New Beginnings: Refining and Enhancing Our True North

Troy D. Woodard, MD
AAO-HNS/F PresidentJanuary marks a season of new beginnings. It’s a time when many reflect on the past year, create New Year’s resolutions, and reset our personal and professional aspirations. Often, these resolutions are a commitment to growth and improvement. Similarly, organizations also seize this opportunity to recalibrate and plan for the future. For the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and its Foundation (AAO-HNS/F), 2025 is poised to be such a year. This year is pivotal because one of our many priorities is to review, refine, and enhance the AAO-HNS/F Strategic Plan. As you all know and experience every day, healthcare is ever-evolving, and an updated Strategic Plan is crucial to ensuring that our Academy is engaging members and the global otolaryngology community with the programs and services that meet the needs of our members for your practices and your patients today, tomorrow, and into the future.

Generally, a strategic plan serves as the guideline or map that organizations use to chart a course toward its goal. Strategic plans are tools that aid in defining direction, prioritizing efforts, and realigning one’s resources to maintain relevance to the constituency the organization serves.  Equally importantly, it is also a living document that must evolve with the changing landscape in which an organization operates.

Specifically, to the Academy, it is you, our members, who are at the heart of the strategic plan.

As such, it is important that our guide map reflect the challenges and opportunities within the healthcare landscape that you face every day, so that our efforts and impact are relevant and beneficial to you in your practice, our remarkable specialty, and the care of our patients.

The process of revising the strategic plan started in the fall of 2024 and requires time, effort, varying diverse perspectives, and collaboration. It is essential that we engage stakeholders at every level and invite open and honest feedback. As we continue to embark on this endeavor, we have committed to engaging our members in meaningful dialogue. Whether you are an academic or private practice surgeon, a trainee, or a retired otolaryngologist, your perspective matters. Through surveys, focus groups, and discussions, we are gathering the insights necessary to shape a strategic plan that reflects the collective vision of our Academy.

A survey was distributed in early December to all members seeking feedback on several areas impacting you, the specialty, and the current and future state of healthcare in general. We will be utilizing that feedback in an in-person strategic planning session January 31–February 1. We appreciate the time of those who completed it and shared your thoughts for our future.

Following this session, a plan will be drafted and presented to your Boards of Directors for review and approval. The goal is to share the final, approved Strategic Plan in February so be on the lookout for more in OTO News and the Bulletin, as well as on our social media channels.

As we look to 2025 and beyond, it will be our strategic plan that will continue to serve as our compass, guiding the Academy to achieve our mission, foster growth, support members through relevant programming, advance clinical care, and influence public policy and legislative actions.  Together, we can ensure that AAO-HNS/F continues to thrive as a leader in otolaryngology and healthcare and remains prepared to meet the challenges and opportunities of the future. Even more so, we want the Academy to continue to be your professional home—a reliable source for what you need to succeed in your practice and impact your communities through quality patient care.

This January, as we all reflect on new beginnings and set our resolutions, please know that your Academy and Academy leadership is committed to the success of our strategic planning process because we hold you, our members, at the heart of it all. With your input and ongoing dedication to the Academy, specialty, and patient care, 2025 will not only mark a milestone in our journey but also set the stage for a stronger, more vibrant future for our life’s work in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery.