Multidisciplinary allergy unit in France in 2020

Introduction. - Allergies affect 25% of the general population with an increase in severe allergies. The development in France of cross -disciplinary allergology care structures for multidisciplinary management of patients meets a public health need. The aim of our work is to provide an overview of these structures. Method. - Descriptive survey by questionnaire sent to the heads of health care facilities either with a main activity in allergology or with a varied activity in allergology. The survey covered the administrative organisation, the medical and paramedical teams, the care offer and the technical means of the facilities. Results. - Thirty-seven facilities were analysed, 27 of which had a main activity in allergology and 10 with a varied activity in allergology. For the former, the number of doctors varies from 1 to 16 and the full-time equivalent nurses from 0.8 to 5.9. The numbers of day hospitalisations and annual consultations are respectively 1049 (220 to 3275) and 3561 (609 to 13,674). One third of patient recruitment is outside the department. All the structures with a main activity in allergology carry out investigations on food, drug and pneumallergen allergies but only 81% and 74% respectively provide care for allergies to hymenoptera and contact eczema. Conclusions. - This study constitutes a first inventory of cross-disciplinary hospital structures in allergology in France in order to guide the development of cross-disciplinary allergy units. (C) 2021 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.