-531-6876

Joann Tucker
Administrative coordinator
jtucker@pennstatehealth.psu.edu
717-531-0003, ext. 283926

Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care
Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
500 University Dr.
P.O. Box 850, MC H041
Hershey, PA 17033

Phone:  717-531-6525, opt. 3
Fax:  717-531-0143