Robert Musacchio, PhD

Greetings. I hope that you are well and are enjoying the summer as best you can during these challenging times. Since the “CHEST year” has drawn to a close recently, I would like to offer my reflections, which were recently shared with the Board of Regents, as well as a glimpse of what is ahead for CHEST. There is just so much great work I want to share.

This past year has posed a number of challenges. COVID-19 has caused us to interact differently on both a social and a business level. CHEST Headquarters has been closed, and we have not had a live-learning course for more than 4 months. But our work has not faltered. We have been extremely productive during this period and have once again demonstrated our resiliency and innovative spirit; in our vernacular, we “Crushed It.”

While COVID-19 has presented us with a number of obstacles, it has presented us with a number of opportunities, and we have taken advantage of them. During this pandemic, CHEST has truly demonstrated its ability to provide a connection at a critical time, giving this phrase new meaning and urgency. We have created a new resource center for clinicians, developed patient education and awareness campaigns to support the public through this crisis, launched a webinar series, developed scientific guidance statements, and more. At the same time, we have invested in our technology and educational infrastructure to grow our capabilities and position CHEST for long-term success.

Prior to COVID-19, we spent a significant amount of time among the CHEST staff, Presidents, and Boards drafting and reviewing a concise strategy statement for CHEST to provide focus and clarity to its efforts and derive and tie together future strategies specific to learning, technology, and more. From this statement, we derived four key areas requiring our continued and explicit focus to achieve this goal:

• People: Ensure we attract, retain, and incentivize the right people (staff, leaders, and volunteers).

• Products: Foster an environment of innovation and product development resulting in overall revenue growth, as well as revenue from new products and services.

• Education: Ensure that CHEST education products and services are robust, differentiated, and scalable..

• Growth: Meet or exceed revenue and margin targets.

As long as the mission and strategy of the organization does not deviate, these goals should not change. However, how we go about executing on achieving these goals each year will depend on the context of our environment and be shaped by the specific initiatives planned affecting our People, Products, Education, and building toward Growth. This consistency is important to sustain a vibrant, aligned, and productive organization.

Beyond this groundwork, I also would like to list a series of things that, together, CHEST accomplished over the last year.

• Reviewed existing contracts and, where appropriate, renegotiated major contracts to ensure terms more favorable for CHEST.
• Hired and on-boarded a Chief Learning Officer to place greater emphasis on expanding CHEST educational programs. Analyzed current educational products and have begun repositioning our educational efforts to better serve our learners.
• Refined the one CHEST concept, realigned responsibilities throughout the organization in general, and the CHEST Foundation, in particular, to enhance resource readiness and productivity. Clarified relationship with industry by continuing to implement our Industry Partnership Guidelines and streamline efforts with our partners.
• Continued rollout and execution of our international event strategy. Successfully developed and held a program for CHEST Congress 2020 Italy with our CHEST Italian Delegation, in a virtual format, due to COVID, while enabling us to build momentum for a rescheduled meeting in 2021. We had over 2,000 virtual registrants from over 100 countries, and there was a thank you given to all attendees by Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to start off the program – what a success!
• Accelerated our digital transformation with an educational focus on virtual Board Review, CHEST 2020 Annual Meeting, online simulation.
• Forecasting strong financial outlook and improving financial reporting for FY19-20. Successful 2019 annual meeting:

o Total attendance 8,593—the largest attendance to date.

o Simulation Session Registration 979

o Exhibiting companies 160 SOLD OUT

o CHEST Annual Meeting 2019 delivered largest number of APPs and fellows attending in the last 5 years.

• Reintroduced CHEST into the advocacy and health policy arena through the successful acquisition of NAMDRC.

CHEST’s operating financial performance is solid, and well thought out efforts have kept CHEST on a growth trajectory over the last 7 years. During this same period (since 2011/12), our staff headcount has grown from 85 to a projected 121 this year; the new expertise and capabilities we have brought on board, combined with our highly talented and committed staff team, have contributed to this tremendous growth.

