PRESIDENT'S COLUMN

Read monthly updates from AAN President Carlayne E. Jackson, MD, FAAN, to learn about Academy news and action on issues important to the neurology profession and patients.

June 2023

Missed This Annual Meeting? Don’t Miss The Next One!

Our Annual Meeting in Boston was an exhilarating event! More than 15,000 of your neurology colleagues were in attendance either in person or virtually. It was so nice, after what we’ve endured the last few years with COVID-19, to see the halls of the convention center filled with smiling, eager faces and catch snippets of animated conversations and hearty laughter. I wish we could bottle this energy and enthusiasm and send it out to all of you who could not be with us! I’m sure attendees will carry it home with them and draw on it in their work over the coming year.

One important facet of this annual get-together is the Business Meeting, which is reported in greater detail in this issue. The election of the new 2023–2025 Board of Directors by members at the meeting marked another milestone in the broadening diversity of the Academy’s leadership and I am so excited to work with our new President Elect Dr. Natalia Rost. My predecessor Dr. Orly Avitzur set the bar high, but I know I can rely on her counsel as immediate past president. We welcomed Dr. Nimish Mohile to the board as an ex officio member chairing our newly elevated Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. Members will learn more about him soon as AANnews^® kicks off a series of articles featuring our new Board members, starting this month with Dr. Jennifer Bickel.

I want to congratulate Dr. Avitzur on her compelling and moving Presidential Plenary speech, which framed the efforts of our late colleague and former AAN President Dr. Ralph Sacco to promote expansion of the Academy’s mission to advance brain health as a natural continuation of our organization’s wondrous 75-year history. Later, Dr. Avitzur, Dr. Rost, and David A. Evans, MBA, who chairs the AAN’s Committee on Public Engagement, joined with Professor Paul A.J.M. Boon, president of the European Academy of Neurology, and Dr. Wolfgang Grisold, president of the World Federation of Neurology, for an inspiring “Global Brain Health Conversation” on how the worldwide neurology community can come together to enhance brain health for everyone, through every phase of life. The Academy’s Brain Health Initiative is leading this effort and you will hear more about it in the months ahead.

Science and education are the mainstays of our meeting, which offered more than 2,600 abstracts and 200 courses. Our Leadership University provided opportunities to learn how to manage and communicate more effectively, whether in an academic or clinical setting. In the Wellness Hub, presentations ranged from the psychology of burnout to learning the steps of the popular Bollywood style of dance from India’s lavish musicals. And if you wanted advice on how to write for medical journals, our publication editors were on hand to share their insights.

I marvel at the creativity of our members and AAN staff who bring these wonderful ideas to life. There were performances by students from the New England Conservatory of Music who enhanced a HeadTalk on the mechanisms of music perception by the brain. Another HeadTalk on the neuroscience of the circadian rhythm incorporated the history of Swiss watchmaking—complete with a demonstration by a Bostonian watchmaker! The Innovation Hub investigated how the brain handles complex tasks in the popular video game Call of Duty. Those with a competitive nature enjoyed playing Neurology Quiz LIVE for prizes. I had great fun playing in the final round of NeuroZone with the AAN’s CEO Mary E. Post, MBA, CAE, and the winner, Omar Danoun, MD.

Even A.B. Baker and his colleagues who planned the first Annual Meeting in 1949 knew that socializing and networking was important, but so was fun! While they enjoyed golf and bridge tournaments and the amenities of the French Lick Spa, the attendees of 2023 had an array of events—from the fabulous 75th Anniversary Celebration to daily wine and painting sessions.

If you were unable to join us in Boston, you can partake of the tremendous science and education programming via our Annual Meeting On Demand, accessible at AAN.com/AMOD. The only drawback of this resource is that it can’t transport you physically back to the multidimensional experience of being on-site live. To enjoy that, to be fully embraced and uplifted by the energy of your wonderful neurology peers, you must be there at the time, in the moment—live and alive. I wholeheartedly encourage you, whether near or far, to come to Denver from April 13–18, 2024. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that compares to the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting!

Carlayne E. Jackson, MD, FAAN
President, AAN
cjackson@aan.com
@CarlayneJackson on Twitter