A Renewed Commitment to Education
This January issue of the Bulletin offers a bonus. Take note of the latest opportunities from the Academy’s Foundation for professional development. You likely realize what we often referred to as CME in the past has changed dramatically during the last five years, broadening the once static formula of pedagogic learning to a full program for professional development and performance improvement. This expanded approach to ongoing learning adds not just knowledge, but quality to the learning environment. The goal of this focus shift is to keep us up to date, and, more importantly, to make us better physicians and improve patient care. To give context to the array of options in this year’s “resources publication,” Sonya Malekzadeh, MD, and the Education Steering Committee contributed a feature section to this Bulletin that details the program’s growth. The need to assess the gaps in otolaryngology education practice that began in earnest in 2012 examined current products and programs through a comprehensive needs assessment and SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, threats) analysis. This past year, it included the robust whole-membership education survey that is expected to become a biannual event. Lastly, each education resource was specifically evaluated by individuals who had directly participated in the activity, rolling Annual Meeting programming into this study. It considered critical course topics, education design and format, and types of media best used to educate the members. Simply put, the objectives of the combined research efforts were to: Develop an action plan to improve the member’s education experience. Design education activities that meet the clinical needs of our members. Increase member involvement in, and satisfaction with, education offerings. Enhance member knowledge, competence, and skill in their practice of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery. This comprehensive program assessment and program revision is grounded in the tradition of the Academy’s Foundation history. For more than 80 years, our members have worked to benefit the ongoing professionalism of its members. The AAO-HNSF’s Commitment to Education Around 1931, our Academy began developing summaries from the courses given during its annual meetings. These proved to be popular with attendees and then led to the publication of monographs and atlases. Both the monographs and the atlases were revised two more times in the following years, establishing their ongoing value. In 1938, as suggested in Member Harry Gradle, MD’s “stop-gap” plan for inadequate instruction to residents, packages of such manuals and atlases were proposed in the “slightly shocking” format of a correspondence course, known as the Home Study Course. The Home Study Course began the formal offerings of this organization to continuing education. With a $12,000 Carnegie grant, the society produced its first instructional film, “Embryology of the Eye,” in 1949, followed in 1951 with “Embryology of the Ear.” During the subsequent years, despite some early trial-and-error effort, this organization has remained the trusted resource in maintaining the vital knowledge that is required to maintain our professional commitment to patient care. You continue to tell us in numerous ways that this Foundation’s value is firmly grounded in its reputation to provide for your education needs. What We Know Now As a result of the extensive work of the last 18 months, the Foundation Education leadership now has essential information for the next education planning cycle, valuable insight for longer-term planning, and required information for our 2015 ACCME reaccreditation preparation. The initiative is a model for future years’ efforts to continually identify members’ gaps in practice, assess members’ education and training needs, and engage members in the ongoing initiative to influence lifelong learning and patient outcomes in a meaningful way. Through this initiative, three critical needs emerged: Need for awareness of the breadth and depth of the Foundation education offerings. Need for engagement to encourage utilization and participation in education activities by both members and nonmembers. Need to focus on the quality of education activities.

This January issue of the Bulletin offers a bonus. Take note of the latest opportunities from the Academy’s Foundation for professional development. You likely realize what we often referred to as CME in the past has changed dramatically during the last five years, broadening the once static formula of pedagogic learning to a full program for professional development and performance improvement. This expanded approach to ongoing learning adds not just knowledge, but quality to the learning environment. The goal of this focus shift is to keep us up to date, and, more importantly, to make us better physicians and improve patient care.
To give context to the array of options in this year’s “resources publication,” Sonya Malekzadeh, MD, and the Education Steering Committee contributed a feature section to this Bulletin that details the program’s growth. The need to assess the gaps in otolaryngology education practice that began in earnest in 2012 examined current products and programs through a comprehensive needs assessment and SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, threats) analysis. This past year, it included the robust whole-membership education survey that is expected to become a biannual event. Lastly, each education resource was specifically evaluated by individuals who had directly participated in the activity, rolling Annual Meeting programming into this study. It considered critical course topics, education design and format, and types of media best used to educate the members.
Simply put, the objectives of the combined research efforts were to:
- Develop an action plan to improve the member’s education experience.
- Design education activities that meet the clinical needs of our members.
- Increase member involvement in, and satisfaction with, education offerings.
- Enhance member knowledge, competence, and skill in their practice of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery.
This comprehensive program assessment and program revision is grounded in the tradition of the Academy’s Foundation history. For more than 80 years, our members have worked to benefit the ongoing professionalism of its members.
The AAO-HNSF’s Commitment to Education
Around 1931, our Academy began developing summaries from the courses given during its annual meetings. These proved to be popular with attendees and then led to the publication of monographs and atlases. Both the monographs and the atlases were revised two more times in the following years, establishing their ongoing value.
In 1938, as suggested in Member Harry Gradle, MD’s “stop-gap” plan for inadequate instruction to residents, packages of such manuals and atlases were proposed in the “slightly shocking” format of a correspondence course, known as the Home Study Course. The Home Study Course began the formal offerings of this organization to continuing education.
With a $12,000 Carnegie grant, the society produced its first instructional film, “Embryology of the Eye,” in 1949, followed in 1951 with “Embryology of the Ear.”
During the subsequent years, despite some early trial-and-error effort, this organization has remained the trusted resource in maintaining the vital knowledge that is required to maintain our professional commitment to patient care.
You continue to tell us in numerous ways that this Foundation’s value is firmly grounded in its reputation to provide for your education needs.
What We Know Now
As a result of the extensive work of the last 18 months, the Foundation Education leadership now has essential information for the next education planning cycle, valuable insight for longer-term planning, and required information for our 2015 ACCME reaccreditation preparation. The initiative is a model for future years’ efforts to continually identify members’ gaps in practice, assess members’ education and training needs, and engage members in the ongoing initiative to influence lifelong learning and patient outcomes in a meaningful way.
Through this initiative, three critical needs emerged:
- Need for awareness of the breadth and depth of the Foundation education offerings.
- Need for engagement to encourage utilization and participation in education activities by both members and nonmembers.
- Need to focus on the quality of education activities.