PRESIDENT'S COLUMN

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

August 2021

Welcome Back

As this nation returned to pre-pandemic activities with cautious optimism this summer, so too has the American Academy of Neurology. While its mission has not changed—to promote the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care and enhance member career satisfaction—its methods of delivering value to members have been revitalized to keep pace with the insights borne of COVID-19. As Winston Churchill famously said when he was working to form the United Nations after WWII, "Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Your organization has taken that sentiment to heart, and as a result, what you will experience in the upcoming year will be an AAN which is more sophisticated technologically, more mindful to your needs, and more accommodating to your preferences.

This summer, AAN staff began to head back to its headquarters in Minneapolis. After working remotely for 15 months, the return of its workforce will be phased in over several months. Many employees are looking forward to the liveliness and creative spark of exchanging ideas face-to-face. Proper precautions will be taken as they return with the health and safety of our staff, members, and guests top of mind. Our CEO, Mary E. Post, MBA, CAE, has already moved into her office, and to her delight, has finally begun to meet her staff in person after working with them virtually since her arrival in March of 2020.

Our 700+ volunteers will also be resuming in-person meetings. I am looking forward to joining those who will be attending the Meeting Management Committee meeting in Seattle later this August as we move ahead with innovative plans for both a virtual and in-person Annual Meeting in 2022. For our first live Annual Meeting since 2019, we plan to surprise and thrill you with dynamic science and educational programming and unmissable networking opportunities that will reunite you with friends and colleagues. We are now in the midst of planning the 2021 Fall Conference as well, scheduled for Chicago on November 5–7 in person and with a virtual encore soon to follow.

I will be traveling to Minneapolis for the next board of directors meeting next month and my first visit to the AAN office in Minneapolis' Mill District in two years. We will simultaneously be conducting those upcoming committee meetings on Zoom, so that colleagues who are unable to travel can join us in this new hybrid future. Towards that end, our committee composition expanded at the start of my term. We have added an all-virtual category of volunteer so that private practitioners who are unable to leave their practices; parents of young children or those with elderly parents who need to stay home for family reasons; members with disabilities for whom travel is unduly burdensome; and our international members from afar can all join in on the work that sustains and invigorates our organization.

More practice, demographic, and geographic diversity means better representation of our more than 36,000 members, more inclusiveness, and more creative ideas. With the pandemic as a catalyst, we have also added a Telemedicine Subcommittee dedicated to advocating for regulatory change beyond the public health emergency; a Wellness Subcommittee focusing on our members’ emotional health and fortitude; an Academic Initiatives Committee to address growing needs of our members in academia; an Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Anti-racism, and Social Justice (IDEAS) Subcommittee to ensure the AAN and its actions reflect the breadth and diversity of its members; and a Patient and Public Initiatives Committee committed to delivering information and education to those stakeholders. One of its initiatives, currently in the planning stage, is a video series demonstrating the value neurologists bring to patients. On a new video platform, I plan on interviewing people with neurologic conditions about their diagnosis and care together with their neurologists addressing the science and latest treatment of their disorders. If you have a fascinating story to tell, please let me know.

For our members at large, we will have more educational opportunities than ever, tailored to your learning preference and cognitive style: audio, video, in-person, and virtual offerings. The most popular are the Neurology Question of the Day mobile app and NeuroBytes videos. In addition, our virtual 2021 Annual Meeting is available through Annual Meeting On Demand, and thanks to a generous grant from the ABPN, Academy members as well as ABPN diplomates can access the 2020 Fall Conference on Demand at no charge. We’ve also launched registration for the virtual AAN Advanced Practice Provider Neurology Education Series as well as the return to in-person meetings with the 2021 Fall Conference.

We will also continue to provide the resources you request, just as we did in June when the FDA approval of aducanumab was announced, when drug and device alerts occur, such as the June recall of certain Philips CPAP devices, and as we did via the COVID-19 Neurology Resource Center throughout the pandemic to date.

Finally, know that I do not underestimate the toll that this pandemic has inflicted on your practices, your departments, your communities, your families, and yourselves. In welcoming you back, I also want to acknowledge your dedication and sacrifice to neurology during those difficult times. As we unfold these transformations, your feedback is important to me. Is this organization serving you the way you need, and is there anything essential that we have missed?

I would also like to learn what you are most excited about. So, when this publication appears online, I will also release a Twitter poll. Look for it under my handle, @OrlyA—it will be live for seven days. And if any of you are not yet on Twitter and interested in starting, let us know and the AAN will be happy to assist you. #NeuroTwitter is thriving and growing and the @AANMember will be there to greet you as well.

Looking forward to seeing you soon.

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

After we went to press, news of breakthrough infections, illness in the unvaccinated, and hospitalizations due to the delta variant caused us to re-evaluate our late summer/early fall in-person committee meetings and convert them to virtual meetings in order to ensure the safety and well-being of our volunteer members.