| Wow! What a week the first ever all virtual Annual Meeting of the ANA was. We set record registration numbers (over 1400 from 46 countries), as well as record numbers of submitted abstracts (523). There were dozens of separate sessions, including the Presidential Symposium, “Leveraging Digital Technologies in Neurology”, the Translational and Clinical Research Course (TCRC), and our first Social Justice Symposium. Congratulations to all presenters and many, many thanks to Chris Weihl, the Scientific Program Advisory Committee (SPAC), and the entire AH team for putting on such a great conference, in very challenging circumstances. My personal congratulations to all Poster Award and Emerging Scholar Award winners and my thanks to the committee and board members who are rotating off having served the ANA so capably. We all learned a lot about this platform, and it is clear that while there were some technical glitches in the first two days, there is tremendous potential to use this to “democratize” participation in the Annual Meeting for people who might not be otherwise able to attend. We also saw some very creative devices that helped people interact and connect including the “speed mentoring” session and the live poster presentations. While we don’t yet have feedback from all, the initial reviews were very positive, and it is my prediction that the Annual Meeting will be changed forever. Of course, we don’t yet know what 2021 holds for us, but we are now well prepared to host a virtual or hybrid meeting that can exceed expectations.
As we go into fall we will begin the IDEAS1 taskforce, led by Allison Willis and Lesli Skolarus, with the goal of instantiating action steps to transform our organization to address inequities in health care, and to focus on diversity and inclusivity within academic neurology. We are challenging this organization to be the champion for ALL in academic neurology. We envision an ANA where diversity, equity, and inclusion are in our DNA, and where together we commit to: • Embracing and celebrating our differences • Educating and developing our members • Engaging in equitable healthcare delivery, research and education I invite all ANA members to join us in this effort, either locally within your home institution or on a national scale. This is crucially important work, and I am confident that the ANA will emerge stronger and more relevant to its members. Warm regards, Justin C. McArthur, MBBS, MPH |