Updates from your CHEST Board of Regents

In late January, your Board of Regents met for its first face-to-face quarterly meeting under the leadership of new President Clayton Cowl, MD, MS, FCCP. One of the most valuable aspects of serving on the Board is an opportunity to take an overall look at the direction of the organization. The Board makes a concerted effort not to get too deep into the weeds planning out specific tactics for achieving goals; we have a great many outstanding volunteers serving on dozens of our committees who do an incredible job of making things happen. The Board tries to focus on overall organizational strategy. Are we going in the right direction? Are there opportunities of which we should be taking better advantage? Are there efforts in which we are currently engaged that may not be yielding outcomes as we expected? To better answer these questions, Dr. Cowl and his team asked all members of the Board of Regents and the Strategic Planning Subcommittee members of the Foundation Board of Trustees, as well as senior CHEST staff, to engage in an environmental scan to take an aggressive look at where we are and where we are headed. The output from our first environmental scan is currently being curated into a list of highest priority items that will be shared with the general membership in the coming months.

A review of our accomplishments over the last 6 months came next. Our new Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Robert Musacchio, has superseded all expectations in his first few months in the role. In addition to continuing to push the organization toward the “One CHEST” model by better integrating the Foundation with the College, as well as refining our operating principles in working with industry, Bob is further developing our international reach—exploring collaborations with a number of large international societies and planning meetings abroad later this year (CHEST Congress Thailand and CHEST Regional Congress Athens) and into the next (in Italy, with the regional meeting location to be determined). We are also in the process of recruiting for a new position, Chief Learning Officer, a role that will serve not only to better organize the educational activities of CHEST, but to also serve as a visionary to better imagine what future projects we should be pursuing to be of better service and value to our members.

We took a few moments to recognize the new, incoming Editor in Chief of the journal CHEST®; Peter Mazzone, MD, FCCP, will have some huge shoes to fill in taking the editor’s chair from Richard Irwin, MD, Master FCCP, who has served the journal in this role for more than a decade. Under Dr. Irwin’s leadership, CHEST has been the most-read publication amongst practicing pulmonary specialists; he is also responsible for having launched CHEST’s social media presence, including both video series that integrated directly with the journal (such as Ultrasound Corner) and podcasts. Richard also spoke beautifully about his passion for patient-centered care as a keynote speaker at CHEST 2018. Peter has outlined a number of different areas of focus for the journal in the next year, including putting a high priority on improving the reader experience and crafting an even better web and multimedia presence. We look forward to great things from the journal!

Chris Carroll, MD, FCCP, who chairs CHEST’s Digital Strategy Task Force, presented to the Board on their progress to date. The goal of this group is to evaluate the user experience for CHEST’s content delivery platforms, including the website, apps, and our social media platforms to identify opportunities for improvements that will enable us to better provide our members with on demand, high quality information to improve patient care through a personalized, seamless digital user experience. The team is being co-led by Nicki Augustyn, Senior Vice President for Marketing, Communications, and Publishing, and Ron Moen, Chief Information Officer. We look forward to further updates on this important project.

As I stated in my opening, many of the good things that CHEST does can only happen with the participation of our great members, and so I want to take the time to recognize the NetWorks and everything that they do for the College. In the past year, under the leadership of Council of NetWorks Chairs Hassan Bencheqroun, MD, FCCP, and David Zielinski, MD, FCCP, the NetWorks produced more than 60% of the content at the 2018 CHEST meeting and are actively working on projects ranging from creating educational videos for public consumption to CHEST guidelines proposals and crafting a donor registry for lung transplantation. Our volunteer leaders are our most valuable resource; if you are not currently engaged in the NetWorks, please consider getting involved this spring during the nomination process!

It remains a privilege for the Board to serve this great organization. If you are interested in hearing more, or getting more engaged, please send me an email at [email protected].

David A. Schulman, MD, FCCP

In late January, your Board of Regents met for its first face-to-face quarterly meeting under the leadership of new President Clayton Cowl, MD, MS, FCCP. One of the most valuable aspects of serving on the Board is an opportunity to take an overall look at the direction of the organization. The Board makes a concerted effort not to get too deep into the weeds planning out specific tactics for achieving goals; we have a great many outstanding volunteers serving on dozens of our committees who do an incredible job of making things happen. The Board tries to focus on overall organizational strategy. Are we going in the right direction? Are there opportunities of which we should be taking better advantage? Are there efforts in which we are currently engaged that may not be yielding outcomes as we expected? To better answer these questions, Dr. Cowl and his team asked all members of the Board of Regents and the Strategic Planning Subcommittee members of the Foundation Board of Trustees, as well as senior CHEST staff, to engage in an environmental scan to take an aggressive look at where we are and where we are headed. The output from our first environmental scan is currently being curated into a list of highest priority items that will be shared with the general membership in the coming months.

A review of our accomplishments over the last 6 months came next. Our new Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Robert Musacchio, has superseded all expectations in his first few months in the role. In addition to continuing to push the organization toward the “One CHEST” model by better integrating the Foundation with the College, as well as refining our operating principles in working with industry, Bob is further developing our international reach—exploring collaborations with a number of large international societies and planning meetings abroad later this year (CHEST Congress Thailand and CHEST Regional Congress Athens) and into the next (in Italy, with the regional meeting location to be determined). We are also in the process of recruiting for a new position, Chief Learning Officer, a role that will serve not only to better organize the educational activities of CHEST, but to also serve as a visionary to better imagine what future projects we should be pursuing to be of better service and value to our members.