Our future is bright. These 2 two years have been very exciting for me both professionally and personally. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with all of you and serve as your CEO/EVP because together, we truly are making a significant difference in moving CHEST forward and crushing lung disease.

I know you are as proud of CHEST’s efforts this year as I am.

Thank you.

Greetings. I hope that you are well and are enjoying the summer as best you can during these challenging times. Since the “CHEST year” has drawn to a close recently, I would like to offer my reflections, which were recently shared with the Board of Regents, as well as a glimpse of what is ahead for CHEST. There is just so much great work I want to share.

This past year has posed a number of challenges. COVID-19 has caused us to interact differently on both a social and a business level. CHEST Headquarters has been closed, and we have not had a live-learning course for more than 4 months. But our work has not faltered. We have been extremely productive during this period and have once again demonstrated our resiliency and innovative spirit; in our vernacular, we “Crushed It.”

While COVID-19 has presented us with a number of obstacles, it has presented us with a number of opportunities, and we have taken advantage of them. During this pandemic, CHEST has truly demonstrated its ability to provide a connection at a critical time, giving this phrase new meaning and urgency. We have created a new resource center for clinicians, developed patient education and awareness campaigns to support the public through this crisis, launched a webinar series, developed scientific guidance statements, and more. At the same time, we have invested in our technology and educational infrastructure to grow our capabilities and position CHEST for long-term success.

Prior to COVID-19, we spent a significant amount of time among the CHEST staff, Presidents, and Boards drafting and reviewing a concise strategy statement for CHEST to provide focus and clarity to its efforts and derive and tie together future strategies specific to learning, technology, and more. From this statement, we derived four key areas requiring our continued and explicit focus to achieve this goal:

• People: Ensure we attract, retain, and incentivize the right people (staff, leaders, and volunteers).

• Products: Foster an environment of innovation and product development resulting in overall revenue growth, as well as revenue from new products and services.

• Education: Ensure that CHEST education products and services are robust, differentiated, and scalable..

• Growth: Meet or exceed revenue and margin targets.

As long as the mission and strategy of the organization does not deviate, these goals should not change. However, how we go about executing on achieving these goals each year will depend on the context of our environment and be shaped by the specific initiatives planned affecting our People, Products, Education, and building toward Growth. This consistency is important to sustain a vibrant, aligned, and productive organization.

Beyond this groundwork, I also would like to list a series of things that, together, CHEST accomplished over the last year.

• Reviewed existing contracts and, where appropriate, renegotiated major contracts to ensure terms more favorable for CHEST.
• Hired and on-boarded a Chief Learning Officer to place greater emphasis on expanding CHEST educational programs. Analyzed current educational products and have begun repositioning our educational efforts to better serve our learners.
• Refined the one CHEST concept, realigned responsibilities throughout the organization in general, and the CHEST Foundation, in particular, to enhance resource readiness and productivity. Clarified relationship with industry by continuing to implement our Industry Partnership Guidelines and streamline efforts with our partners.
• Continued rollout and execution of our international event strategy. Successfully developed and held a program for CHEST Congress 2020 Italy with our CHEST Italian Delegation, in a virtual format, due to COVID, while enabling us to build momentum for a rescheduled meeting in 2021. We had over 2,000 virtual registrants from over 100 countries, and there was a thank you given to all attendees by Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to start off the program – what a success!
• Accelerated our digital transformation with an educational focus on virtual Board Review, CHEST 2020 Annual Meeting, online simulation.
• Forecasting strong financial outlook and improving financial reporting for FY19-20. Successful 2019 annual meeting:

o Total attendance 8,593—the largest attendance to date.

o Simulation Session Registration 979

o Exhibiting companies 160 SOLD OUT

o CHEST Annual Meeting 2019 delivered largest number of APPs and fellows attending in the last 5 years.

• Reintroduced CHEST into the advocacy and health policy arena through the successful acquisition of NAMDRC.

