A message from the AAOA President, Kevin Wilson, MD, FAAOA

It is with pleasure that I welcome you to a new year with the AAOA. We experienced a fantastic Annual Meeting in Oceanside, CA, in November. Despite the heavy rains outside that weekend, we were able to learn and share best practices around practice management challenges and opportunities, billing and coding updates, the latest in in-office rhinology (including posterior nasal nerve ablation technologies, sinus and nasal balloon dilation, nasal valve treatments, etc.), and allergy conundrums and innovations. We welcomed 78 residents to participate in the general meeting as well as in their own mini allergy course. It was well-received and exceeded our expectations for its first year. We hope to expand it next year. There was also a robust exhibit hall to help attendees with their allergy, rhinology, practice management, and pharmacologic needs. And all this as an included membership benefit!

Now, as I take my turn at the helm of this organization, I plan to continue to build on the efforts of all the leaders who have led before me. We continue to have three areas of focus for the AAOA: membership, engagement, and finances. Our membership numbers are up, thanks in large part to great efforts on outreach to residents. Our membership this year saw a 24% increase from 2024 and a 45% increase from 2023. By focusing our efforts on the residents and new graduates, we can demonstrate to them how allergy can be an important component of a thriving ENT practice. We hope that they, in turn, will contribute to our field and our organization.

Our finances continue to be solid. We saw a 1% growth in revenue from 2024 and a 6% increase from 2023. Additionally, our foundation investments continue to perform well which allows us to keep funding research grants, resident travel grants, and additional initiatives that the board identifies for the benefit of our membership.

The third focus, engagement, has been an area that needs more focus. Like many medical associations, we have seen meeting attendance decline over the past few years. The reasons are likely varied and include decreasing CME budgets; increasing time pressures which make taking time to attend a meeting more difficult; and changing demographics and learning needs of our younger members. One of our main focuses this year will be to work to understand how our members wish to engage with the AAOA and adapt our offerings and benefits to those needs. This may mean more digital content options in shorter formats that can be listened to on a commute. It may mean converting some of our renowned educational content into more bite-sized pieces to adapt to changing learning styles. As we evaluate our programs, we plan to engage two groups who are the fastest-growing demographics of our membership: residents and advanced practice providers (APPs). We are working to increase their voices in our committees and with our board.

We are always looking for your input on how we can better meet your needs in our ever-changing health care environment. If you would like to get involved, please reach out, and we would be happy to connect with you. Looking forward to another great year!