We took a few moments to recognize the new, incoming Editor in Chief of the journal CHEST®; Peter Mazzone, MD, FCCP, will have some huge shoes to fill in taking the editor’s chair from Richard Irwin, MD, Master FCCP, who has served the journal in this role for more than a decade. Under Dr. Irwin’s leadership, CHEST has been the most-read publication amongst practicing pulmonary specialists; he is also responsible for having launched CHEST’s social media presence, including both video series that integrated directly with the journal (such as Ultrasound Corner) and podcasts. Richard also spoke beautifully about his passion for patient-centered care as a keynote speaker at CHEST 2018. Peter has outlined a number of different areas of focus for the journal in the next year, including putting a high priority on improving the reader experience and crafting an even better web and multimedia presence. We look forward to great things from the journal!

Chris Carroll, MD, FCCP, who chairs CHEST’s Digital Strategy Task Force, presented to the Board on their progress to date. The goal of this group is to evaluate the user experience for CHEST’s content delivery platforms, including the website, apps, and our social media platforms to identify opportunities for improvements that will enable us to better provide our members with on demand, high quality information to improve patient care through a personalized, seamless digital user experience. The team is being co-led by Nicki Augustyn, Senior Vice President for Marketing, Communications, and Publishing, and Ron Moen, Chief Information Officer. We look forward to further updates on this important project.

As I stated in my opening, many of the good things that CHEST does can only happen with the participation of our great members, and so I want to take the time to recognize the NetWorks and everything that they do for the College. In the past year, under the leadership of Council of NetWorks Chairs Hassan Bencheqroun, MD, FCCP, and David Zielinski, MD, FCCP, the NetWorks produced more than 60% of the content at the 2018 CHEST meeting and are actively working on projects ranging from creating educational videos for public consumption to CHEST guidelines proposals and crafting a donor registry for lung transplantation. Our volunteer leaders are our most valuable resource; if you are not currently engaged in the NetWorks, please consider getting involved this spring during the nomination process!

It remains a privilege for the Board to serve this great organization. If you are interested in hearing more, or getting more engaged, please send me an email at [email protected].

David A. Schulman, MD, FCCP

In late January, your Board of Regents met for its first face-to-face quarterly meeting under the leadership of new President Clayton Cowl, MD, MS, FCCP. One of the most valuable aspects of serving on the Board is an opportunity to take an overall look at the direction of the organization. The Board makes a concerted effort not to get too deep into the weeds planning out specific tactics for achieving goals; we have a great many outstanding volunteers serving on dozens of our committees who do an incredible job of making things happen. The Board tries to focus on overall organizational strategy. Are we going in the right direction? Are there opportunities of which we should be taking better advantage? Are there efforts in which we are currently engaged that may not be yielding outcomes as we expected? To better answer these questions, Dr. Cowl and his team asked all members of the Board of Regents and the Strategic Planning Subcommittee members of the Foundation Board of Trustees, as well as senior CHEST staff, to engage in an environmental scan to take an aggressive look at where we are and where we are headed. The output from our first environmental scan is currently being curated into a list of highest priority items that will be shared with the general membership in the coming months.

A review of our accomplishments over the last 6 months came next. Our new Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Robert Musacchio, has superseded all expectations in his first few months in the role. In addition to continuing to push the organization toward the “One CHEST” model by better integrating the Foundation with the College, as well as refining our operating principles in working with industry, Bob is further developing our international reach—exploring collaborations with a number of large international societies and planning meetings abroad later this year (CHEST Congress Thailand and CHEST Regional Congress Athens) and into the next (in Italy, with the regional meeting location to be determined). We are also in the process of recruiting for a new position, Chief Learning Officer, a role that will serve not only to better organize the educational activities of CHEST, but to also serve as a visionary to better imagine what future projects we should be pursuing to be of better service and value to our members.

We took a few moments to recognize the new, incoming Editor in Chief of the journal CHEST®; Peter Mazzone, MD, FCCP, will have some huge shoes to fill in taking the editor’s chair from Richard Irwin, MD, Master FCCP, who has served the journal in this role for more than a decade. Under Dr. Irwin’s leadership, CHEST has been the most-read publication amongst practicing pulmonary specialists; he is also responsible for having launched CHEST’s social media presence, including both video series that integrated directly with the journal (such as Ultrasound Corner) and podcasts. Richard also spoke beautifully about his passion for patient-centered care as a keynote speaker at CHEST 2018. Peter has outlined a number of different areas of focus for the journal in the next year, including putting a high priority on improving the reader experience and crafting an even better web and multimedia presence. We look forward to great things from the journal!

Chris Carroll, MD, FCCP, who chairs CHEST’s Digital Strategy Task Force, presented to the Board on their progress to date. The goal of this group is to evaluate the user experience for CHEST’s content delivery platforms, including the website, apps, and our social media platforms to identify opportunities for improvements that will enable us to better provide our members with on demand, high quality information to improve patient care through a personalized, seamless digital user experience. The team is being co-led by Nicki Augustyn, Senior Vice President for Marketing, Communications, and Publishing, and Ron Moen, Chief Information Officer. We look forward to further updates on this important project.

As I stated in my opening, many of the good things that CHEST does can only happen with the participation of our great members, and so I want to take the time to recognize the NetWorks and everything that they do for the College. In the past year, under the leadership of Council of NetWorks Chairs Hassan Bencheqroun, MD, FCCP, and David Zielinski, MD, FCCP, the NetWorks produced more than 60% of the content at the 2018 CHEST meeting and are actively working on projects ranging from creating educational videos for public consumption to CHEST guidelines proposals and crafting a donor registry for lung transplantation. Our volunteer leaders are our most valuable resource; if you are not currently engaged in the NetWorks, please consider getting involved this spring during the nomination process!

It remains a privilege for the Board to serve this great organization. If you are interested in hearing more, or getting more engaged, please send me an email at [email protected].

David A. Schulman, MD, FCCP