Published: January 17, 2023

Expanding and Enhancing Your Bulletin Content in 2023

As we strive for enhanced content delivery to members, we continue our other ongoing efforts in the advocacy realm for you, your practice, and your patients.


James C. Denneny III, MD AAO-HNS/F Executive Vice President and CEOJames C. Denneny III, MD
AAO-HNS/F Executive Vice President and CEO
Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Academy’s next-generation digital version of the Bulletin. This marks the final stage of a thoughtful, orderly transition from a once upon a time print-only era of the Bulletin to the more recent print and digital versions and now to the completely digital format debuting with this February 2023 issue.

The “new” Bulletin will be available for online perusal and will have search functions to locate past contributions. The digital format will allow more immediate transmission of breaking news and coverage of all subject matter in greater depth using additional text along with multimedia such as podcasts and video presentations. We will continue to offer our classified ads section that will also offer multimedia options.

There will be two offerings monthly beginning with the Bulletin Electronic Table of Contents (eTOC) delivered via email on the first Monday of the month followed by the Bulletin EXTRA delivered via email on the third Monday of the month (subject to change based on holidays). The EXTRA will supplement the expanded content in the eTOC with special features and breaking news coverage.

The Bulletin’s additional capacity will allow us to accommodate more content submitted from committees, sections, specialty societies, partner organizations, and our members. We will also seek expanded contributions from our international members and colleagues through our International Corresponding Societies and their members. We are planning to add additional new content and features and would appreciate our readers thoughts on the subject matters you would like covered in the Bulletin. I am very excited about the first of these new features, which will be a monthly invited column from our membership about topics you will select. This feature will assist us in understanding the pulse and needs of our membership. To share your ideas about this new feature concept, please contact bulletin@entnet.org.

In preparation for maximizing the multimedia contributions to the Bulletin as well as other arms of our communications and education strategic plans and still operate within the capacity of our staff to produce the highest quality podcasts, videos, and webinars, our Communications team is preparing a formal set of policies that will govern the selection and production of the various tools mentioned above. These policies will be transparent and designed to give all equal opportunity to participate while following strategic messaging and maintaining a diverse portfolio of information covering the breadth of our specialty and Academy activities. This work will result in a well-defined process for submission and selection of content for the Bulletin and other social media outlets for both our membership and the public.

The Bulletin owes its existence and continual advancement during its decades of existence to many dedicated staff and member contributors who produce the high quality, relevant content that you, our readers, rely on and enjoy. The hundreds of pages of information have been edited, graphics developed, and content ordered, stylized, and assembled using our remarkable in-house talent throughout the Bulletin’s history. I salute and thank all our content contributors and staff in all our business units for the incredible work they have done month after month to produce this publication and planning for continual improvement as we move into this next phase. It has been a great privilege and honor to be the editor for the past eight years as well as being one of my favorite aspects and responsibilities of my job. I look forward to the upcoming year of the Bulletin with great anticipation and excitement.

As we strive for enhanced content delivery to members, we continue our other ongoing efforts in the advocacy realm for you, your practice, and your patients. In addition to continuing our quest for stable and adequate funding for the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, we are focused on some emerging issues involving regulatory changes as well as the continued erosion of the physician’s ability to work with their individual patients to determine what the best care for that particular individual is.

Most of you are aware that despite spending an additional $1.7 trillion at the end of 2022, Congress and the Administration failed to provide Part B Medicare funding to completely avoid the negative update for FY 2023. Even if they had provided the resources to produce a neutral conversion factor, there has been no provision for the onward rise in the cost of doing business over the last 25 years. This puts medicine in the unique position of rising costs, many of which are mandated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and no ability to negotiate effectively for appropriate increases in reimbursement while the rest of the healthcare system continues to receive increases to offset these costs. The Federal Trade Commission released information recently that it is considering removing the restrictive covenants from contracts across all industries including medicine. As you are aware, that would significantly alter contractual agreements across all employment models that physicians take part in. Additionally, private payers, specifically United Healthcare, are now telling surgeons the order of treatment that can take place for nasal obstruction without ever seeing the patient. These are just a few of the critical changes that make the practice of medicine more difficult that we are addressing and that you will be hearing more about in the upcoming months.

I hope you will enjoy the new Bulletin format and look forward to hearing your feedback at bulletin@entnet.org so we can make this the best product possible that addresses your areas of need and interest and provides value to you in your everyday practice.