CEO Update, October 2024 – “October Theory”

Have you heard of the “October Theory”? Apparently, Autumn brings more than falling leaves, pumpkins, and too much candy. Autumn also triggers reflection to bring about transformation. According to Brianna Paruolo, psychotherapist, Autumn sparks a natural inclination for transformation.  The environmental and societal rhythms allow us to shed old habits—just like trees shedding leaves—allowing us to cultivate new aspects of ourselves.” Perhaps we are more successful with our Fall transformations than our New Year resolutions. But I get it. Apparently I have been embracing “October Theory” for a while now in a cozy Penn State sweatshirt and crisp morning walks.

AAOA has its own rhythm tied to Fall. Our Annual Meeting is the culmination of the year, where we bring peers together to share and learn and elect our new leadership to help carry our banner through strategy. This reflective process of changing our guard so to speak, allows us to consider all we have achieved in the past year, strategies moving forward, and opportunities to embrace.

What are we shedding? Our Advanced Course in Allergy & Immunology. It is not so much a shedding as a transformation. In response to member feedback, we are changing up the course curriculum to offer content better aligned with your practice.  Focusing on surgical and medical management of airway disease in ENT, we are designing the Explorers Course as a two-year course that will allow for deeper dives into the content focus each year with both clinical and practical aspects. For 2025, the course will take a deep dive into advanced allergy management, otology, upper airway, asthma, chronic cough, olfaction, and more. Jennifer Villwock, MD, FAAOA and Jack Krouse, MD, PhD, MBA, FAAOA, Course Directors, are still refining the curriculum. Focused on the state-of-the-art, this course is designed to provide contemporary clinical updates and tools for practice. Watch for more details.

What are we embracing?  New ways to support our members. Practice costs are by far the most cited challenge on our crowdsourcing. Like everything else, the day-to-day costs of running a practice are up. To help, AAOA has rolled out a new member benefit. Our AAOA Affinity program offers you an opportunity to benefit from group purchasing pricing through US ENT.  With over 38 vendors covering allergy, sleep, medical, surgical, clinical and non-clinical supplies, early adopters are averaging a 29% savings.  Some are saving upwards of 60%.  While cost savings are the end goal, the time savings is real. As AAOA Affinity program participants, you can benefit from best pricing, eliminating the haggle of negotiations.

We are also embracing ease of access. Known for our courses, we have expanded on CME programming to fill in the time gaps between courses. Our Educational Stacks offer core content culled from our CME library to help you as you Add (or expand) Allergy, OnBoard Staff, or review the business side of your practice. Our Q4 cohort is open now. Each cohort is time-limited, so we encourage early sign up to maximize access. Our stacks are a great way to meet year-end CME and ABOHNS Continuing Certification requirements.

Finally, we embrace value. For the last several years, your AAOA Board has included the Annual Meeting as part of the overall dues package.  How can you not like “free” CME? It is not too late to register for the Annual Meeting. The pre-work, featuring the Research Forum presentations and more is open now.  November 8-10, we will be live at the Four Seasons Las Vegas with a live stream component for those participating virtually. All the content will be accessible for a limited time post to help you make the most of all the content and peer-to-peer interaction through the Whova App and face-to-face.

Enjoy this reflective time of year!  Hope to see you in Vegas!