Present Views of Allergy Clinic in Japan : Especially on the Administrative Orientation at Present and Various Problems to be settled in Future

Abstract

The allergy clinic is recently set up in university hospitals, in national hospitals, and in others, for the purpose of examining and treating systematically the patients with allergic diseases by allergological means. During the period of 5 years since the start of our Allergy Centre, the patients who visited our clinic were 1183 cases: asthma bronchiale 653 cases, rhinitis allergica 126 cases, urticaria 306 cases and the others 98 cases. The number of patients is on the increase every year, the greater part of them visiting from Shizuoka City and its suburbs. The patients with bronchial asthma, however, came not only from a short distance, but also from a great distance, so far from the shore of Hamana Lake or the Izu' Peninsula, and even outside the prefecture. From these facts, it is conjectured that the patients suffering from bronchial asthma itinerate in search of any more effective treatment. The author investigated on the present state of allergy clinic, sending out opinionaires (enquetes) to almost every department of internal medicine, pediatrics, oto-rhino-pharyngo-laryngology and dermatology in universities in the whole country. As to the 69 departments in which the allergy clinic is established, in some of them the proper examining room is alloted for allergy clinic, while in a large majority the general consultation room is diverted to allergy clinic, merely applying after the general examinations. The consultation days, in the greater part of allergy clinic, are one to three a week. In half the allergy clinics, the allergist is posted in full-time, but in another half doctors interested in studies of allergy are in charge of consultation. Henceforth the establishment of allergy clinic seems to have some connection with the course of research and investigation in the very department concerned. The same investigations as to the university hospitals were also carried out to the national hospitals and others. And it was noticeable that in the greater part of these hospitals, allergy clinic is co-operating tehnically with that of a university hospital. Here the author concludes that, since allergy clinic is now contributing so much to the examination and treatment of allergic diseases in the surrounding areas of each hospital, this drift of the medical world ought to be propelled to the development of allergy clinic proper, cultivating able allergists and giving independence to allergology in the Medical Treatment Law.