Greetings. I hope that you are well and are enjoying the summer as best you can during these challenging times. Since the “CHEST year” has drawn to a close recently, I would like to offer my reflections, which were recently shared with the Board of Regents, as well as a glimpse of what is ahead for CHEST. There is just so much great work I want to share.
Dr. Robert Musacchio
This past year has posed a number of challenges. COVID-19 has caused us to interact differently on both a social and a business level. CHEST Headquarters has been closed, and we have not had a live-learning course for more than 4 months. But our work has not faltered. We have been extremely productive during this period and have once again demonstrated our resiliency and innovative spirit; in our vernacular, we “Crushed It.”
While COVID-19 has presented us with a number of obstacles, it has presented us with a number of opportunities, and we have taken advantage of them. During this pandemic, CHEST has truly demonstrated its ability to provide a connection at a critical time, giving this phrase new meaning and urgency. We have created a new resource center for clinicians, developed patient education and awareness campaigns to support the public through this crisis, launched a webinar series, developed scientific guidance statements, and more. At the same time, we have invested in our technology and educational infrastructure to grow our capabilities and position CHEST for long-term success.
Prior to COVID-19, we spent a significant amount of time among the CHEST staff, Presidents, and Boards drafting and reviewing a concise strategy statement for CHEST to provide focus and clarity to its efforts and derive and tie together future strategies specific to learning, technology, and more. From this statement, we derived four key areas requiring our continued and explicit focus to achieve this goal:
• People: Ensure we attract, retain, and incentivize the right people (staff, leaders, and volunteers).
• Products: Foster an environment of innovation and product development resulting in overall revenue growth, as well as revenue from new products and services.
• Education: Ensure that CHEST education products and services are robust, differentiated, and scalable..
• Growth: Meet or exceed revenue and margin targets.
As long as the mission and strategy of the organization does not deviate, these goals should not change. However, how we go about executing on achieving these goals each year will depend on the context of our environment and be shaped by the specific initiatives planned affecting our People, Products, Education, and building toward Growth. This consistency is important to sustain a vibrant, aligned, and productive organization.
Beyond this groundwork, I also would like to list a series of things that, together, CHEST accomplished over the last year.
- Reviewed existing contracts and, where appropriate, renegotiated major contracts to ensure terms more favorable for CHEST.
- Hired and on-boarded a Chief Learning Officer to place greater emphasis on expanding CHEST educational programs. Analyzed current educational products and have begun repositioning our educational efforts to better serve our learners.
- Refined the one CHEST concept, realigned responsibilities throughout the organization in general, and the CHEST Foundation, in particular, to enhance resource readiness and productivity. Clarified relationship with industry by continuing to implement our Industry Partnership Guidelines and streamline efforts with our partners.
- Continued rollout and execution of our international event strategy. Successfully developed and held a program for CHEST Congress 2020 Italy with our CHEST Italian Delegation, in a virtual format, due to COVID, while enabling us to build momentum for a rescheduled meeting in 2021. We had over 2,000 virtual registrants from over 100 countries, and there was a thank you given to all attendees by Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to start off the program – what a success!
- Accelerated our digital transformation with an educational focus on virtual Board Review, CHEST 2020 Annual Meeting, online simulation.
- Forecasting strong financial outlook and improving financial reporting for FY19-20. Successful 2019 annual meeting:
o Total attendance 8,593—the largest attendance to date.
o Simulation Session Registration 979
o Exhibiting companies 160 SOLD OUT
o CHEST Annual Meeting 2019 delivered largest number of APPs and fellows attending in the last 5 years.
- Reintroduced CHEST into the advocacy and health policy arena through the successful acquisition of NAMDRC.
CHEST’s operating financial performance is solid, and well thought out efforts have kept CHEST on a growth trajectory over the last 7 years. During this same period (since 2011/12), our staff headcount has grown from 85 to a projected 121 this year; the new expertise and capabilities we have brought on board, combined with our highly talented and committed staff team, have contributed to this tremendous growth.
Our future is bright. These 2 two years have been very exciting for me both professionally and personally. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with all of you and serve as your CEO/EVP because together, we truly are making a significant difference in moving CHEST forward and crushing lung disease.
I know you are as proud of CHEST’s efforts this year as I am.
Thank you.