AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY NEWS

President's Message

THE NEW ASE

Most of you are aware of the American Society of Echo- cardiography's phenomenal growth over the past 25 years from a small group of a few like-minded friends to the sec- ond largest organization of cardiovascular professionals in North America. Only the American College of Cardiology is larger. Our growth has occurred in every aspect of w h o we are ... members , volunteers and staff. . , and what we do ... programs, budgets, and committees. Such growth brings success beyond that ever conceived of by our founders and t remendous opportunity, but it also brings unforeseen chaIJenges and even threats.

Most of us are familiar wi th our external challenges.As echocardiographers; we share in the turmoil and chaos that is our medical system in 2001, and feel the (usually un- pleasant) impact of constant changes in re imbursement and care delivery. New and improved technologies are also a part of our lives, whe the r it is in our o w n core area of cardiac ultrasound (eg, hand-held sonographs) or in o ther imaging modalities (eg, cardiac MRI). Such innovation is exhilarating, but also threatening to traditional echocar- diography.As a Society, our posit ion as a provider of echo- cardiographic educat ion is threatened by compet ing ven- dors, whe the r individuals, universities, or o ther societies. While ASE is in very strong shape financially, the consoli- dation in industry is sure to have a profound impact. Much of what we do is directed at facing each of these chal- lenges and ei ther minimizing their impact or turning them into opportuni t ies for growth o f the society and our pro- fession. ASE has been, and I am sure will cont inue to be, very effective in doing this:

Until I assumed the presidency, I was less familiar wi th some of our interval challenges. In essence, these revolve around coping wi th our remarkable success - -no t a bad problem to have! Among my first acts as President has been to look toward the stewardsl-dp of the organization, to be sure we are as strong as possible n o w and in the future and that w e can cont inue to be THE"voice" of echocardio- graphy.

This past summer, we easily overcame one of the largest of these chaUenges.We accomplished a leadership change in the Executive Director as wel l as the President.This was a first ever event for A~SE, and w e are n o w in Robin Barry's very capable hands. Because of our increased size, com- municat ion is a little ;more difficult, and administrative processes that used to be handled by 1 or 2 capable peo- ple n o w involve marq,. Tasks and processes require defin- ing, organizing, and streamlining. ASE's dedicated volun- teers, f rom the execut ive to the Board of Directors to commit tee members , are n o w accomplishing an increased

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number, scope, and complexi ty of activities.This increased need for volunteer expert ise coincides wi th increased demands at our day jobs, and many of us simply have less t ime to give. Finally, like any successful organization, we cannot rest on our past achievements. We must remain nimble and strategic, yet grounded. In short, to sustain our progress and vitality, w e need to shift our attention briefly from our still-valid strategic plan to ensuring that our oper- ations are also strategic.

Our goals in this process were several: to "right size" our commit tee structure to include only those we really needed, to make sure related functions were well linked, to in- crease the involvement of the execut ive board, to create staff positions that would allow us to hire much-needed special expertise, and to define staff roles that align day-to- day responsibilities to provide bet ter support of key func- tions. To accomplish this, we held an all-day retreat wi th consultants to take a fresh look at our mission, our strate- gic plan, and our core functions.We sought to define what was really important to us and h o w best to suppor t it.'~@ divided ASE's activities into 4 key mission areas:

• Education, including the annual scientific sessions, educational Web site,JASE and board review course;

• Quality and practice of echocardiography, including guidelines and standards, research and credentialing, and certification;

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• External relations and partnerships, including advo- cacy, public relations, industry roundtable; and

• ASE internal operations and strategy, including mem- bership, local societies, Councils, finance, and nomi- nating.

A fifth area, information technology, while not a mission area, was bel ieved to be critically important and to require unique expertise. Accordingly, it was designated as a plat- form that underlies, supports, and informs activities and initiatives ha all areas.

Each of these 5 core areas has been assigned a m e m b e r of the execut ive board and a senior staff member. These executive-staff pairs will be responsible for managing and integrating activities in each area. Robin Barry and I will oversee internal operations; Randy Martin and n e w ASE staff m e m b e r Sherry Honey-Barrow will oversee external affairs; David Adams and n e w ASE staff m e m b e r Ashley Prather will oversee quality and practice; Linda Gillam and Mary Alice Dilday will oversee education; and Harry Rakowski and Hilary Lamb will oversee the information technology platform.

The next step is to reorganize our commit tee structure in a rational way that fits into our overall goals.At the start of this review, we had over 36 committees, some of which had never met, or met only once every 3 to 4 years. We reviewed the charges and activities of each commit tee and assigned it to one of the core areas.Whenever possible we

"retired" inactive committees, or merged them into a larger "steering" commit tee responsible for overall functions in key areas.These steering commit tees will function as hubs, wi th o ther task forces or standing groups as spokes. One example of this is the vitally important area of member- ship. There will be one Membership Steering Commit tee trader whose broad umbrella a number of groups will flmction, including local societies, Councils, and our ad- ministrative Web site, www_ASEcho.org. Similarly, the Guide- lines and Standards Commit tee will have most of ASE's document writing groups reporting to it. Finally, most com- mittee leadership will n o w include physician and sonogra- pher cochairs, in addition to the overall chair.

The goal of this structural and functional reorganization is improvement of h o w we do our work. By streamlining the organization, we aim to bet ter define work processes and improve our focus. The restructuring will enhance communicat ions and bet ter link our planning and finances to key mission areas. Workflow will improve and t ime to results will be shortened. Staff and execut ive will work more closely together to move n e w initiatives forward.All of this will enable ASE to work smarter and more effec- tively for our future.

Pamela S. Douglas, MD President

American Society of Echocardiography

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