Legacy of Excellence Digital Flipbook

Foreword

When reviewing the most significant areas of progress

nine presidential elections have been won by women. Women have made substantial leadership contributions as Coordinator for Education, Coordinator for Research and Quality, Deputy Editor of the journals (and soon to be Editor in Chief of the journals), and Chair of the Board of Governors. This does not include the many chairs and committee members of our scientific and education committees. Women have also played vital leadership roles in the Section for Residents and Fellows-in-Training, the Young Physicians Section, and the Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Though they have accomplished much, there is still more to do to fully reach equality. Disparities throughout the healthcare system involving providers and patients as well as throughout society have existed far too long and were fully exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The stark difference in access to care, quality of care, and resources available to many in our country and around the world resulted in significant differences in survival during the pandemic. Even though recognition of the relevance and importance of the social determinants of health has been published in different specialty areas for over a decade, watching it happen on the news day after day finally tipped the scales toward action. The AAO-HNS began on the pathway in 2007-2008 establishing a Diversity Committee whose first chair, Duane J. Taylor, MD, became President in 2019, and through the intentional actions of the Nominating Committee, consistent progress has been made in Through hard work, dedication, competency, and persistence, the women of this era achieved many milestones. by the AAO-HNS/F over the last 25 years, at the top of the list must be the recognition of the essential role that women play in our specialty.

Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and OTO Open . The value of these relationships was clearly demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic where important real-time information was shared freely across the otolaryngology community worldwide. The term “quality” began to creep into medical vernacular in the late 1990s and by the time the 21st century came around that movement was beginning to take root. The Academy was early to the game in this movement starting with Jonas T. Johnson, MD, and “The Evidence Machine,” which was shepherded forward by David R. Nielsen, MD, and multiple presidents over the next decade. The Academy was among the first to the table to produce meaningful clinical practice guidelines and other evidence-based programs. These were integrated into payment discussions and eventually made it into the Medicare payment system first as PQRS reporting followed by MIPS reporting and now promoting MIPS Value Pathways (MVP). The Academy has kept pace with the growing demand for data-driven patient value and true outcome measures to help define the value proposition. Reg-ent SM , our Clinical Data Registry, was established in 2015 and has expanded its capabilities as a Qualified Clinical Data Registry and developed as a vehicle to do clinical research and clinical trials. This will hopefully take us in the next several years to true outcomes-based care. When reviewing the most significant areas of progress by the AAO-HNS/F over the last 25 years, at the top of the list must be the recognition of the essential role that women play in our specialty. Through hard work, dedication, competency, and persistence, the women of this era achieved many milestones. They formed their own section, Women in Otolaryngology, raised a considerable endowment for their section to support research, helped create the International Women in Otolaryngology Forum as a key part of our international outreach, and occupied many crucial roles on the Board of Directors as Directors and as Coordinators. In 1999 Gayle E. Woodson, MD, ran for President of the Academy and in 2003, M. Jennifer Derebery, MD, was elected the first woman President of the AAO-HNS/F. Since 2015, four out of the last

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