President’s Corner

As we all weather the personal and professional storm created by the COVID Pandemic, I would like to thank you for your continued support of the AUA mission and vision.  While many of us look forward to a return of our lives to normal, the reality of “normal” is also unclear.

For those of you who have suffered loss as a result of the pandemic, please accept my condolences.

For those of you who have enhanced your clinical role to care for the onslaught of critically ill patients resulting from the pandemic; thank you.

For those of you who have assumed increased leadership responsibilities resulting from the pandemic; thank you.

For those of you who have advanced the foundation of our knowledge through either discovery or dissemination of new information to help reduce the consequences of the pandemic; thank you.

For those of you who have served as educators during this time when traditional teaching tools/approaches could no longer be applied; thank you.

I am passionate about using the lessons learned by AUA members in the areas of research, education, and leadership during the pandemic to help make AUA more valuable for members and more valuable for our specialty. In order to achieve this goal, I urge you to engage with our strategic planning process. As your President I have asked a small group of members to lead this process and they have committed to helping us define a new “normal” for the AUA, taking advantage of significant member engagement in the process. So, when you receive an invitation to provide feedback please share your opinion with us so that new AUA “normal” will truly promote excellence in academic anesthesiology. We cannot accept status quo. Our patients and physician trainees who are just entering Anesthesiology now deserve to enter a vibrant specialty where the specialty leaders are aggressively pushing for advancement through innovation and pursuit of excellence. I believe that excellence in perioperative clinical outcomes will only occur through brave strategies for improvements in leadership, inclusion, training/education, and discovery in academic anesthesiology.

Author

Jeffrey R. Kirsch, MD
President, AUA
Medical College of Wisconsin
Milwaukee, Wisconsin