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Members Center:
President’s Message - February 2003
Academy’s efforts hold strong for future
by Dean D. Metcalfe, MD, FAAAAI, AAAAI President
This is my final President's Message to you through Academy e-News. The
past year has been a wonderful experience and I was honored to lead the
AAAAI for a time. I would like to take a few moments to reflect upon the
past year, as these efforts will lay the groundwork for the future.
This year we as a group focused on the continuous cultivation of
leadership, training, research and education throughout the Academy. We
are continuing to fortify training programs, supporting their need to
address competencies, by funding a "swat team" approach to aid programs
coming up for review. We created programming to educate health care
professionals about vaccines and bioterrorism and formed a new committee
to supervise these goals. We directed attention to alternative and
complementary medicine by creating an appointed committee to supervise
relevant initiatives. For international membership, and in recognition of
their increasing role in the Academy, we created an International Council.
We also reorganized the support structure of the ERT, solidified support
of the National Allergy Bureau, began efforts to address maintenance of
certification, developed programs to strengthen the practice of allergy,
partnered with the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology for
future certification/recertification courses, interacted with lay
organizations, held a strategic planning retreat and a leadership
conference, and increased financial oversight. These efforts could not
have gone forward without your support and that of a dedicated Academy
staff. I hope you will agree that the past year has been one in which the
Academy's role as an advocate for the allergist/immunologist, as well as
patients with
allergic and other immunologic disorders, has aggressively continued.
And as in the case of those before me, I will continue to be an active
Board member and look forward to working with the 2003-2004 AAAAI
President, Dr. Lanny Rosenwasser, as he takes over at the 60th Anniversary
Meeting in March.
If you have not registered for the 60th Anniversary Meeting, March 7-12 in
Denver, you will have the opportunity to do so on site in Denver. I hope
to see many of you at the meeting, and invite you to attend my
Presidential Address on Sunday, March 9, where I will review the history
of the specialty, and the Academy, and look ahead to what the future
holds. I also hope you will consider attending the ERT Benefit on
Saturday, March 8. Your support of the ERT assists the AAAAI in supporting
the future of the specialty.
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