I plan to use my credible and expansive experience in leadership, education and research to promote AUGS as the premier urogynecology organization in the world and secure its future. I bring to the board and executive committee 18 years of service to AUGS, over a decade and a half experience as a Urogynecology program director and leadership experience with organizations such as SGS, ABOG and IOWD. As Urogynecology program director, I am responsible for training our next generation of leaders in the field. While I have strong opinions, I understand the importance of being a team player and believe in consensus building to arrive at mutual decisions that are in the best interest of the organization. My international work with IOWD as well as multicenter research through the AUGS-SGS Fellows Pelvic Research Network and the Foundation for Female Health Awareness will be invaluable as we pursue important collaboration with other societies to advocate globally for women’s health. My clinical leadership and experience is also complimented by roles with industry leaders that will be critical for future collaborations. I am currently a strategic advisory board member for Boston Scientific, investigator on an implantable tibial nerve stimulator for Coloplast and the former Clinical Events Committee Chair for the Pelvalon Eclipse device.

What do you believe are the major challenges facing AUGS?

AUGS continues to face financial challenges even after successfully emerging from the post COVID crisis. The high costs from inflation are being felt by all AUGS members who practice in large health systems, university settings and private practices. We are unable to raise rates and face constant threats of decreased reimbursement. Physician salaries are stagnant and many physicians do not receive cost of living increases or have suffered pay cuts as the large health systems take more control of the market. Urologists who perform similar procedures on men are being paid higher rates than urogynecologists that operate on women. This gender inequity is also being felt by our female colleagues based on historical salary gaps. NIH funding for women’s health research is overall declining. Additionally, industry support is crucial yet has declined following COVID. All these issues have put AUGS in a difficult position to maintain financial stability without passing on excessive fee increases to its membership. AUGS already relies on membership for so many initiatives through volunteer service. In person attendance at meetings has decreased despite the recent rebound, and many of our members need to attend virtually to save on travel expenses and time away from their practices. Finally, the name change of our journal to Urogynecology, which should be cause for celebration, resulted in resetting our impact factor that may negatively affect high quality submissions.

What suggestions do you have to respond to these challenges?

As the leader in urogynecology, AUGS must maintain strong financial stability, increase advocacy efforts and expanded education/research initiatives. It all starts with financial stability! During my 3 years on the board, we worked hard to turn around a large budget deficit and are now profitable. We made difficult decisions and consistently evaluate current and future AUGS programs making sure to avoid losses. If elected as the Vice President and future President, I will continue to build AUGS reserves and maintain a strong financial position. The board will explore new revenue streams. We need to take a more collaborative approach to how we partner with industry since they are critical to education, research and development in urogynecology. Membership value proposition of the utmost importance as AUGS members are the glue that holds our organization together. My hope is that all members feel the value and return on investment when they pay AUGS dues and attend the AUGS annual meeting and other courses. PFD Week must continue to be a can’t miss event with the highest quality research, educational offerings, debates and lectures. Members should be encouraged to attend in person to collaborate, learn and engage with leaders from around the world. AUGS must maintain and grow our current offerings of billing and coding resources, patient handouts through voices for PFD, educational webinars, fellows lecture series and foundation research grants. We must support all our members including physicians and advanced practice providers at various stages in their careers that practice in a wide variety of settings such as academics, private practice, basic science, etc. Our recent investment in a new online member platform with advanced capabilities will enable us to better engage with our member communities. Reimbursements will improve if AUGS advocates and helps establish a 2-digit taxonomy code for urogynecology. We also need to increase funding for women’s health research specifically for pelvic floor disorders through advocacy work at the NIH. I plan to work with organizations such as the American College of Surgeons, the American Medical Association, ACOG, SGO, etc. to improve pay inequity. We have already taken the first step towards making Urogynecology the go to journal for pelvic floor disorders by appointing Dr. Rebecca Rogers as the new editor-in-chief as we transitioned from Dr. Linda Brubaker’s leadership. I will work with Dr. Rogers and provide all the support necessary to grow our impact factor and enhance the success of the journal which is crucial to the AUGS mission.

I first presented on the podium at the American Urogynecology Society meeting in Palm Springs, CA, in 2006. Since then, I have always found my participation in AUGS to be rewarding, valuable and dynamic. In this time, I been able to contribute in many roles for AUGS, learning a great deal and meeting so many people. I hope my contributions have made a positive difference for members and for the public. With a background in journalism, I found my role on the public education committee very important and continue to use my writing skills as an Associate Editor for Urogynecology. Communication is a major part of the role I have at Michigan in primary care ambulatory operations, working to notify thousands of people as to initiatives. I have a strong track record of attendance on conference calls and participating actively in group work. I meet deadlines and I finish projects.

After completing my Masters of Health Services Administration in Health Management and Policy in 2020, I am now the interim Associate Chief Clinical Officer for Primary Care ambulatory care operations and management. Encompassing all of primary care including general medicine, family medicine, geriatrics and pediatrics, this role involves strategy, staffing decisions, budget management, coding/billing, reimbursement, collaboration with administration and nursing, quality measures, and working with a centralized contact center and nurse triage phone hotline.

I would be honored to continue to serve AUGS in the leadership track and would do all I can to advance the field and organization. AUGS can serve patients and care providers in a way no other organizations can.

What do you believe are the major challenges facing AUGS?

• National trends that challenge women’s health care on multiple levels, which could impact reimbursement and research funding for all fields in this space.
• Tight margins for health care in general that challenge both care and then members to be away from work to attend meetings.
• Ongoing challenges with specialty visibility to patients and primary care providers.
• Ensuring all AUGS members of varying backgrounds and practice settings feel engaged and that they have a role to play in AUGS.

What suggestions do you have to respond to these challenges?

