AAPM&R Has Your Back as a PM&R Physician

AAPM&R is focused on advocating for your wellbeing as you provide optimal care for your patients. We understand that physician wellness is a major challenge for PM&R physicians across all practice areas and settings.

Advocating for PM&R Physicians and Your Patients

As the primary medical society for PM&R, AAPM&R is THE organization that defends PM&R physicians. We are continuing to position PM&R physicians as essential leaders early and across the healthcare continuum. We have been:

• Defending the Role of Physiatrists Against Encroachment from Non-PM&R Physicians and Non-Physicians
• Fighting to Reduce Physiatrist Burden by Removing Prior Authorization Struggles
• Fighting Against PM&R Physician Fee Cuts and For Improved PM&R Physician Payment
• Working to Preserve Physiatrists’ Expertise in Determining Medical Necessity in Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF) Admissions
• Advocating for Expanded Telehealth Innovations and Enhanced Ways for Physiatrists to Advance Patient Care
• Advancing Long COVID Advocacy to Position PM&R Physicians as Leaders in Multi-Disciplinary Care
• Preparing Physiatrists to Navigate Through the End of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency

Meet PM&R Aspire – AAPM&R’s New Career Exploration Platform!

We recently launched an interactive career exploration platform to help each of our members make better informed career decisions. The map-based platform puts you at the heart of your unique career search with valuable data, useful notifications and more personal ways to engage with employers.

Premier PM&R Education Designed for You

AAPM&R continues to offer our premium resources that you expect while meeting CME and MOC requirements:

• The Annual Assembly, where PM&R physicians come together to refresh their skills, reconnect with colleagues and much more.
• STEP Certificate Programs, these multi-tiered training programs teach and assess important PM&R skills using a progressive, competency-based curriculum. We offer programs in ultrasound, spasticity and – new in 2023 – concussion and mild TBI.
• National Grand Rounds, our complimentary, monthly webinar series to connect PM&R physicians across the specialty for discussions on a variety of topics.
• Early-Career Course, our virtual course held each spring specifically for residents and early-career physiatrists.
• PM&R Knowledge NOW^®, our online resource that highlights the breadth and depth of 300+ PM&R clinical topics.
• PM&R Journal, our official scientific journal that delivers clinically-relevant and evidence-based research. We’re going green in 2024! PM&R will be online only starting in January.

Our digital resources offer you 24/7 access to our innovative education, including:

• Online Learning Portal, offers complimentary and deeply-discounted PM&R education to advance your career and position yourself for success in today’s ever-changing healthcare landscape.
• Online Education Subscription, gives you an additional opportunity to gain access to our collection of more than 150 instructional videos, podcasts, case studies, focused review courses and more. The annual subscription fee is only $175 ($50 for residents) – valued at $2,500!
• Download our mobile app, AAPM&R Learn, for non-stop and offline access to our world-class education, wherever you are! Get it now on the App Store or Google Play.

Coming soon! Look for these offerings launching in the near future:

• Medical Directorship Virtual Certificate Program, our new virtual program (launching early 2024) will cover several key topics that are crucial for effective medical directors, including leading change, understanding roles and governing structures, organizational behavior and more.
• A new Resident Course designed for PGY2s is coming in May 2024. This will be a stand-alone, interactive and hands-on training initially for only 50 participants with national leaders and mentors in PM&R. There is no registration fee and a travel stipend is included. Applications open in early January!

AAPM&R Advances Plans for the Specialty to Achieve the Vision for PM&R

A Look at the Academy’s Efforts Leading to Huge Media Successes:

• Call to Action: We released our official Long COVID call to action in 2021, where we called on President Biden and Congress to gear up for the next coronavirus crisis, by preparing and implementing a comprehensive national plan focused on the needs of millions of individuals suffering from the long-term symptoms of COVID-19.
• Leading Multi-Disciplinary Guidance: Created our Multi-Disciplinary PASC Collaborative of experts who developed clinical guidance to improve quality-of-care as well as formal education and resources to improve experience-of-care and health equity. They have since developed eight guidance statements on:
  1. Fatigue
  2. Breathing Discomfort
  3. Cognitive Symptoms
  4. Cardiovascular Complications
  5. Pediatrics
  6. Autonomic Dysfunction
  7. Neurological Symptoms
  8. Mental Health – NEW!
• Gathering Reporters: To promote these guidance statements, we hosted “reporter roundtables” with dozens of national media attending to hear directly from PM&R experts as the medical experts leading care for Long COVID patients, which led to many requests from reporters asking to interview physiatrists for Long COVID news stories.
• Why is the Long COVID Coverage Valuable to PM&R? Establishing our credibility as medical experts through the emerging public health crisis of Long COVID allowed us to communicate more about the value of PM&R early and throughout the continuum of healthcare. And these connections are now allowing us to expand the understanding of PM&R in its totality and its value with key stakeholders through the media.
• Becoming a Go-To Resource Beyond Long COVID: As an example, one outlet we connected with during the Long COVID reporter roundtables is Patient Care Online, a digital outlet targeting primary care providers. They invited us to collaborate on monthly content where we’ve now featured cancer rehabilitation medicine, unique musculoskeletal and primary care models, PM&R’s role in concussion and sports, pediatrics, pain management and many more.
• Seeing Huge Results: As a result of our efforts to connect PM&R physicians with the media, the Academy and our members have been featured in more than 230+ articles across 120+ major national media outlets! Explore them below and in our Newsroom.

