CEO Update, June 2024

Does it seem like everything old is new again? The 70s seem to be back with palazzo and wide leg pants. And the California Wine region is using goats to help prevent future fires by eating back the grass and undergrowth.

Here at AAOA we are challenging our traditions as well.  Over the past few years, we have found new ways to help our members engage.  By expanding the Basic and Advanced Courses from 3-day live meetings to 90-day hybrid programs, we have given each of you options in how you engage.   There is no one size fits all.  And most of our meeting registrants do not limit themselves to only one form of engagement.  For those just adding allergy or training their staff, the pre-work for both courses offers an opportunity to learn all the core concepts.   The live segment  benefits from both the in-person and virual audience.  Our faculty and staff do a great job of reviewing all the questions posted in the online community on the Whova app.  And the attendees engage with each other.  Peer-to-peer learning offers some great insights from ENTs practicing in similar settings, communities, or adding allergy as a new line of service.

We are also trying some new offerings to help our members.   We keep adding to the podcast library.  Our newest edition is the EGPA series sponsored by GSK. Offering short snippets of information, our podcast series is a great way to stay up-to-date without a huge time commitment.

Another new offering is our Affinity program.  Working with USENT, the new programs offers our  members the opportunity to reduce their overhead and costs in their practice.  While antigen and allergy supplies was the driver for this new member program, USENT has over 38 vendors it works with to help practices gain cost savings. The vendors span clinical and non-clinical services in support of an otolaryngology practice.

To support our courses, we have expanded our content offerings to include our Stacks. Curated from our course curricula, the Stacks help those adding allergy, wanting to explore our busines of medicine content, or onboarding staff.  With time-limited access, the offerings help fill the void between the courses, helping to assure you and your staff have access to the content when you need it.

While we haven’t found a use for goats yet, we are reimaging our programs and offerings to help assure we remain relevant to you and your practice. If you have an idea for a program or a challenge we can help address, please let us know.