Special 125th Anniversary Issue – Bulletin

1977 Annual Meeting Scientific exhibit

1977 Continuing Education exhibit

First evidence of Academy monogram on 1921 Annual Meeting program and 1922 Annual Meeting badge

1978 exhibits with 1940 exhibits in left bottom inset

1993 Annual Meeting Opening Ceremony (top picture) and 1993 exhibits (middle and bottom pictures)

presentation of the living work of the hour... a laboratory in which all are students with a common aim and are united by the bonds of a common interest... a laboratory in which the highest respect and deepest reverence are felt toward those mighty pioneers of the past... and yet... a laboratory in which methods and results rather than dogmatic authorities control the trend of effort and establish the equal right of merit.” Though the presentation and critique of cutting-edge science has been delivered through different platforms, most recently online due to the pandemic, the Academy’s scientific conversation at the Annual Meeting has driven discovery and helped advance and disseminate the collective knowledge of our field. Elbow to elbow instruction Our Academy’s Annual Meeting education program, in its various forms over the years, began as the “postgraduate supplement course” scheduled adjacent to the 1921 Annual Meeting, in an effort both to prepare physicians to take the relatively recently organized medical board examinations

and to provide lifelong medical education with a standardized body of knowledge. In his Guest of Honor address at the 1940 meeting, Dr. Secord Large commented that “the Section on Instruction has merited the envious admiration of other medical societies.” While in his 1943 Presidential address, Dr. James Babbitt suggested that “it has always been an inspiration to see here and there the matured and respected chiefs of medical departments... squeezed in elbow to elbow with the younger specialists in the crowded classrooms of … the instructional courses... The rush in the halls... between designated hours, is reminiscent of the excitement of a graduation day in high school rather than a routine group of lectures.” The instructional program has included different formats as education techniques have evolved, including the original traditional didactic lectures, small group discussion sessions, panel presentations of controversial topics, and hands-on mini-courses. In the coming meetings, simulation education and gamification will be increasingly employed while classic teaching methods like

of friends and colleagues from around the world and the concrete lessons that we all bring home to improve our communities. Students of science with a common aim and common interest It is instructive to study the 1896 meeting program with attention to the very first paper, given by Dr. Carl Barck, eventual professor of ophthalmology at St. Louis University. Dr. Barck reported two cases of lateral sinus thrombectomy with one patient recovering. Dr. William Scheppegrell of Charity Hospital, New Orleans, Louisiana, future president of the Academy as well of the American Hay-Fever Prevention Association, “opened discussion” of the cases. This report and discussion began a 125-year ongoing conversation about the newest and often most controversial science in our field, sharpened by discourse with colleagues from around the country, and now the world. When addressing the 1913 Annual Meeting, Vice President Dr. John McReynolds could have been describing any of the other 124 gatherings when he discussed the scientific program as “a

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SPECIAL EDITION: 125TH ANNIVERSARY AAO-HNS BULLETIN ENTNET.ORG/BULLETIN