CHEST’s operating financial performance is solid, and well thought out efforts have kept CHEST on a growth trajectory over the last 7 years. During this same period (since 2011/12), our staff headcount has grown from 85 to a projected 121 this year; the new expertise and capabilities we have brought on board, combined with our highly talented and committed staff team, have contributed to this tremendous growth.

Our future is bright. These 2 two years have been very exciting for me both professionally and personally. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with all of you and serve as your CEO/EVP because together, we truly are making a significant difference in moving CHEST forward and crushing lung disease.

I know you are as proud of CHEST’s efforts this year as I am.

Thank you.

Greetings. I hope that you are well and are enjoying the summer as best you can during these challenging times. Since the “CHEST year” has drawn to a close recently, I would like to offer my reflections, which were recently shared with the Board of Regents, as well as a glimpse of what is ahead for CHEST. There is just so much great work I want to share.

This past year has posed a number of challenges. COVID-19 has caused us to interact differently on both a social and a business level. CHEST Headquarters has been closed, and we have not had a live-learning course for more than 4 months. But our work has not faltered. We have been extremely productive during this period and have once again demonstrated our resiliency and innovative spirit; in our vernacular, we “Crushed It.”

While COVID-19 has presented us with a number of obstacles, it has presented us with a number of opportunities, and we have taken advantage of them. During this pandemic, CHEST has truly demonstrated its ability to provide a connection at a critical time, giving this phrase new meaning and urgency. We have created a new resource center for clinicians, developed patient education and awareness campaigns to support the public through this crisis, launched a webinar series, developed scientific guidance statements, and more. At the same time, we have invested in our technology and educational infrastructure to grow our capabilities and position CHEST for long-term success.

Prior to COVID-19, we spent a significant amount of time among the CHEST staff, Presidents, and Boards drafting and reviewing a concise strategy statement for CHEST to provide focus and clarity to its efforts and derive and tie together future strategies specific to learning, technology, and more. From this statement, we derived four key areas requiring our continued and explicit focus to achieve this goal:

• People: Ensure we attract, retain, and incentivize the right people (staff, leaders, and volunteers).

• Products: Foster an environment of innovation and product development resulting in overall revenue growth, as well as revenue from new products and services.

• Education: Ensure that CHEST education products and services are robust, differentiated, and scalable..

• Growth: Meet or exceed revenue and margin targets.

As long as the mission and strategy of the organization does not deviate, these goals should not change. However, how we go about executing on achieving these goals each year will depend on the context of our environment and be shaped by the specific initiatives planned affecting our People, Products, Education, and building toward Growth. This consistency is important to sustain a vibrant, aligned, and productive organization.

Beyond this groundwork, I also would like to list a series of things that, together, CHEST accomplished over the last year.

• Reviewed existing contracts and, where appropriate, renegotiated major contracts to ensure terms more favorable for CHEST.
• Hired and on-boarded a Chief Learning Officer to place greater emphasis on expanding CHEST educational programs. Analyzed current educational products and have begun repositioning our educational efforts to better serve our learners.
• Refined the one CHEST concept, realigned responsibilities throughout the organization in general, and the CHEST Foundation, in particular, to enhance resource readiness and productivity. Clarified relationship with industry by continuing to implement our Industry Partnership Guidelines and streamline efforts with our partners.
• Continued rollout and execution of our international event strategy. Successfully developed and held a program for CHEST Congress 2020 Italy with our CHEST Italian Delegation, in a virtual format, due to COVID, while enabling us to build momentum for a rescheduled meeting in 2021. We had over 2,000 virtual registrants from over 100 countries, and there was a thank you given to all attendees by Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to start off the program – what a success!
• Accelerated our digital transformation with an educational focus on virtual Board Review, CHEST 2020 Annual Meeting, online simulation.
• Forecasting strong financial outlook and improving financial reporting for FY19-20. Successful 2019 annual meeting:

o Total attendance 8,593—the largest attendance to date.

o Simulation Session Registration 979

o Exhibiting companies 160 SOLD OUT

o CHEST Annual Meeting 2019 delivered largest number of APPs and fellows attending in the last 5 years.

