AAOS Board of Councilors Elevates Bidirectional Communication to New Heights

In June 2024, the AAOS Board of Councilors (BOC) leadership launched a new initiative aimed at enhancing bidirectional communication efforts between AAOS and state and regional orthopaedic societies. Recognizing the need for a more dynamic and direct dialogue, this initiative introduced a series of structured meetings to facilitate the real-time exchange of ideas and concerns. By implementing these virtual meetings, BOC leadership, in partnership with AAOS President Paul Tornetta III, MD, PhD, FAAOS; AAOS First Vice President Ned Amendola, MD, FAAOS; and AAOS Second Vice President Wilford K. Gibson, MD, FAAOS, provided societies with a direct line of communication to the AAOS Board of Directors. This proactive approach elevated local insights, introduced state and regional leaders to the new AAOS Strategic Plan, and fostered a more cohesive and unified musculoskeletal community. The initiative underscores AAOS’ commitment to transparency and collaboration, aiming to enhance effectiveness and organization through open, two-way communication.

Moderated by BOC Chair Joel L. Mayerson, MD, FAAOS, five virtual meetings were held throughout June, dividing the BOC’s constituents into five distinct regions: Southeast, Northeast, Northwest, Mid-America, and Southwest. The meetings created opportunities for current councilors, state and regional orthopaedic society executive directors, and state and regional societies’ leadership to share thoughts on current initiatives and voice matters of concern directly to AAOS leadership. The geographic focus enabled participants to effectively leverage the BOC’s grassroots structure, understanding their individual concerns in relation to those of other regional societies.

AAOS leaders joined each regional meeting, listening and responding to feedback and concerns from key stakeholders. During the meetings, AAOS leaders also took the opportunity to educate attendees on the 2024–2028 AAOS Strategic Plan, highlighting the plan’s relevance to the BOC and AAOS members at the state level.

AAOS and BOC leadership welcomed the diverse viewpoints of attendees, drawing on a broad spectrum of experiences and insights. The most common themes throughout the meetings concerned advocacy efforts, highlighting key issues and areas of ongoing concern for AAOS members. Participants were united on shared interests outlined in AAOS’ Unified Advocacy Agenda, including the importance of Medicare payment and prior authorization reform. These commonalities validate AAOS’ ongoing efforts to identify advocacy issues that matter to members and underscore the importance of advocating for these issues with members of Congress and other lawmakers.

Based on the comments from each meeting, BOC and AAOS leaders were able to formulate actionable strategies to enhance engagement and address pressing concerns collaboratively. The shared insights also helped identify critical areas for development and collective action.

As a result of these meetings, BOC leaders partnered with the AAOS Advocacy Council to host a webinar in mid-July exclusively for state and regional stakeholders, sharing AAOS’ progress on advocacy initiatives. Participation in both the regional meetings and the follow-up BOC State Orthopaedic Societies (SOS) Advocacy Webinar was overwhelmingly positive, highlighting the benefits of a strong musculoskeletal community (Fig. 1). “This was the best interaction I have had with AAOS in the past 10 years,” wrote one meeting attendee.

The BOC and AAOS continue to work diligently to synthesize the takeaways from each meeting, taking actionable steps to enhance effectiveness and organization through bidirectional communication. Dr. Mayerson commented, “AAOS devotes many resources to help our members. Through improved bidirectional communication among [state] leadership, we will be stronger together.”

Members may contact Ellen Bushong, governance and affiliate relations specialist, at bushong@aaos.org with questions or to request more information about the BOC SOS Regional Outreach Initiative.

BOC Chair Joel L. Mayerson, MD, FAAOS, and Samantha Spencer, MD, FAAOS, member of the BOC Communications Committee, contributed to this article.

Michael B. Purnell, MD, FAAOS, is a sports medicine and shoulder arthroplasty surgeon at OrthoMed Center in Modesto, California, which he founded in 1992. He is also chair of the California Orthopaedic Association Communications Committee.

Ellen Bushong, MA, is a governance and affiliate relations specialist at AAOS. She is the staff liaison to the BOC and Board of Specialty Societies.