AANS Strategic Plan – November Planning Session Yields Four Specific Goals

In a recent strategic planning session, the AANS Long Range Planning Committee identified four goals for the association:

Generate non-dues revenue so that member benefits can be enhanced without corresponding dues increases. Maintain an effective organizational structure, and continue to serve as the spokes-organization for neurosurgery. Provide cutting-edge services to our membership as a whole, and to significant subgroups, with emphasis on services which are most valued by our members. Serve as the advocate for all of neurosurgery within the medical field and with government and third-party payers.

The special session, conducted in November, was designed to fully reevaluate the AANS Strategic Plan using the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analytical method. Participants in the session included the members of the AANS Long Range Planning Committee as well as several others representing specific subgroups: Fremont P. Wirth, MD; Robert L. Grubb Jr., MD; James R. Bean, MD; Jon H. Robertson, MD; Robert A. Ratcheson, MD; Christopher M. Loftus, MD; James T. Rutka, MD; Troy M. Tippett, MD; Lawrence S. Chin, MD; William T. Couldwell, MD; and Paul C. McCormick, MD.

As the session’s facilitator, A. John Popp, MD, provided expertise in monitoring the organization’s progress, evaluating the relevance of ideas under discussion, and updating the goals, objectives, and strategies going forward. Dr. Popp had directed development of the initial AANS Strategic Plan in 2003 as president-elect. It was gratifying to find that many areas of concern identified three years ago have been addressed successfully. But particularly as the AANS celebrates its diamond jubilee year, recent successes will not distract the AANS from its vision for neurosurgery’s future.

SWOT Assessment
The strengths of the AANS are manifold and flow directly from our membership. Expertise, prestige, commitment, effort and loyalty are but a few of the attributes that members contribute to the well-being of the organization. The endeavors of individuals in many areas enhance the quality of the organization and improve the professional lives of each member, ultimately benefiting the patients we care for. The AANS’ financial stability, which makes it possible to marshal organizational energies on multiple fronts, has been achieved without increasing membership dues — in fact, the percentage of revenue derived from dues has decreased from 17 percent in 2002 to 15.6 percent in 2005.

There are significant challenges ahead of us, but our organization is strong and committed.

One of our greatest strengths — the collective energy, enthusiasm, and expertise of members in different subspecialty areas — paradoxically can sometimes hamper the efficiency and limit the effectiveness of the AANS as neurosurgery’s spokes-organization. Neurosurgery is a small and elite specialty, and in order to enhance the effectiveness of the organization, all of its diverse members and groups must continue to work together.

Abundant opportunities to enhance member benefits include: closer cooperation and coordination with the American Board of Neurological Surgery facilitating the Maintenance of Certification process through Web-based data collection and the continuing development of educational opportunities; furthering neurosurgical research through the Neurosurgery Research and Education Foundation; achieving federal medical liability reform through the advocacy of AANSPAC; developing a system of care for neurosurgical emergencies through the Task Force on Neurosurgical Care and Physician Workforce; and increasing outreach to the international neurosurgical community in anticipation of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies’ XIV International Congress of Neurological Surgery in Boston in 2009.

Threats to the AANS are threats to neurosurgery in general. These include marginalization of the specialty, static or even declining medical student interest in the field, professional liability burden, reimbursement decline, pay-for-performance initiatives with imposition of outcomes parameters and guidelines by non-neurosurgical entities, and incursion by other specialties into neurosurgical domains. Professional liability and reimbursement issues are main priorities of the Washington Committee, which increases its influence through coordination with other specialty societies such as the American College of Surgeons and the American Medical Association.

As the custodian of our profession, the AANS must ensure that the specialty does not splinter into small interest groups. The AANS must develop a plan to care for neurosurgical emergencies nationwide, and it must increase interest in the specialty among medical students, with a particular focus on women, who comprise half of all medical students but only a small percentage of those entering our specialty. More details about the AANS Strategic Plan will become available over the next few months as strategies are refined and AANS committees are charged with the plan’s fulfillment. There are significant challenges ahead of us, but our organization is strong and committed. If every member remains involved and dedicated, we will continue to achieve success.

Donald O. Quest, MD, is AANS president-elect.

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