As my presidential term begins, I would like to build upon some of the important initiatives and activities that have been started by those before me. Having said that, there are many new areas that will require our attention and focus as we move forward, and it will take a strategic and collective effort to accomplish all of our goals.
In the past few years, the Society has become more involved in certain areas such as health disparities, diabetes, obesity, international outreach, and most recently, the next generation of endocrinologists.
These are all very important areas, and I would like to keep the momentum moving forward.
Some of the strategic activities that I will be championing this year are an extension of these previous initiatives.
Endo Cares
A key strategy moving forward will be to launch a social responsibility campaign in the coming year. Th e program, Endo Cares, will continue our strategic initiatives in health disparities and global outreach (such as the Ambassador Exchange Program). With our centennial year approaching, we felt that it was time for the Society to develop a program that gives back to the community through our expertise and resources. In the program’s pilot, the Society will focus on giving back to the diabetes community through partnerships with AYUDA and other charities serving diabetes camps in the U.S. and around the world. Our members will have opportunities to staff these camps, interact directly with patients, and educate/advise local healthcare providers in diabetes care and management. For this program to be successful, we will need the support and participation of all of our members.
This will be the Society’s first real opportunity to rally around the concept of giving back to the global endocrine community, and with your help we hope to enlist the participation of every member around the world. I am very committed to this important initiative and am looking forward to working with you to make this a successful initiative for the Society.
Centennial Celebration
The Endocrine Society is approaching the 100-year mark and the Society and its members plan to embark on a year-long celebration of endocrinology spanning the 2016 calendar year. I am very excited and honored to lead the Society through its 100th anniversary celebration. A Centennial Task Force has been working with staff to develop a concept that not only celebrates the past 100 years of the Endocrine Society and endocrinology but also looks to the future. We want to affirm the value of the Society and its unified membership base, celebrating its history and the history of the field. At the same time, we plan to position the celebration not just as a retrospective but as an opportunity to look forward toward what the future holds for the field, in scientific and medical advancements. This is our opportunity to showcase how therapies have evolved and were created, and more importantly, show the impact they have had on patients. The celebration will be global, drawing in our sister and partner organizations from around the world to embrace the worldwide endocrine, medical, and scientific community.
In future letters, I will provide more details on some of the other strategic areas that will be pursued this coming year. Two separate task forces are being appointed to work on Knowledge Integration and Leadership Development, respectively. The Knowledge Integration group will focus on improving how we provide valuable content to our members, the medical community, and the public in an integrated, learner-centric platform to ensure that the end-users have an efficient and satisfying learning experience. The Leadership Development task force will focus on creating an integrated and sustained plan for leadership development within the Society, not just at an early stage but throughout the members’ career lifecycle and identifying greater and more flexible opportunities for member engagement and involvement with the Society worldwide.
This will be an exciting year, and I look forward to working with our dedicated members and staff to advance these initiatives in the coming months. If you have any comments or questions, please contact me at [email protected].
Lisa H. Fish, MD, FACP
President, Endocrine Society
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