Legacy of Excellence Digital Flipbook

LEGACY OF EXCELLENCE: GREGORY W. RANDOLPH, MD PRESIDENT FROM 2016 – 2017

S ome doctors feel drawn to practicing medicine almost from the beginning of their schooling and career planning. Others take different routes. Gregory W. Randolph, MD, became interested in writing and literature during his early education, and considered both journalism and English as well as biology and medicine as his life’s work. The person most influential to his career, he said, was his mother, “a very smart, strong woman. She had a willingness to listen to whatever I was studying.” He also noted in a Bulletin article while President that “family is the core element in our lives. Family provides meaning to our work. Family provides strength. I would not be here without my family.” Dr. Randolph explained his move to otolaryngology in his first column for the Bulletin , writing, “As a third year Cornell Medical College student I had a basic science research background and strong clinical interest in reproductive endocrinology. It was then I took my otolaryngology-head and neck surgery rotation and met Roy Sessions, MD, then the sole otolaryngologist on the renowned head and neck surgical service of Memorial Sloan Kettering. Roy introduced me to head neck surgical anatomy and the thyroid gland—this was my calling.” Dr. Randolph also outlined several initiatives that would guide his time as President, including AAO HNS/F Committees and Reg-ent SM , a data collection and analysis tool designed to improve patient care. While Reg-ent’s primary focus is on quality improvement and patient outcomes, it also serves as the foundation for Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) reporting, measures development, research, and a way to help members meet Maintenance of Certification requirements.

One of his first interactions with the AAO-HNS was being named to the Endocrine Surgery Subcommittee. “That was a tremendously important step for me as a young academic,” he said. However, when he attended his first meeting, he learned that the subcommittee, which was a task force at the time, was due to be dissolved. Dr. Randolph offered ideas for keeping the subcommittee active, and it eventually became a full AAO-HNS committee, which taught him a valuable life lesson: “If you really believe in something stand up, even if you’re new, and say what you believe.” He would go on to chair the Endocrine Surgery Committee.

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