See You in the Emerald City for the AAPM&R 2010 Annual Assembly

Council members have shared information by e-mail and Internet all year. Now take advantage of the opportunity to meet and learn in person at this year’s AAPM&R Annual Assembly, November 4–7, in Seattle.

The Preliminary Program for the Annual Assembly was mailed to all members with the June issue of PM&R. Look inside the program to find detailed course and registration information. Updated information is also available on the Academy Web site at www.aapmr.org/assembly.htm where you can also register for the meeting online.

Assembly events for MSK Council members

In the last issue of this information letter, we shared information on educational sessions of interest to this Council:

• The 2010 mini-theme in the MSK track is Spine/Core Strength—this means the 50–60% of all courses within the MSK track are related to this theme. The remaining sessions are on new and emerging technologies such as ultrasound, EMG, and PRP.
• Several sessions focus on sports medicine content, including a special topic session focused on the 2010 Vancouver Olympics
• Best research presentations (formerly Poster Grand Rounds) focused on MSK research take place Friday afternoon.
• The plenary session on Friday with Stan Herring, MD, will address the topic of youth sports concussion.

Here are a few more events you should know about:

• Do you or your office staff need to brush up on coding and billing issues specific to a PM&R practice? Don’t miss the Coding and Billing Workshop held November 2–3 before the Annual Assembly. Click here to register. (Requires member login)
• On Saturday, the plenary session is “The Measurement of Human Function: New Tools and New Applications.” Keynote speakers, Alan M. Jette, PhD, PT, and Leighton Chan, MD, MPH, will discuss the pros and cons of contemporary functional outcome assessment techniques and will present examples of the use of outcome data in rehabilitation practice and research.
• Only a few spots remain in the preconference course, Hands-On Diagnostic Musculoskeletal Ultrasound: In-Depth Introduction to Uses and Techniques. Click here to register. (Requires member login)
  Note: The next live course on musculoskeletal ultrasound will be February 11–13, 2011, in Las Vegas. Watch the AAPM&R Connection e-newsletter for details.
• Join us for our second annual MSK Medicine Member Council Business Meeting on Friday at 5:45 pm.

Make the popular Job Fair part of your Assembly experience

AAPM&R Job Fair: Wednesday, November 3, 6–9 pm, Seattle

Take advantage of an Academy tradition that is more than 25 years old. With nearly 80 employers in one location, this terrific opportunity saves job searchers time and energy and allows them to make personal connections to employers. The successful Job Fair begins one day prior to the Annual Assembly.

The Job Fair is free to all attendees registered for the Annual Assembly. View a list of participating employers at www.aapmr.org starting in September. Click here for more information.

Deadlines and reminders

Don’t forget to reserve your hotel room for the Assembly in the Academy’s room blocks at the Sheraton Seattle and the Grand Hyatt Seattle. The deadline to receive the discounted room rate is October 6, 2010. Click here for hotel information.

If you would like to save $100 on Annual Assembly registration fees, be sure to register before the September 9, 2010, “early bird” deadline. Remember that all Academy members receive reduced registration fees for the AAPM&R Annual Assembly each year.

We hope to see you in Seattle!

Member Councils: 360º Communication

JONATHAN FINNOFF, DO, CHAIR-ELECT

In February of this year, I, along with the members of all five Member Council Executive Committees, had the pleasure of attending the inaugural Council Leadership Conference in Rosemont, IL, the new home of our Academy headquarters. We met with AAPM&R President-Elect Michael Lupinacci, MD, and the chairs of the four Strategic Coordinating Committees. We discussed multiple topics ranging from issues facing the specialty to leadership strategies of the Academy. As chair-elect of the MSK Medicine Council, I have attended several meetings discussing our new membership model. However, it wasn’t until this meeting that something really hit home for me. It stemmed from a presentation provided by Dr. Lupinacci on the overview of the Member Council model.

Though I have held this leadership role within our Council since its inception in January 2009, it wasn’t until Dr. Lupinacci’s presentation that I fully grasped why our Academy originally proposed the creation of the Member Councils. I think it centers on one principle: communication.

As with other professional organizations, the sole reason for AAPM&R’s existence is to serve the needs of its members. If the AAPM&R leadership doesn’t know what its members need, then the Academy will become obsolete. However, the creation and implementation of a strategic plan to address the needs of AAPM&R members requires energetic and creative leadership to coordinate the efforts of member volunteers. Therefore, rather than using a “top down” approach in which specific agendas are decided upon solely by the AAPM&R leadership, or a “bottom up” approach that may lead to ineffective and poorly coordinated efforts, a combined approach with excellent communication between AAPM&R members and the AAPM&R leadership appears to be the most sensible. This is exactly how the Council model functions.

Currently there are five Member Councils that serve as our member communities, our clinical homes. Each Member Council has an executive committee composed of five leaders: chair, chair-elect, vice-chair of communication, vice-chair of education, and vice-chair of membership development. Together, we are responsible for identifying the primary needs of our membership: YOUR NEEDS. The Academy has provided us with a method of doing this through what we call “required deliverables.” Examples of these deliverables include proposing topics for new educational opportunities; identifying topics to be included in our new scientific journal, PM&R; garnering feedback on proposed Annual Assembly themes; and identifying experts to create educational resources, review legislation bills, and author manuscripts. These requests are made from the AAPM&R strategic leadership to the Council members. The strategic leadership reviews the Council members’ input and bases their decisions upon this information. An example: PM&R Editor-in-Chief Stuart Weinstein, MD, requests that the MSK Council provide a list of topics that Council members have designated important to include in the journal in 2011. The MSK Council leadership creates the list of proposed topics through input received from the Council members and selects the authors of the proposed manuscripts from Council members who have expertise in the proposed topics. This information is submitted to Dr. Weinstein, who determines which topics are most suitable for publication within PM&R in 2011. After the topics have been selected by Dr. Weinstein, the review article is written by the Council member(s), submitted to PM&R, and following the peer review process, the article is published in PM&R for the benefit of all AAPM&R members.

The same process applies when the AAPM&R Medical Education Committee determines what new educational products they are going to create or when the AAPM&R Program Planning Committee selects Annual Assembly themes. In other words, the AAPM&R strategic leadership provides a structured format by which Council members communicate their educational needs (i.e., a review article or educational event) to the AAPM&R Council leadership.

These examples provide an excellent representation of the “top down-bottom up” synergy that is created by the Member Councils. Improved communication between AAPM&R members and the AAPM&R leadership will lead to a stronger and more effective Academy. Our Council invites your feedback and look forward to your input.

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Register Now for AAPM&R Cervical Procedures Course

AAPM&R Comprehensive Management of Cervical Spine Disorders
August 27–29, 2010, Chicago

Course Director Christopher Plastaras, MD, answers questions on why colleagues should attend this course in downtown Chicago at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago on August 27–29, 2010.

Q.  What would you say to a fellow colleague about this course?

A.  It’s going to focus on the cervical spine, for one; and the unique part of this course is that day 1 includes physical therapy and the McKenzie method with smaller breakout group sessions. This day alone would be worth going to. But we also have the cadaver spinal injection part on days 2 and 3. Many times people might go to one or the other type of course where these topics are independent of each other, but this is an opportunity to get both at once. There are other courses out there that are just teaching the procedures and needle placement. This one is couching needle placement and technique along with the physiatric approach to cervical spine pain, incorporating EMG, radiographic findings, the physical examination, and the physical therapy approach. We’re admittedly going up against a couple other cervical courses by other excellent organizations, but this course is really curtailed to the physiatrist.

Q.  What do you think about the decision to hold the meeting in Chicago?

A. The hosting institution is the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. We’ll be right on the lakefront, in the neck of the woods where it’s all happening. August is the best time to be in Chicago – when people come to Chicago during that time of year, they wonder why the rest of the world doesn’t live there.

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Connect With Your Council Peers in an Exciting New Way

Academy members have found a new community of colleagues in the Member Councils where they can share clinical information, questions, and get feedback. The Council listserves have been ablaze when a hot topic elicits a lot of comment and feedback. There was a lot to share, but the listserves became too limiting and the numerous e-mail messages became a nuisance for some.

Enter PhyzForum—the online peer network that your Academy will launch next month. Only the five Member Councils and the Resident Physician Council will be able to use all of the features of PhyzForum when it first launches.

New features

With PhyzForum, Council members will be able to easily interact with each other. After logging in to the site (using the same login used for the AAPM&R Web site) members will find the Council(s) they belong to listed in the “My Groups” section. Council members will be able to view and connect with other members in their council by clicking on the council member list, or use the search feature to find a specific member in the PhyzForum. A robust search function will allow members to look up discussions, topics, members and more that will connect members with their peers.

Offering a more personal and customized approach to communication, PhyzForum allows members to create an online PhyzForum profile if they choose, with a profile picture, list of their professional interests, status updates on what they are working on, and a “colleagues” list of those members they communicate with frequently.

One of the most important features of this new tool is customization: Members can customize how and when they see the comments made by other colleagues during an online conversation. Members can read and post messages to conversations on the PhyzForum Web site itself, or can choose to interact with it via e-mail. For those choosing e-mail, they can select how often they wish to receive e-mail notifications—immediately when a message is posted, never, or a daily or weekly digest where all discussions are delivered together.

When can I use it?

All Academy members will be able to access PhyzForum when it goes live next month, but only Member Council members will be able to participate in discussions and use the other online features.