• Reintroduced CHEST into the advocacy and health policy arena through the successful acquisition of NAMDRC.

CHEST’s operating financial performance is solid, and well thought out efforts have kept CHEST on a growth trajectory over the last 7 years. During this same period (since 2011/12), our staff headcount has grown from 85 to a projected 121 this year; the new expertise and capabilities we have brought on board, combined with our highly talented and committed staff team, have contributed to this tremendous growth.

Our future is bright. These 2 two years have been very exciting for me both professionally and personally. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with all of you and serve as your CEO/EVP because together, we truly are making a significant difference in moving CHEST forward and crushing lung disease.

I know you are as proud of CHEST’s efforts this year as I am.

Thank you.

As you know, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused immense strain on global health systems. With our membership at the epicenter, many of you have experienced firsthand the shortages that result from a surging patient population – lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), access to ventilators, and increasing demand for more qualified health-care workers needed on the front lines to treat and care for patients. As the staff leader of your organization, I feel an immense responsibility to support our community through this crisis.

In recent weeks, CHEST petitioned the federal and local governments on several issues, advocating for tax relief for COVID responders, expansion of liability protections, and the development of a provider relief fund. We will continue to collaborate with other societies and push such efforts. However, we also recognize an obligation to make a more tangible, real-time difference in the circumstances of our membership and the lives of the patients you are working to save.

An opportunity arose when we received a call from Dr. Doreen Addrizzo-Harris, Immediate Past President of the CHEST Foundation and Professor of Medicine at NYU Langone Health. In late March, New York City was seeing an uptick in patients with confirmed COVID infection in critical condition that was escalating by the day. The situation was beginning to resemble the trajectory of hotspots in Wuhan, China and Italy, and it was already taking a toll on health-care teams. Dr. Adrizzo-Harris asked whether there was any way to leverage the strength of the CHEST community to provide help. Already, our headquarters team had received unsolicited offers to travel to areas in need from our members. The question was how could we more proactively identify such willing and able clinicians.

We quickly drew upon our existing CHEST Analytics platform to target physicians outside New York City who might be well-positioned to travel. We harnessed our communication channels to get the word out. The response was immediate, with more than 100 people completing applications to join forces with their colleagues in New York. In the first 10 days of recruitment efforts, we added an additional 250 interested volunteers to the system. The positive response from members showed both the willingness of qualified medical staff to assist on the front lines but also highlighted deficiencies in other registration systems overwhelmed with requests in the face of this pandemic. Finding certified pulmonary and critical care physicians who are willing to step in where they are needed is time- and labor-intensive and detracts from health systems’ ability to focus on care. Watching the projections in other regions, we recognized other areas may soon need this same help.

With this in mind, CHEST approached ATS and our long-time partner PA Consulting to help us address the problem on a national scale. We felt we had the resources to leverage our databases and our analytic tools to create a more efficient process that would put physicians in hospitals where they could do the most good more efficiently. We knew that if we could apply our knowledge and deploy our heroic members, we could develop a solution that could save lives and relieve frontline clinicians. By leveraging the existing CHEST Analytics platform, the team created a solution that can be used by provider institutions, government agencies, and willing clinicians to quickly and effectively provide care where it is needed most. The team has engineered the solution to be scalable nationally and expandable to other critical care specialties (eg, anesthesia, emergency, nursing, respiratory therapy).

The Clinician Matching Network formally launched on April 14, 2020. It provides a two-way input that accepts sign up from individual clinicians and gathers needs and requirements from hospital systems, connecting health-care providers with the systems most in need of the specific support they are equipped to provide. We believe this has the potential to enable us to move ahead of the curve of the crisis.

I am very proud of the teams that lead this effort and have gained a greater appreciation of how CHEST, in partnership with other medical societies, can fully utilize data and analytics toward implementing public health solutions. The design and development of the Clinician Matching Network was accomplished in less than a week, leveraging a methodology that will enable the team to continuously improve and iterate through weekly releases, adding functionality quickly as the pandemic evolves.

