The following is an overview of the AAPM&R Board of Governors meeting, which took place in April 2019. Deborah A. Venesy, MD, FAAPMR is secretary of the AAPM&R Board of Governors.
As the Secretary, I’m thrilled to provide an update on the activities of the Board at our recent April meeting. Be on the lookout as you’ll see posts like this on www.aapmr.org, the PhyzForum Blog, and in other member communications throughout the year.
As part of our own education, the Board engaged in some leadership training and role modeling to develop cultural organizational competencies in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. We talked further about our role in the roll out of our Diversity and Inclusion strategic plan. We are very excited about the positive momentum and progress on our new Member Communities and supported plans for continuing to engage our Academy members moving forward.
We discussed advancement of PM&R BOLD and ensuring member understanding and engagement with the specialty vision. In particular, we want to facilitate members’ growing understanding of the ways in which physiatry is anticipated to be practiced differently in Musculoskeletal Medicine, Acute/Post-Acute Care Continuum, Cancer Rehabilitation Medicine, and Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine. We want to help members connect with one another on these important forward-looking dialogues. We took time to look at the overall health care environment related to evolutions in scope of practice, and discussed our strategies, especially as we address barriers holding our specialty back from realizing our vision.
The Registry Steering Committee Chair, Michael Hatzakis, MD, FAAPMR, provided the Board an update on the AAPM&R Registry, including the evolution of its data architecture, technical support, and critical documentation—all critical to the long-term impact of the registry for the specialty. The Board appreciates Dr. Hatzakis and all the members of the steering committee for their diligent work on this initiative!
In addition to the strategic and forward-looking discussions of the Board, we approved several recommendations that came from our Strategic Coordinating Committees. We approved the following efforts to:
- Advance the work of the Concussion Writing Panel, which is a collaborative, multi-specialty effort spearheaded by the Academy to write a consensus statement.
- Support the revitalization of our educational resources along with our online learning platform, mē®.
- Implement a new process for developing curricula in specialized content domains, including a pilot test specifically in MSK.
- Expand the STEP Program to include a Spasticity certificate and an additional testing day for STEP Ultrasound participants.
- Transform the Sunday Annual Assembly experience to include a Closing Session featuring brunch and PhyzTalks presentations.
- Grow our standalone course offerings in 2020, including the very popular Pain Course.
Throughout the Board meeting as we discussed the future of our specialty and the role of the Academy, we also discussed the topic of Advanced Practice Provider (APP) membership. Member input was taken into account when discussing everything from scope of practice concerns to our educational resources we develop for members. We spent dedicated time having a substantive conversation regarding APP membership—reviewing and discussing member input we’ve received along with our plans to support the specialty’s future. A specific communication regarding APP membership was sent to members this week, so please check your email inbox.