New Member Councils
Connecting With Your Academy: Member Councils
A letter from David L. Bagnall, MD, chair of the AAPM&R Membership
Committee
Have you ever asked yourself why you maintain membership
in the Academy? Many members have. A common feeling has been, “The Academy must
be good for the specialty, but I’ve never been able to find my place in the
association.” That’s an apt sentiment.
Think of how much more we could get out of our
organization if we were better able to connect with each other and share ideas
across our specialty. Our Academy would be even more valuable to each of us if
more of our colleagues were encouraged to get involved and work together on
behalf of our profession. The Academy is only as good as the sum of the
contributions of its members. For this reason, Academy leaders have been working
to find a new way to engage members and offer them the opportunity to find their
place within the home of our Academy.
The field itself offers physicians the opportunity to find their own niche
within PM&R. PM&R covers more clinical area than any other specialty, from
pediatrics to geriatrics and everything (literally, everything) in between. It
used to be that PM&R was a bit more focused. At one time, care for the disabled
was a fixed target, but it has multiplied and become elusive. There is a soaring
need for specialists with expertise at recognizing disability in the context of
a multitude of complex etiologies who can apply that expertise to maximize
performance. The reasons are many, though the point is made without examining
each one. After all is said, we share a common source of light, but pass through
the prism of physiatry to materialize as a diverse and colorful spectrum of
practices.
In many ways, the Academy hasn’t evolved as quickly as the specialty, but
efforts are under way to change the Academy into your Academy. Among those
efforts is the restructuring of the membership to allow for more community and
communication.
Many were involved in the deliberation over restructuring the Academy, including
representatives from a broad range of physiatric subspecialty interests and
clinical settings, as well as Academy staff. We sought to evaluate the current
structure and the influences of PASSOR and special interest groups (SIGs), and
to examine the structure of other medical specialty societies and their approach
to diversity.
After several years of evaluation and consideration, the board of governors has
approved a method for the membership to evolve into constituency communities
that generally reflect physiatric clinical practice. In this way, the spectrum
that is PM&R can more truly be seen as the individual colors we are. At the same
time this evolution is founded on the concept that without the common prism of
physiatry, we are simply amorphous.
The concept is born of several sources: the desire to provide a better voice to
member physiatrists, the success of the PASSOR model, and the benefit for the
specialty to achieve common goals. Five Member Councils reflecting five major
areas of clinical practice will be created. (For names and a breakdown of the
five councils, see “Five Clinical Homes for Members.”) Each Council will have an identical governance structure,
identical voice, input and impact within the Academy, and identical
responsibilities to their clinical constituencies and the specialty as a whole.
Responsibilities will include encouraging submissions to the Academy journal,
PM&R; developing educational resources, practice guidelines, and programs;
promoting and recognizing research; developing frequent communications; and
promoting member awareness and feedback.
This structure has many advantages. It provides you with the opportunity to find
a community of colleagues with like-minded clinical, educational, research, and
advocacy concerns. It improves the structure for leadership development and in
turn provides an opportunity to participate in decisions at a national level
within the Academy itself. It creates a resource of information specific to the
myriad clinical physiatric expertise for, among other things, legislative
advocacy and maintenance of certification. It allows development of clinically
specific rehabilitation research, Annual Assembly courses, and journal support.
And as an integrated system, it gives equal opportunity to all physiatrists,
regardless of their clinical realm.
As a member of AAPM&R, I believe this restructuring is vital. It not only
improves the ability to interact with our fellow physiatrists, but also creates
a strong voice for PM&R that enables our specialty to participate nationally as
our health care system evolves. Please take a moment to read the articles that
follow. They cover more of the details of the Member Councils and will hopefully
pique your interest and reinvigorate your enthusiasm as a member your Academy.
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