In the weeks ahead, communications will be distributed to hospitals and hospital systems to help identify their staffing needs, encourage them to input their needs into the Clinician Matching Network, and expand the clinician-to-hospital matching effort. We aim to increase the number of collaborationg associations to grow the pool of clinicians who can be deployed to areas in need.

Please visit www.chestnet.org/clinician-matching to learn more, sign up to serve, tell us about the needs of your institution, or collaborate toward this cause.

As you know, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused immense strain on global health systems. With our membership at the epicenter, many of you have experienced firsthand the shortages that result from a surging patient population – lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), access to ventilators, and increasing demand for more qualified health-care workers needed on the front lines to treat and care for patients. As the staff leader of your organization, I feel an immense responsibility to support our community through this crisis.

In recent weeks, CHEST petitioned the federal and local governments on several issues, advocating for tax relief for COVID responders, expansion of liability protections, and the development of a provider relief fund. We will continue to collaborate with other societies and push such efforts. However, we also recognize an obligation to make a more tangible, real-time difference in the circumstances of our membership and the lives of the patients you are working to save.

An opportunity arose when we received a call from Dr. Doreen Addrizzo-Harris, Immediate Past President of the CHEST Foundation and Professor of Medicine at NYU Langone Health. In late March, New York City was seeing an uptick in patients with confirmed COVID infection in critical condition that was escalating by the day. The situation was beginning to resemble the trajectory of hotspots in Wuhan, China and Italy, and it was already taking a toll on health-care teams. Dr. Adrizzo-Harris asked whether there was any way to leverage the strength of the CHEST community to provide help. Already, our headquarters team had received unsolicited offers to travel to areas in need from our members. The question was how could we more proactively identify such willing and able clinicians.

We quickly drew upon our existing CHEST Analytics platform to target physicians outside New York City who might be well-positioned to travel. We harnessed our communication channels to get the word out. The response was immediate, with more than 100 people completing applications to join forces with their colleagues in New York. In the first 10 days of recruitment efforts, we added an additional 250 interested volunteers to the system. The positive response from members showed both the willingness of qualified medical staff to assist on the front lines but also highlighted deficiencies in other registration systems overwhelmed with requests in the face of this pandemic. Finding certified pulmonary and critical care physicians who are willing to step in where they are needed is time- and labor-intensive and detracts from health systems’ ability to focus on care. Watching the projections in other regions, we recognized other areas may soon need this same help.

With this in mind, CHEST approached ATS and our long-time partner PA Consulting to help us address the problem on a national scale. We felt we had the resources to leverage our databases and our analytic tools to create a more efficient process that would put physicians in hospitals where they could do the most good more efficiently. We knew that if we could apply our knowledge and deploy our heroic members, we could develop a solution that could save lives and relieve frontline clinicians. By leveraging the existing CHEST Analytics platform, the team created a solution that can be used by provider institutions, government agencies, and willing clinicians to quickly and effectively provide care where it is needed most. The team has engineered the solution to be scalable nationally and expandable to other critical care specialties (eg, anesthesia, emergency, nursing, respiratory therapy).

The Clinician Matching Network formally launched on April 14, 2020. It provides a two-way input that accepts sign up from individual clinicians and gathers needs and requirements from hospital systems, connecting health-care providers with the systems most in need of the specific support they are equipped to provide. We believe this has the potential to enable us to move ahead of the curve of the crisis.

I am very proud of the teams that lead this effort and have gained a greater appreciation of how CHEST, in partnership with other medical societies, can fully utilize data and analytics toward implementing public health solutions. The design and development of the Clinician Matching Network was accomplished in less than a week, leveraging a methodology that will enable the team to continuously improve and iterate through weekly releases, adding functionality quickly as the pandemic evolves.

In the weeks ahead, communications will be distributed to hospitals and hospital systems to help identify their staffing needs, encourage them to input their needs into the Clinician Matching Network, and expand the clinician-to-hospital matching effort. We aim to increase the number of collaborationg associations to grow the pool of clinicians who can be deployed to areas in need.

