Burton Lesnick, MD, FCCP

The CHEST Board of Regents (BOR) held their summer meeting for 3 days starting June 20 in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. The key drivers of the BOR are to continuously assess and adjust our strategic plan to further CHEST’s mission and to be good fiducial stewards in allocating resources. At this meeting, the BOR continued its efforts in both of these areas.

CHEST’s mission is to champion the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chest diseases through education, communication, and research. The budget for fiscal year 2019-2020 facilitates the expansion of this mission by allocating more resources for e-learning and for the improving engagement and member experience.

Specifically, the Board is placing significant emphasis for more content to be digital, downloadable, digestible, and (hopefully) addictive. Aside from allocating capital for updates of existing equipment, Board Designated Funds were made available for an aggressive redesign of content delivery. Over the next 2 years, CHEST will achieve single sign on for all our learning platforms; enhance mobile access; and deploy mobile apps for gaming, personalized learning, and just-in-time education. The effort also aims to streamline journal and topic workflows and launch personalized content recommendations for our members.

Our formal strategic planning continued with an external review of our recent environmental scan and 5- year plan by a select group of entrepreneurs and innovators. Board members engaged in a rich debate about ways to better focus the organization. The group noted that the best time for strategic initiatives is now, while the association is doing well and highly functioning, rather than waiting for difficult times to initiate a potentially more painful course correction.

Education is the base for our entire enterprise. The BOR had a vigorous discussion about the development of a clinician educator track with certification and was introduced to CHEST’s new Chief Learning Officer. The CHEST staff plans a deeper dive into needs assessment and developing a business plan around this program.

Communication is also a core part of our mission. The BOR recognizes that more needs to be done to support the NetWorks. For this year’s annual meeting, plans have been made to move the NetWork meetings into two time slots, unopposed by other scientific content, and to rename these meetings “NetWork Featured Lecture and Open Forum.” The rationale for the name change is to make the meetings more inviting by referring to them as “open forums.” CHEST 2019 will feature improved signage in common areas to highlight the NetWork meetings, providing times and locations. The goal is to at least double attendance. Dr. Stephanie Levine, President-Elect of CHEST, is forming a task force to explore other ways of enhancing NetWork engagement.

In order to expand CHEST educational impact, the Board launched a new global events strategy. These global educational programs were another focus of the Board of Regents. Staff provided updates on the CHEST Congress Thailand 2019 in collaboration with the Thoracic Society of Thailand. There were more than 1,000 delegates representing 57 countries. The meeting was supported by our partner, Kenes, which will also be helping with smaller regional meetings, including the June meeting in Athens in collaboration with the Hellenic Thoracic Society. CHEST is in the advanced stages of planning a CHEST Congress in Bologna, Italy, in summer 2020 in conjunction with our colleagues in that country. CHEST is putting together a 5-year plan for regional meetings with a variety of local medical societies throughout the world. To support this, the Governance Committee recommended augmenting the Council of Global Governors with an Executive Committee. This group will serve as a small, strategic set of individuals, appointed by the Governance Committee, to assist in furthering the global strategy and efforts of the organization. Going forward, the Chair of the Executive Committee will serve as a member of the Board of Regents for a 2-year term, to better represent international concerns at a board level.

The BOR addressed additional items, including reviewing the process for selecting Master FCCPs and a very positive update on our CHEST 2019 meeting in New Orleans. They also enhanced coordination with the CHEST Foundation Board of Trustees (BOT) via joint meetings. The CHEST Foundation BOT celebrated success in matching funds for the one million dollar grant to establish the Erin Popovich Endowment. Additional fundraising plans include holding five separate events in the next year, including a repeat of last year’s Feldman Family Foundation Poker Night.
 

The CHEST Board of Regents (BOR) held their summer meeting for 3 days starting June 20 in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. The key drivers of the BOR are to continuously assess and adjust our strategic plan to further CHEST’s mission and to be good fiducial stewards in allocating resources. At this meeting, the BOR continued its efforts in both of these areas.

CHEST’s mission is to champion the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chest diseases through education, communication, and research. The budget for fiscal year 2019-2020 facilitates the expansion of this mission by allocating more resources for e-learning and for the improving engagement and member experience.

Specifically, the Board is placing significant emphasis for more content to be digital, downloadable, digestible, and (hopefully) addictive. Aside from allocating capital for updates of existing equipment, Board Designated Funds were made available for an aggressive redesign of content delivery. Over the next 2 years, CHEST will achieve single sign on for all our learning platforms; enhance mobile access; and deploy mobile apps for gaming, personalized learning, and just-in-time education. The effort also aims to streamline journal and topic workflows and launch personalized content recommendations for our members.

Our formal strategic planning continued with an external review of our recent environmental scan and 5- year plan by a select group of entrepreneurs and innovators. Board members engaged in a rich debate about ways to better focus the organization. The group noted that the best time for strategic initiatives is now, while the association is doing well and highly functioning, rather than waiting for difficult times to initiate a potentially more painful course correction.

Education is the base for our entire enterprise. The BOR had a vigorous discussion about the development of a clinician educator track with certification and was introduced to CHEST’s new Chief Learning Officer. The CHEST staff plans a deeper dive into needs assessment and developing a business plan around this program.

