The Fellowship in Allergy, Asthma and Immunology - FAAI - is a fellowship-level postgraduate qualification in allergy and clinical immunology that provides a broader and deeper training framework than a specialist course in allergy and asthma. While standard allergy courses provide the clinical framework for common allergy evaluation and management, an allergy fellowship encompasses the full scope of clinical immunology - including the evaluation of primary immunodeficiency conditions, the mechanisms of immune dysregulation that drive autoimmune and inflammatory disease, and the more complex end of allergy diagnosis including component-resolved diagnostics and the clinical decision-making that guides allergen immunotherapy in complex cases. For an ENT specialist, holding FAAI rather than only a course-level allergy credential means that when a patient presents with recurrent sinusitis and persistent post-nasal drip and their allergy test comes back showing sensitisation to multiple allergens, the interpretation of that result - which sensitisations are clinically relevant, which require management, and whether immunotherapy is appropriate - is informed by a fellowship-level understanding of immune mechanisms, not only a course-level familiarity with testing. In practical terms, it means more precise allergy diagnosis and more individualised treatment planning.
Written by Dr. Deeksha Bhaskar Shetty, MBBS, MS (Otorhinolaryngology), FAAI (Fellowship in Allergy, Asthma and Immunology), Consultant Otolaryngologist (ENT Specialist), Bengaluru. Phone: 9538390563.