Please visit www.chestnet.org/clinician-matching to learn more, sign up to serve, tell us about the needs of your institution, or collaborate toward this cause.

As you know, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused immense strain on global health systems. With our membership at the epicenter, many of you have experienced firsthand the shortages that result from a surging patient population – lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), access to ventilators, and increasing demand for more qualified health-care workers needed on the front lines to treat and care for patients. As the staff leader of your organization, I feel an immense responsibility to support our community through this crisis.

In recent weeks, CHEST petitioned the federal and local governments on several issues, advocating for tax relief for COVID responders, expansion of liability protections, and the development of a provider relief fund. We will continue to collaborate with other societies and push such efforts. However, we also recognize an obligation to make a more tangible, real-time difference in the circumstances of our membership and the lives of the patients you are working to save.

An opportunity arose when we received a call from Dr. Doreen Addrizzo-Harris, Immediate Past President of the CHEST Foundation and Professor of Medicine at NYU Langone Health. In late March, New York City was seeing an uptick in patients with confirmed COVID infection in critical condition that was escalating by the day. The situation was beginning to resemble the trajectory of hotspots in Wuhan, China and Italy, and it was already taking a toll on health-care teams. Dr. Adrizzo-Harris asked whether there was any way to leverage the strength of the CHEST community to provide help. Already, our headquarters team had received unsolicited offers to travel to areas in need from our members. The question was how could we more proactively identify such willing and able clinicians.

We quickly drew upon our existing CHEST Analytics platform to target physicians outside New York City who might be well-positioned to travel. We harnessed our communication channels to get the word out. The response was immediate, with more than 100 people completing applications to join forces with their colleagues in New York. In the first 10 days of recruitment efforts, we added an additional 250 interested volunteers to the system. The positive response from members showed both the willingness of qualified medical staff to assist on the front lines but also highlighted deficiencies in other registration systems overwhelmed with requests in the face of this pandemic. Finding certified pulmonary and critical care physicians who are willing to step in where they are needed is time- and labor-intensive and detracts from health systems’ ability to focus on care. Watching the projections in other regions, we recognized other areas may soon need this same help.

With this in mind, CHEST approached ATS and our long-time partner PA Consulting to help us address the problem on a national scale. We felt we had the resources to leverage our databases and our analytic tools to create a more efficient process that would put physicians in hospitals where they could do the most good more efficiently. We knew that if we could apply our knowledge and deploy our heroic members, we could develop a solution that could save lives and relieve frontline clinicians. By leveraging the existing CHEST Analytics platform, the team created a solution that can be used by provider institutions, government agencies, and willing clinicians to quickly and effectively provide care where it is needed most. The team has engineered the solution to be scalable nationally and expandable to other critical care specialties (eg, anesthesia, emergency, nursing, respiratory therapy).

The Clinician Matching Network formally launched on April 14, 2020. It provides a two-way input that accepts sign up from individual clinicians and gathers needs and requirements from hospital systems, connecting health-care providers with the systems most in need of the specific support they are equipped to provide. We believe this has the potential to enable us to move ahead of the curve of the crisis.

I am very proud of the teams that lead this effort and have gained a greater appreciation of how CHEST, in partnership with other medical societies, can fully utilize data and analytics toward implementing public health solutions. The design and development of the Clinician Matching Network was accomplished in less than a week, leveraging a methodology that will enable the team to continuously improve and iterate through weekly releases, adding functionality quickly as the pandemic evolves.

In the weeks ahead, communications will be distributed to hospitals and hospital systems to help identify their staffing needs, encourage them to input their needs into the Clinician Matching Network, and expand the clinician-to-hospital matching effort. We aim to increase the number of collaborationg associations to grow the pool of clinicians who can be deployed to areas in need.

Please visit www.chestnet.org/clinician-matching to learn more, sign up to serve, tell us about the needs of your institution, or collaborate toward this cause.