president's column
Read archives from AAN Past President Orly Avitzur, MD, MBA, FAAN, who served from May 2021 to April 2023.
June 2022
Reclaiming Our AAN Community in This Post-COVID World
Like many of you, my indoor social activities during the first year following the COVID-19 outbreak were limited to time with my family. Aside from regular walks with friends and outdoor picnics when the weather allowed, my contact with the external world shrunk tremendously, replaced by the two-dimensional realm of Zoom meetings, FaceTime, and my telehealth screen. My role as president elect and, later, president of this organization, meant that my meetings with committees, leadership program groups, staff, and AAN members were virtual. Although we met frequently—as editor-in-chief of Brain & Life®, I met with the editorial team weekly to discuss how to provide readers scientific and unbiased information on the SARS-CoV-2 virus; the publication editors brainstormed together often; committees met virtually with regularity; and the board of directors met monthly instead of quarterly to discuss how to support members through the crisis—it was not the same.
It was not until April of 2021, some 15 months after our last in-person board meeting, that AAN directors and officers were able to get together, freshly vaccinated, with our new CEO, Mary Post, MBA, CAE, for a do-it-ourselves retreat. We would not meet again face-to-face until January of this year as surges and pandemic concerns disrupted our plans. Finally, the AAN membership and staff were brought together this past April, after three long years, to the Great Neuro Reunion in Seattle.
I did not realize the full impact of my isolation until we came together. Like a movie which goes from black and white to color, sensations were heightened, conversations more impactful, laughter more joyous, and even mundane chores like food shopping, cooking, and cleaning up after ourselves—shared activities during that first BOD meeting designed to optimize safety—were positively glorious. What I discovered had been missing was the face-to-face camaraderie of my AAN community.
The 74th Annual Meeting provided a venue for colleagues and friends to reconnect. The Live Well Experiential Learning Area focused on well-being through wide-ranging activities such as yoga, Bollywood dancing, interactive fireside chats, workshops on poetry and visual-thinking strategies, and HeadTalks served to showcase a unique collection of informative conversations from expert panels and gaming sessions designed to engage and delight. There were sessions for specific communities of neurologists including educators, neuro-trainees, researchers, policy junkies, practicing neurologists, leadership program grads, and attendees who wished to connect through IDEAS.
For those unable to join us in person, we held a virtual Annual Meeting on April 24–26. Over 4,500 people participated in the three-day event which offered a new slate of programming. All the virtual Annual Meeting programming, from plenary sessions to neurology case conferences, were well attended and clearly resonated with attendees based on the volume of questions that were answered during the live Q&A.
Meanwhile, our AAN Sections have continued to grow. Now, more than 31 percent of all AAN members—11,000 of your colleagues—belong to one or more sections. During the in-person Annual Meeting, 15 sections introduced 12 new “Spotlight on” sessions crafted to highlight the AAN’s 41 sections and provide a forum for their members to reconnect through discussion and debate-based gatherings on topics as varied as daylight saving time, changes in neurologic education, and careers in global health. We were happy to see more younger members and students attend these Spotlight sessions! Due to the popularity of those sessions, the sections are planning to host more events virtually during the rest of this year to continue to highlight issues on members’ minds and the work in which sections are engaged. View opportunities to attend these future Zoom talks. And because you asked for it, a new Synapse mobile app is now available through the Apple Store and Google Play as an alternative to the online platform.
By the time you read this, I will have joined with more than 160 of our members at Neurology on the Hill held on May 23 and 24 in Washington, DC, where we lobby on your behalf with lawmakers on key issues that affect how you care for your patients. I look forward to meeting many more of you at upcoming committee meetings over the next 12 months. I also hope you will attend (in person or virtually) the new conference focused on the rapidly evolving subspecialty of autoimmune neurology and a neurology year in review in San Francisco on July 15–16 for a smaller neuro reunion.
As I continue to search for answers after the devastation borne of the pandemic, one of the shiniest silver linings has been the gift of a renewed appreciation for all of you, my AAN community. Contact with you during the worst of it gave me purpose and engendered awe and respect for your service to neurology in your communities. And it has left me with a profound appreciation for what I took for granted in the past: the privilege of speaking with you in person. Now embarking on the second half of my term, I hope that each and every one of you will also reclaim your place in the AAN community and find meaning in the cornucopia of opportunities this organization offers.
Orly Avitzur, MD, MBA, FAAN
President, AAN
oavitzur@aan.com
@OrlyA on Twitter