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This will be a challenging year of change for the AOAO and all of us as a collective group of physicians. There will be a new Congress and a new President of the United States elected in November 2008, and these changes will undoubtedly present new challenges to our medical system as we know it.
There will be proposed changes to health care access and the reimbursement levels, and we will see legislation to restrict our ability to run a business or provide ancillary income. We must allow physicians to be the loudest voice in patient care, and we must remember it is only the physician who has taken an oath to serve these patients.
There will be attempts to reveal quality data about you and your practice, which is why we need to assure that this information is good, reproducible, and clinically meaningful. In addition, we must work diligently to assure it does not breach patient confidentiality and the peer-review process.
We must stick together as osteopathic orthopedic surgeons and join forces with our colleagues in the American Osteopathic Association to serve as a unified voice in Washington. D.C. We will also explore the possibilities of collaborating with the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons to establish mutual goals and problems to solve. We need to use all of our talents and gifts to nimbly respond to a changing environment and ensure our profession remains viable and our patients are served to the fullest extent possible.
In John Maxwell’s book entitled Talent Is Never Enough, he offers some thoughts I would like to share:
Everyone has talent.
Secondly, develop the talent you have, not the one you want.
Lastly, anyone can make choices that will add value to talent.
Our talents are so valuable but remain worthless unless they are utilized.
I feel that this needs to be a conscious act. The act of preparation.
- Preparation allows you to tap into your talent.
- Preparation is a process, not an event.
- Preparation precedes opportunity.
- Preparation for tomorrow begins with the right use of today.
Please work along with me to prepare our academy for the upcoming year that promises to be both challenging and exciting. I look forward to serving the American Osteopathic Academy of Orthopedics and anticipate seeing you all at the mid-year meeting in Chicago.
Mark E. Gittins, D.O., FAOAO
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