For those of you currently in the midst of residency or fellowship training, it may come as a surprise that the American Association of Neurological Surgeons has recently adopted a number of changes that will benefit you. These changes are specifically designed to promote a seamless (and hopefully painless) transition from training through board certification to the life of a practicing neurosurgeon.
The AANS already has provided free AANS membership for residents and fellows (no annual dues); the Bulletin; free attendance at selected resident-oriented practical clinics at the annual meetings; access to the online journal Neurosurgical Focus and the Online Career Center; and more. But effective in January 2005, Resident and Fellow members also will receive free registration for AANS annual meetings beginning with the April 2005 meeting in New Orleans. They also will receive free subscriptions to all AANS scientific journals: the Journal of Neurosurgery, Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, and the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics. Courses geared toward practice management or preparation for oral board certification will be made available at reduced rates.
These changes arise from the AANS’ desire to foster a lifelong partnership between neurosurgeons and the national organization. A review of candidates who successfully completed the American Board of Neurological Surgery’s oral examination identified a significant number of young neurosurgeons who had been resident members at one time but allowed their memberships to lapse.
I myself had been a Resident/Fellow member for seven years, however, one year I had to register for an annual meeting as a nonmember. I was no longer considered a Fellow, but had not yet passed my oral boards, and therefore could not be considered an Active member. I wore my nonmember badge proudly at the meeting that year in defiance of the establishment, and may have even gone to a breakfast seminar without a tie on. What a rebel I was!
The AANS Long Range Planning Committee, under the leadership of Fremont P. Wirth, MD, president-elect of the AANS, included the problem of “losing” residents and fellows between the conclusion of their programs and ABNS certification in the 2004 AANS Strategic Plan. Item 2.4 of this document, which essentially balances resources and needs in a hierarchy based upon importance, initiated a broad review of the benefits available to young neurosurgeons.
Quite simply, the realization that membership dues, registration fees and subscription dues were limiting the dissemination of critical clinical, ethical, and medicolegal information to early career neurosurgeons seemed contrary to the very mission of the AANS.
Your own perception of the impact of the new and valuable benefits for residents and fellows will ultimately depend upon which side of the training line you find yourself. If you are still in training, this may seem like a godsend delivered to make that book fund last a little longer or allow you to go to the spring meeting when it otherwise might not have been possible. In discussing this with a resident from the University of California system, he commented that it will be great to be able to start building his own Journal of Neurosurgery library, instead of photocopying articles of interest from the residents’ single issue.
On the other hand, the cost to provide such free services and subscriptions to residents must be spread among the AANS membership. Although the cost is not astronomical, will it mean raising dues for current active members just a little higher? One of my former partners simply dropped his AANS membership, finding the cost-benefit ratio to be prohibitive.
For what it is worth, I am close enough to the training line to have an opinion on the subject. When I was still a fellow, my director would tell me that my money was “no good” whenever I attempted to pay for both of our lunches or two iced teas. He told me that III could chip in when the fellowship was over. The idea has stuck with me. If it means that I now chip in an extra hundred dollars so that one of the residents can go to his first annual meeting or keep a copy of the current Journal of Neurosurgery on his desk, so be it. I wholeheartedly agree with Dr. Wirth in telling the residents that their money is “no good” as far as I am concerned. By participating in the AANS now they may be asked sometime in the future to do the same for the next generation of neurosurgeons.
Brian R. Subach, MD, is a neurosurgeon at The Virginia Spine Institute, Reston, Va.
More information on AANS membership benefits for residents and fellows is available at www.AANS.org/residents/membership.asp.
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