Legacy of Excellence Digital Flipbook

LEGACY OF EXCELLENCE

the staff. Not always visible to the membership, and sometimes not even to the Boards, our staff as a whole consistently demonstrated great efforts to achieve excellence, serve the membership faithfully, and uphold strong personal standards of professional and personal behavior. I felt my personal efforts to apply resources to staff development and growth paid off, not only in the improvement of individuals in their staff roles, but in improving a culture of cooperation and integration of services, helping us to ensure the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. The number of senior staff who caught and embraced the vision of improving their skills and standards saw it pay off at the Academy and in subsequent employment roles and opportunities.” Second, seeing the AAO-HNS/F as respected as a leader in the QI/PM research and socioeconomic realm is a great source of satisfaction. While others are much more responsible for that respect, I know that my willingness to push the discussion and provide voices and venues for our members who really have a lot of experience and contributions to make was critical. And watching the trajectory of continued evolution under our new leadership is very rewarding. I always felt that if I did my job well, when I left it should be so seamless that no one would notice. And with regard to the continued improved culture of focus on patient outcomes and quality care, I think that is the case.” And he concluded with a hats off to his colleagues and the specialty, “I also highly valued the associations that my role allowed me to have with other leaders in medicine, whom I never would have met or worked with without having served in this position. I was continually inspired by the personalities and professional contributions and friendship of leaders in otolaryngology, the other primary specialties in medicine, and a host of methodologists, researchers, government and agency employees, and others who shared my passion for patient-centered, quality-focused health care. Spending a decade and a half in the company of people who are motivated by passion for a good cause is a humbling and indescribable blessing.” In His Honor To show its respect to this leader, a David R. Nielsen, MD Endowment was established by the AAO-HNSF in 2014. The endowment served to witness the 13 years of service and the outsized contributions Dr. Nielsen made to otolaryngology and its patients as Executive Vice President and CEO of the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and its Foundation.

by aligning our expectations and assuring our roles would be complimentary, not competitive or adversarial.” With modesty respecting these relationships, he noted further, “I cannot say enough about the remarkable degree of personal sacrifice, devotion to the specialty, willingness to put personal preferences aside for the betterment of otolaryngology demonstrated by our presidents and other elected board leaders and members. … It reinforces what I was told about the reputation of otolaryngology when I first considered it as a specialty choice – these are the good guys.” Outsized Results with Effective Use of Resources A point of pride for Dr. Nielsen was the fact that the AAO HNS/F delivered more value in programs, products, and services than would be expected of an organization of its size. “Having served several terms as leader of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies CMSS) and the Specialty Society CEOs Coalition (S2C2), I was frequently asked about and often complimented on the disproportionately large role we played in the house of medicine. Our leadership as a specialty was noted and appreciated. We did a very good job of making the most of our resources and capital, financial as well as human.” Satisfactions In his refection of his days as AAO-HNS/F EVP, Dr. Nielsen outlined a few things that brought him great satisfaction during those 13 years.

“First,” he enumerated, “My admiration and love for

84