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OIT involves eating the food you are allergic to, in small amounts, and slowly increasing the amount up to a 'maintenance' dose. This is done under the supervision of an allergist.

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OIT can reduce the risk of allergic reactions if you accidentally eat your food allergen. It also greatly improves the quality of life of those affected by food allergies.

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Dr. Chan's vision is to establish clear protocols for OIT so it can be used by other satellite clinics in communities across BC increasing access to this therapy.

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The Doctors at the heart of our cause.

 

Dr. Edmond Chan

Dr. Chan is an experienced clinician and currently holds the following positions:

Head and Clinical Associate Professor, Division of Allergy and Immunology in the Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia, at BC Children’s Hospital Allergy Clinic. He is also the lead Clinical Investigator for BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute.

 

He has a large research program dedicated to food allergy and eosinophilic esophagitis. He has also done important research in food allergy prevention, including being the only Canadian representative on an expert panel convened by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) in the US to create guidelines on the early introduction of peanuts.

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He has diagnosed and treated thousands of children with food allergy since the beginning of his career as a pediatric allergist in 2005. In 2010, Dr. Chan created the only fellowship training program in Pediatric Allergy and Immunology west of Winnipeg. He is on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (CSACI), is currently co-leading a CSACI committee of allergists to create Canadian OIT clinical practice guidelines, and is the youngest recipient of CSACI’s Jerry Dolovich Award (awarded in 2017 for excellence in clinical work, teaching, research, and serving as a leader and role model). Dr. Chan is also on the Executive of the Allergy Section of the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS).

 

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Dr. Lianne Soller

Dr. Soller is the allergy research manager at the BC Children's Hospital. She does research in food allergy prevention and treatment. Her current area of focus is treatment of peanut-allergic patients with oral immunotherapy, and public health interventions to prevent peanut allergy. Her research role was pivotal in the recent study published in the the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice which suggests that oral immunotherapy is safe for preschool-aged children with peanut allergies.

This research,  is the first to demonstrate the safety of peanut oral immunotherapy for a large group of preschool-aged children when offered as routine treatment in a hospital or clinic rather than within a clinical trial.