How You Can Raise Awareness of PM&R

• Positioning PM&R Communications Toolkit: While we tackle awareness through a coordinated media effort, progress will also require that we all work in our own practices, communities and systems as well. That’s why we developed a Positioning PM&R communications toolkit to help make this easier for you. Our toolkit helps members position themselves for success now and in the future. This exciting resource includes key messages, talking points, references, discussions about audiences and more to help you communicate most effectively by knowing your audience, sticking to your key messages and communicating clearly and directly.
• PM&R Awareness Ambassadors Program: Get involved in our new program, which recognizes AAPM&R members who have positioned PM&R through media, presentations to their communities, health systems or other specialties.
• AAPM&R Speakers Bureau: We also have plans to select and support PM&R champions who will help us raise awareness of the specialty.
• PM&R Awareness and Value Award: We introduced this new awards category this year, which recognizes members whose efforts have significantly elevated the understanding and value of PM&R across healthcare. Nominations for 2024 are open now – you’re encouraged to nominate yourself or a peer!

Supporting PM&R Physicians in their Practices

Positioning PM&R Physicians for Success

• Quality, Research and Guidance: We have a new Quality and Research Committee that will be focused on quality improvement, patient safety, guidance and research.
  • AAPM&R Registry: We are providing data to demonstrate your value and improve your care, through the AAPM&R Registry. The AAPM&R Registry is the first for PM&R, poised to efficiently capture the essential data, saving you time and effort to focus on what really matters: your patients. Explore more about our current data collection champions and how you can get involved.
  • Creating Guidance Statements
    • Concussion/Mild TBI: Published An Evidence-Based Review of Exercise, Rehabilitation, Rest and Return to Activity Protocols for the Treatment of Concussion and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. This evidence-based consensus statement on the management and treatment of concussion is the culmination of work led by AAPM&R starting with a think tank in 2016, followed by the 2018 convening of a multispecialty expert physician panel to review current literature and develop consensus recommendations.
    • Spasticity and Biologics: In 2022, we began developing a spasticity guidance statement to further support PM&R physicians as the leaders in spasticity assessment and treatment. We’re excited to share that the guidance will be published soon. In 2023, we began creating guidance on biologics – platelet rich plasma for management of osteoarthritis of the knee – with a 2024 anticipated publication date.

• Gathering PM&R Department Chairs and Division Chiefs: We are supporting PM&R department chairs through a unique in-person summit. This summit is intended to discuss the challenges the specialty and physiatrists are facing, in order to mobilize department chairs to be leaders in creating the new future for PM&R to thrive. Our 2023 summit was a success, and we will continue this valuable event in 2024.
• Tackling Workforce Issues: One of our key focus areas is to expand our impact by addressing our workforce barrier. We are taking a number of steps to help expand the reach of PM&R.
  • We recognize that residency slots are growing, and we are continuing to advocate for more PM&R training slots and supporting program expansion through our GME committee efforts.
  • Another critical pathway to expanding the workforce comes from member requests for assistance in onboarding and training advanced practice providers (APPs) on PM&R physician-led teams. That’s why we are developing a standardized training curriculum and educational program for PM&R physicians to onboard APPs. This is designed to train APPs in the basic rehabilitation principles so that they can more effectively support PM&R physicians and their team, allowing physiatrists to practice at the top of their training and reduce burnout.
  • The Academy’s position remains that PM&R-led, patient-centered, team-based care is the best approach to providing optimized rehabilitation care for patients. While we strongly oppose the independent practice of APPs, we believe that by including them on the care team, PM&R can fulfill a broader need and value in the delivery system. Stay tuned for these educational resources in 2024.

The Power of PM&R: Working Together, We are Stronger

And together, we’ll go far. When PM&R physicians unite with AAPM&R, we ALL become stronger.

The diversity of PM&R and our more than 10,000 Academy members provide a unique opportunity to support each other in advancing PM&R’s impact through healthcare. As we advance forward in the changing healthcare environment, it is more important than ever that every member play an active role in helping one another realize the vision for our specialty.

Collaborating with Your PM&R Peers at the Annual Assembly

Our Commitment to Developing Physiatric Leaders

Innovative Engagement Opportunities

• Advancing PM&R Podcast: We recently launched our AAPM&R Podcast, which is hosted by Michelle Gittler, MD, FAAPMR and Prakash Jayabalan, MD, PhD, FAAPMR. We will be releasing podcast episodes regularly, which will be discussing where the specialty is headed, real-life challenges PM&R physicians face, physician wellness and more.
• Member May: This year we launched Member May, where members received the opportunity to participate in 15+ free educational sessions held by our Member Communities. This was an exciting chance for members to come together for virtual education and networking all month long. We will be hosting Member May again in 2024, so stay tuned for the schedule!
  • We offer more than 45 Member Communities that are created and led by members in a variety of clinical-, practice- and identity-focused areas. Members are welcome to join one or several!

Thank You, AAPM&R Volunteers!

Together, our member physiatrists are making a difference in PM&R’s bright future and advancing the specialty in so many ways. From advocating on the Hill to helping shape our educational portfolio—and everything in between—our 600+ volunteers are making moves to position the specialty for success.

We hope you can join them! We offer a variety of positions to match your interests, skills and goals. In return, you receive valuable networking opportunities with peers, advance your career and more. Take a look at some of the amazing successes our Academy volunteer leaders have accomplished this year:

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