As a 22-year member of the senior staff of the American College of Chest Physicians, I am absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to serve as its interim EVP/CEO for the current 2016-2017 fiscal year. Over the course of the years, I’ve been fortunate to oversee a number of CHEST’s business units and divisions, including Publications, Marketing, Communications, Membership, International Development, and Information Technology (IT). This background has provided a stable foundation for a smooth transition and ensured that the college continues to move to achieve its strategic plan and operational goals. That plan and those goals ensure that we will fulfill CHEST’s mission and vision: “To champion the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chest diseases through education, communication, and research” and to be “the global leader in advancing best patient outcomes through innovative chest medicine education, clinical research, and team-based care,” respectively.
Stephen Welch
To this end, we are executing well as an organization. Our state-of-the-art Innovation, Simulation, and Training Center at the CHEST Global Headquarters in Glenview, Illinois, continues to provide outstanding hands-on educational events and opportunities, and our Education Calendar has something for just about everyone. Our annual Board Review courses continue to provide excellent content. The CHEST 2016 annual meeting in LA this October will showcase all that CHEST has to offer. And the list goes on.
One of CHEST’s strengths is its spirit of innovation. Whether it’s revamping the highly successful SEEK app into an easily accessible online library, adding more simulation and procedure-based training to our educational offerings, or providing our live courses as captured online “on-demand” programs, we are committed to finding ways to package and deliver meaningful education to our members and community. Our for-profit subsidiary, CHEST Enterprises, is providing professional education to industry through the PREP disease-state immersion program, and developing a data analytics product line that will provide insights into physician behavior. Our charitable foundation, the CHEST Foundation, gives nearly $500,000 in research and community service grants each year, to champion lung health. It has also expanded the number of available patient education resources in partnership with the ALA. And in the past year, we have fully implemented CHEST’s new innovative membership model to welcome more nonphysician health care providers and give them opportunities to engage, learn, and participate. All of these things are incredibly exciting to me, and I’m grateful to be part of them.
But what I’m most excited and grateful for are the people who impact our organization. We have a diverse and passionate membership of physician and nonphysician health care providers who want to provide the best care possible and positively impact outcomes. Our dedicated faculty and volunteers generously give their time to the organization’s work groups and programs so that they can give back to others in the field. Our hard-working leaders take responsibility and ownership of our programs and content. And, our outstanding staff operationalizes the strategic plan and goals of the organization hand-in-hand with those leaders, volunteers, faculty, and members. Together, it all results in the excellent programs you have come to expect from CHEST.
Thank you for participating and supporting this robust, dynamic organization. I am excited for the future for CHEST, and I look forward to seeing you at CHEST 2016 in Los Angeles! If you have thoughts or ideas about how we can enhance our work to be a global leader in chest medicine, connect with me anytime. I invite you to follow and connect with me on Twitter (@RocketSurgery99), or look for me at upcoming CHEST events.