Communication is also a core part of our mission. The BOR recognizes that more needs to be done to support the NetWorks. For this year’s annual meeting, plans have been made to move the NetWork meetings into two time slots, unopposed by other scientific content, and to rename these meetings “NetWork Featured Lecture and Open Forum.” The rationale for the name change is to make the meetings more inviting by referring to them as “open forums.” CHEST 2019 will feature improved signage in common areas to highlight the NetWork meetings, providing times and locations. The goal is to at least double attendance. Dr. Stephanie Levine, President-Elect of CHEST, is forming a task force to explore other ways of enhancing NetWork engagement.

In order to expand CHEST educational impact, the Board launched a new global events strategy. These global educational programs were another focus of the Board of Regents. Staff provided updates on the CHEST Congress Thailand 2019 in collaboration with the Thoracic Society of Thailand. There were more than 1,000 delegates representing 57 countries. The meeting was supported by our partner, Kenes, which will also be helping with smaller regional meetings, including the June meeting in Athens in collaboration with the Hellenic Thoracic Society. CHEST is in the advanced stages of planning a CHEST Congress in Bologna, Italy, in summer 2020 in conjunction with our colleagues in that country. CHEST is putting together a 5-year plan for regional meetings with a variety of local medical societies throughout the world. To support this, the Governance Committee recommended augmenting the Council of Global Governors with an Executive Committee. This group will serve as a small, strategic set of individuals, appointed by the Governance Committee, to assist in furthering the global strategy and efforts of the organization. Going forward, the Chair of the Executive Committee will serve as a member of the Board of Regents for a 2-year term, to better represent international concerns at a board level.

The BOR addressed additional items, including reviewing the process for selecting Master FCCPs and a very positive update on our CHEST 2019 meeting in New Orleans. They also enhanced coordination with the CHEST Foundation Board of Trustees (BOT) via joint meetings. The CHEST Foundation BOT celebrated success in matching funds for the one million dollar grant to establish the Erin Popovich Endowment. Additional fundraising plans include holding five separate events in the next year, including a repeat of last year’s Feldman Family Foundation Poker Night.
 

The CHEST Board of Regents (BOR) held their summer meeting for 3 days starting June 20 in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. The key drivers of the BOR are to continuously assess and adjust our strategic plan to further CHEST’s mission and to be good fiducial stewards in allocating resources. At this meeting, the BOR continued its efforts in both of these areas.

CHEST’s mission is to champion the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chest diseases through education, communication, and research. The budget for fiscal year 2019-2020 facilitates the expansion of this mission by allocating more resources for e-learning and for the improving engagement and member experience.

Specifically, the Board is placing significant emphasis for more content to be digital, downloadable, digestible, and (hopefully) addictive. Aside from allocating capital for updates of existing equipment, Board Designated Funds were made available for an aggressive redesign of content delivery. Over the next 2 years, CHEST will achieve single sign on for all our learning platforms; enhance mobile access; and deploy mobile apps for gaming, personalized learning, and just-in-time education. The effort also aims to streamline journal and topic workflows and launch personalized content recommendations for our members.

Our formal strategic planning continued with an external review of our recent environmental scan and 5- year plan by a select group of entrepreneurs and innovators. Board members engaged in a rich debate about ways to better focus the organization. The group noted that the best time for strategic initiatives is now, while the association is doing well and highly functioning, rather than waiting for difficult times to initiate a potentially more painful course correction.

Education is the base for our entire enterprise. The BOR had a vigorous discussion about the development of a clinician educator track with certification and was introduced to CHEST’s new Chief Learning Officer. The CHEST staff plans a deeper dive into needs assessment and developing a business plan around this program.

Communication is also a core part of our mission. The BOR recognizes that more needs to be done to support the NetWorks. For this year’s annual meeting, plans have been made to move the NetWork meetings into two time slots, unopposed by other scientific content, and to rename these meetings “NetWork Featured Lecture and Open Forum.” The rationale for the name change is to make the meetings more inviting by referring to them as “open forums.” CHEST 2019 will feature improved signage in common areas to highlight the NetWork meetings, providing times and locations. The goal is to at least double attendance. Dr. Stephanie Levine, President-Elect of CHEST, is forming a task force to explore other ways of enhancing NetWork engagement.

In order to expand CHEST educational impact, the Board launched a new global events strategy. These global educational programs were another focus of the Board of Regents. Staff provided updates on the CHEST Congress Thailand 2019 in collaboration with the Thoracic Society of Thailand. There were more than 1,000 delegates representing 57 countries. The meeting was supported by our partner, Kenes, which will also be helping with smaller regional meetings, including the June meeting in Athens in collaboration with the Hellenic Thoracic Society. CHEST is in the advanced stages of planning a CHEST Congress in Bologna, Italy, in summer 2020 in conjunction with our colleagues in that country. CHEST is putting together a 5-year plan for regional meetings with a variety of local medical societies throughout the world. To support this, the Governance Committee recommended augmenting the Council of Global Governors with an Executive Committee. This group will serve as a small, strategic set of individuals, appointed by the Governance Committee, to assist in furthering the global strategy and efforts of the organization. Going forward, the Chair of the Executive Committee will serve as a member of the Board of Regents for a 2-year term, to better represent international concerns at a board level.

The BOR addressed additional items, including reviewing the process for selecting Master FCCPs and a very positive update on our CHEST 2019 meeting in New Orleans. They also enhanced coordination with the CHEST Foundation Board of Trustees (BOT) via joint meetings. The CHEST Foundation BOT celebrated success in matching funds for the one million dollar grant to establish the Erin Popovich Endowment. Additional fundraising plans include holding five separate events in the next year, including a repeat of last year’s Feldman Family Foundation Poker Night.