PRESIDENT'S COLUMN

Read archives from AAN Past President Orly Avitzur, MD, MBA, FAAN, who served from May 2021 to April 2023.

May 2021

Preparing for Our Renaissance

On April 23, I began my term as president of the American Academy of Neurology. I was deeply touched by the formal “passing of the gavel” from President Jim Stevens, MD, FAAN, with whom I have worked very closely for the past two years. He led this organization through what has been, arguably, the toughest period in our lifetimes, and he did so with compassion, grace, and fortitude. Most importantly, throughout myriad challenges, he maintained steadfast focus on the lodestar: emphasizing the best interests of this organization and its members.

While his leadership took us through arduous times, as I take over as president, we are beginning to glimpse brighter days. Indeed, if historians were to compare the past pandemic year to the Middle Ages, they would invariably refer to the present time as a Renaissance period, marked by an eruption of ideas which reflect all we have learned and started to integrate into our post-pandemic future.

During the past year, we have taken advantage of the circumstances to reflect, refresh, and reimagine. Certainly, as an organization, we have learned a great deal.

For the first time, we held virtual meetings, and they broke records for attendance. Our 2021 Annual Meeting drew thousands of registrants and presented a platform that surpassed any other we had heretofore seen. We discovered that we could hold committee meetings virtually, as nearly 800 volunteer members doubled down on their commitment to the AAN and devoted long hours on Zoom to help redefine how we deliver education, science, advocacy, and more. Bolstered by the talent of our indefatigable and diligent staff, the AAN has raised the bar for programs and services through innovation, ingenuity, and determination, with nearly four percent membership growth for 2020 vs. 2019.

While preparing for this presidency I have added several new committees to address changes borne of the pandemic. Recognizing the accelerated adoption of telehealth by almost every neurologist in the nation, the AAN will be introducing the Telehealth Subcommittee to the Medical Economics and Practice Committee; it will ensure quality of care and advocate for services beyond the public health emergency. Speaking with hundreds of neurologists, many during interviews for Neurology Today^® about how COVID-19 has impacted their lives, I became increasingly concerned about the emotional toll the pandemic has extracted on front-line workers and other members. The threat to our workforce, as well as to our pipeline, is considerable. To address those repercussions, I established a Wellness Subcommittee of the Membership Engagement Committee and have charged it with focusing on the well-being of our members and creating strategies to help advocate for systemic and enduring changes that will support healing.

The Board of Directors has recently approved an Academic Neurology Committee which will address business and organizational issues of academic neurology departments including leadership, mentorship, financial, equity, diversity, inclusion, and gender issues, and share best practices. It will promote the work of department chairs, academic business administrators, diversity officers, and division chiefs. For the past few years, former AAN President Ralph L. Sacco, MD, MS, FAHA, FAAN, has piloted successful chair summits and a webinar series which addressed topics of mutual interest including department finances and strategic planning.

I am also excited about the addition of a Patient and Public Initiatives Committee which will bring together all our organization’s public-facing endeavors and be charged to stake a claim to the field of brain health. Under the Brain & Life^® brand, this organization will work toward raising public awareness of the value of neurology and promoting the critical role neurologists play in the delivery of care.

After the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, our editorial teams met more frequently—both independently and together—to ensure that our members, trainees, patients, caregivers, press, policymakers, and regulatory agencies received unbiased information about the neurologic sequelae of COVID-19 and the transformations to the practice of neurology. Due to these efforts, our publications’ online traffic skyrocketed. The AAN COVID-19 Neurology Resource Center reached peak traffic numbers and was accessed by members across the globe. This organization’s role as the leader in brain health was never clearer, and the value of our member expertise and experience never better demonstrated.

As we launch these new committees and reconvene existing ones, we will be focusing on inclusion. Each of our committees will be convened in a hybrid manner, so that in addition to in-person attendance, there will be members joining virtually. That will allow more diverse segments of our constituency to join us—private practitioners who had previously been unable to leave their offices; parents of small children or those caring for elder parents; and international members who are unable to travel. The new committee structure will benefit from their contributions and provide us with a diversity of thought which better reflects our membership.

Of course, this organization would not exist if not for our members, and as such, many of my future president’s columns will be devoted to your remarkable stories. As we return to seeing each other face-to-face, I look forward to meeting many of you, reconnecting with those of you I have gotten to know through interviews for the past 20 years, and seeing colleagues and old friends. What I have missed most—and what I am hearing you have as well—is getting together in person, exchanging warm greetings, and hearing laughter and animated conversation fill the air. I soon anticipate a surge of interest in getting together, and as with the original Renaissance, sharing our knowledge with a rebirth of creativity and discovery. We will emerge stronger than ever!

Orly Avitzur, MD, MBA, FAAN
President, AAN
@OrlyA on Twitter