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AAMC Reporter: September 2007
A Word from the President:
"Our Annual Meeting: 2008 and Beyond"
"This meeting provides a forum for the development and
exchange of ideas on issues as important as most of us will
ever face. We can no longer be for or against, but we must
respond to how—how can we meet the clear demands
of society."
—George A. Wolf Jr., M.D.,
AAMC President and Executive Council Chairman
These words, written by Dr. Wolf for the AAMC annual
meeting program in 1965, easily could serve as the introduction
for our program this November, "Health in the
Balance." Then, as now, health care reform was at
the top of the national policy agenda, with President
Johnson in 1965 having just signed legislation creating
Medicare and Medicaid. And then, as now, the AAMC
was undergoing intense review of its governance, with
the Coggeshall Report having been published that same
year. But unlike 42 years ago, when approximately 600
members gathered for a few days of discussion and business
meetings, today, nearly six times that many converge
over six days for 500-plus workshops, small group discussions,
program sessions, and plenaries.
As I begin my second year as AAMC president, I have
been giving considerable thought to whether our meeting
structure might be better aligned with the way academic
medicine is evolving and how we are changing as
an organization. To borrow from our meeting theme,
do we have the "right" balance of activities and programming
to serve our members and meet the clear demands
of society?
As a starting point, let us look at what members value
most about the annual meeting. From evaluation surveys,
we know that high atop the list are the plenary sessions
and the opportunity to hear from high-profile
speakers. This year's program again features an outstanding
line-up that includes award-winning journalist and
commentator Cokie Roberts of National Public Radio
and ABC News serving as keynote speaker, and political
commentators Mark Shields and Fred Barnes sharing
Tuesday's Political Spotlight to analyze the 2008 presidential
election. On Monday, three distinguished speakers
apply "Health in the Balance" to our mission areas,
with Thomas Cech, president of the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute, focusing on research; Sara A.
Rosenbaum, J.D., chair, Department of Health Policy
at the George Washington University School of Public
Health and Health Services, talking about clinical care;
and Daniel G. Federman, M.D., senior dean for alumni
relations and clinical teaching at Harvard Medical
School, discussing education.
In addition to the plenary sessions, members say they
also value the networking opportunities (with 3,500 in
attendance, there are plenty of new faces to meet) and
the variety of programming, which in the last four
decades seems to have grown exponentially! One need
only compare the 20-page breast-pocket version of an
early 1960s annual meeting program to the 116-page spiral-
bound version of last year to understand what I mean.
This evolution of content directly parallels the growth in
the number of AAMC councils (COTH and CAS were
added during the 1960s), professional groups, and organizations
over time, and the decision to hold the Research
in Medical Education (RIME) proceedings in conjunction
with the annual meeting. More recently, we have
added sessions by both the Center for Workforce Studies
and, last year, the Chief Medical Officers group.
Organizing a program of this magnitude and complexity
means balancing member preferences against meeting
logistics. For example, while many members may prefer
a meeting where "everything" takes place under one roof,
finding a single venue to accommodate 3,500 attendees
and 500 sessions significantly limits our options, and we
are required to split functions between hotels or use a
convention center along with hotel space. Members also
have told us of the difficulty they had selecting the "best"
session to attend when so many activities occur simultaneously.
But even with our six-day meeting schedule, it is
virtually impossible to avoid such overlap. On a practical
level, we have worked to resolve this issue by introducing
the online itinerary planner last year, which over 10 percent
of registrants used and found helpful.
On a strategic level, this multiplicity of activities raises
several important questions. Do we have the right balance
of constituent-specific programming by groups and
councils and interchange among meeting participants as
a whole? Or have we become an "umbrella" meeting of
groups, with other proceedings and plenaries "attached"?
Does the more targeted, narrow programming by councils
and groups "fit" within the overall context of an
annual meeting? Moreover, does the fact that groups
now meet year-round supplant to some degree the need
to have such programming at the annual meeting?
In terms of the meeting as a whole, are we taking full
advantage of the one time each year that deans, faculty,
students, researchers, and administrators convene under
one roof? With the exception of a few joint meetings by
councils and groups and the several "focus sessions,"
there would seem to be relatively few opportunities to
benefit from cross-cutting perspectives on our work. Just
as we strive to make academic medicine more interdisciplinary,
with greater emphasis on interactive learning,
should we think about designing our annual meeting
in similar fashion?
Finally, on a more philosophical level, if we continue
to differentiate and convene more and more as subgroups,
how can we maintain all-important contacts
with one another?
As you make your plans to attend this year's meeting, I
invite each of you to think about these questions, and to
share your comments directly with me at the meeting,
or send them via e-mail to aamcpresident@aamc.org (If you have not already registered for the annual meeting,
there is still plenty of time to do so at www.aamc.org/annualmeeting).
As in 1965, the issues confronting us today are as "important
as most of us will ever face." By achieving balance in
the structure of our annual meeting—the one time our
community meets as a whole to develop and exchange
ideas—we will be better prepared to meet the clear
demands of society.
Darrell G. Kirch, M.D.,
AAMC President
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