All Council members will receive an e-mail message when PhyzForum launches. This message will provide a link to the Web site along with basic instructions for using it. So keep an eye out in the next few weeks for the e-mail announcement. Then enjoy the new online community created especially for you.

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New Academy Initiative: MSK Council Helping Develop Instrument for the Specialty

Imagine having a resource that defines what a physiatrist is and what you do, a tool that is relevant to all elements of your practice: education, practice guidelines and research, policy/legislation, reimbursement, and patient care. Imagine that other health care professionals understand the value of PM&R and how and went to utilize the physiatrist.

The Academy recognizes that there is not a single resource that articulates the breadth and depth of the specialty of PM&R. The Academy is committed to proving the positive role physiatrists play in the health care system and will do so by developing an instrument that will frame or outline the specialty as a whole. This instrument will be evolving, dynamic, and detailed and will define the essential content or knowledge base of the specialty. It will serve several purposes including: 1) articulating the breadth and depth of the specialty; 2) a roadmap for all future educational products as well as for issues concerning awareness, practice, policy, and research; and 3) a resource to help members navigate Maintenance of Certification.

This initiative is broken down into several phases over the next several years. The first phase involved developing the instrument’s framework by working with the leadership to identify Council members to form a Work Group. The Work Group’s role was to represent the Council’s topic area/section of the framework and develop a clinical topic outline. The MSK Council Work Group participated on several conference calls and preliminary research before gathering in Chicago with fellow Council Work Groups to develop their respective clinical topic outline. Council Work Groups completed their task by the end of the first day, while leaders and co-leaders of each group stayed a second day to identify overlapping or “cross-cutting” topics among the various topic areas as well as to prioritize key topics to address in future Academy tools and resources.

The MSK Council Work Group volunteers did an excellent job in accomplishing their goals for the April meeting, and we appreciate their hard work and dedication. We’d like to take a moment to acknowledge these volunteers:

• Andrew Sherman, MD, Work Group Leader
• David (DJ) Kennedy, MD, Work Group Co-Leader
• Rachel Brakke, MD, Resident
• Gary Chimes, MD
• Joseph Herrera, DO
• Jose Mena, MD
• Christopher Visco, MD
• Brandee Waite, MD

There will be additional opportunities to be a part of this exciting initiative in the months to come as the next phases of this project are implemented. Future steps include fleshing out the content for the framework that can also be used to develop future resources such as review articles.

The Academy and its members will work together on this groundbreaking initiative that will unite the specialty with a consistent knowledge base and eventually provide further understanding of the value of PM&R to both other health care providers and patients.

Stay tuned for more details!

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AAPM&R Health Policy Update

AAPM&R President-Elect Michael F. Lupinacci, MD, recently penned a letter to help members understand the Academy’s recent health policy advocacy activities (with input from Gregory Worsowicz, MD, MBA, chair of the AAPM&R Quality Practice Policy Committee; Sam S.H. Wu, MD, MA, MPH, MBA, chair of the AAPM&R Health Policy and Legislation Committee; Venu Akuthota, MD, MSK Council chair, and Jonathan Finnoff, DO, MSK Council chair-elect).

Although the Academy’s advocacy activities may appear less visible and tangible to you, we are exploring ways to better communicate. Academy leaders have attended meetings at the White House and met with congressional staff to deliver the unique message about our specialty and its crucial and unique focus on “function,” and we successfully advocated for the passage of a final health reform bill that contains “habilitation and “rehabilitation” in the essential benefits package. Dr. Lupinacci letter also addresses the Academy’s efforts regarding Medicare’s Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula, requirements for inpatient rehabilitation facilities, grassroots’ advocacy campaigns, and more.

To read Dr. Lupinacci’s letter, click here. (PDF Download)

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Apply for Young Investigator Initiative Grant Mentoring Program

Deadline for applications: July 15, 2010

The United States Bone and Joint Decade (USBJD) is dedicated to raising public awareness and to increasing research of musculoskeletal diseases in the United States. Clinical research in the musculoskeletal diseases performed by young investigators is not keeping pace with the increasing burden of these diseases in the United States.

The USBJD Research Committee offers a grant mentoring program consisting of workshops to provide early-career clinical investigators an opportunity to work with experienced researchers in our field and to assist them in securing funding and other survival skills required for pursuing an academic career.

This grant mentoring program of workshops is open to promising junior faculty or senior fellows or post-doctoral researchers who have been nominated by their department or division chairs. It is also open to senior fellows or residents who are doing research and have a faculty appointment in place or confirmed. The workshops take place in the Spring and Fall. The unique aspect of this program is the opportunity for attendees to maintain a relationship with a mentor until their application is funded.

The Call for Applications letter, requirements and program outlines for the next cycle of the Young Investigator Initiative Grant Mentoring Program can be found on the USBJD Web site at www.usbjd.org/rd/?yii.

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