• Support the billing/coding committee in their work to broaden reimbursement and advocate as much as possible with governmental agencies.
• Partner with industry to gain a strong voice in national affairs as well as look at opportunities for financial solvency.
• Collaborate with partner organizations such as SUFU, AUA, ACS, and ACOG to stand together.
• Grow the research grants that AUGS can provide if federal funding is tenuous.
• Based on my experience as a meeting chair, work with the committee to make the meeting a vital event for all members to attend, ensuring everyone has something they want to participate in.
• Collaborate with recent fellowship and residency graduates to grow the population of trainees interested in a career in urogynecology.
• Rooted in my experience in the public education committee, work to increase awareness of the field to grow patient trust as a way to maintain strength.

 

It would be my honor to serve as Treasurer for AUGS. I have been a member of the AUGS Finance Committee for the past 3 years and enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about the organization, its challenges, and future opportunities. I completed my medical school and Ob/Gyn residency at Wayne State University/Detroit Medical Center. I currently serve as Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Over the course of my career, I have had the opportunity to worked in small community hospitals, military hospitals, and large academic medical centers. I worked in private practice for almost 10 years and have worked in academic medicine for over 18 years. I understand the unique challenges and opportunities each of these environments bring. I think this makes me uniquely able to represent the full scope of AUGS membership. In my current role, and as a physician leader in many healthcare organizations and professional societies, I have gained considerable experience in operational and financial management. The desire to expand this skill set prompted me to earn my Master in Business Administration with a concentration in Financial Management in 2012 from the Soin College of Business at Wright State University.

Serving on the AUGS Finance Committee for the past 3 years, I have learned a lot about our organization and its financial challenges. Despite Urogynecology being a more recently recognized subspecialty with a smaller number of practitioners than other Ob/Gyn and Urology subspecialties, AUGS faces significant competition from other subspecialty societies (IUGA, SUFU, ICS, SGS, AAGL, FIGO, etc.) in attracting and retaining members. If AUGS is going to be successful and grow our membership, we must be financially strong and provide value to our members. Carefully picking where we choose to invest our resources and making sure those investments provide value to our members is essential if AUGS wants to be the “Voice of Urogynecology” in the United States. I hope you will give me the opportunity to continue to serve AUGS as its treasurer.

What do you believe are the major challenges facing AUGS?

I believe the major challenge facing AUGS is remaining relevant to our members and being fiscally responsible to ensure the organization is financially secure and has the funds needed to provide programing and services that are relevant and valuable to its members. Increased financial pressure at academic institutions is limiting professional development dollars available to their faculty and academic Urogynecologists are being forced to make difficult choices about which professional societies they belong to and what meetings they attend. An increasing number of Urogynecologists are in private and employed practices outside academics and many other societies are competing for their membership as well.

What suggestions do you have to respond to these challenges?

We need to make sure AUGS membership continues to provide relevant education and services which provide value to our members and grows its influence to ensure that it is THE organization representing Urogynecologists in the US. This will require that we offer continuing medical education which is relevant and meets the needs of our membership. To do this, we need to continually seek input from members who practice in academic, employed, and private practice settings as well as Ob/Gyn residents and Urogyn fellows who represent our future membership. Meetings need to be at times and in locations that fit the membership’s schedules and offer topics that meet their needs including CME related to narcotic prescribing, medical ethics, and other requirements for licensing. Hybrid meetings and on demand courses will continue to grow and remain an important part of AUGS educational offerings. AUGS needs to continue to engage APPs and other allied health professionals such as physical therapists to grow and expand our membership. AUGS also needs to continue to provide and expand its patient education and practice guideline offerings. These are important to help communicate best practice in our field and to help establish AUGS as the authoritative source of information in our field to patients, physicians, trainees and other providers alike.

I attended my first AUGS Scientific Meeting in 2014 and I recall feeling welcomed and accepted, even as a resident. What stood out most was the sense of community amongst those in attendance. I remember seeing engaged members from all over the world, passionate about learning from one another in order to improve the health of those with pelvic floor disorders.

That AUGS meeting was a springboard for my career in Urogynecology. I have benefited from various fellows’ courses, post-training educational seminars, and opportunities to present my research. I’ve made it a priority to give back to AUGS by volunteering on multiple committees. In 2020, I served on the AUGS Diversity and Inclusion Task Force. This was a 12-person group that worked to identify areas for improvement related to DEI among the organization, research programs, and patient advocacy. The Task Force published our process in hopes of helping other national organizations do the same. As a member of the Task Force, I learned the importance of engaging with various populations within AUGS. Examples include those underrepresented in medicine based on race and ethnicity, LGBTQ+ communities, private practice providers, and those with various resource limitations. We must also support those in all phases of their education and careers, from medical students to those nearing retirement. Everyone has something they can contribute to make AUGS a top medical organization. I have also volunteered in AUGS Writing Groups on Postoperative Opioid Use and Postoperative Voiding Dysfunction. I am currently a member of the AUGS Safe Question Committee Writing Group. I have truly enjoyed collaborating with experts in our field from around the country to provide helpful information that will benefit our members and patients.

At my home institution, I serve as a mentor for the Students in Training, Academia, Health, and Research (STAHR) Mentorship Program. STAHR is a year-long, multi-session mentoring program for those underrepresented in the medical and research communities. Within the Department of OBGYN at UNC, I was a founding member of the Diversity Task Force and was appointed Liaison for Personnel Recruitment and Retention. I also served on the Department’s Strategic Planning Committee and the Executive Leadership Committee. In addition, I mentor several medical students, residents, and fellows, many of which come from underrepresented and non-traditional backgrounds.

I have two leadership positions I want to highlight because the knowledge I have gained from these roles will serve me well if elected to be on the board. In 2023, I took the role as the Urogynecology Division Director. I lead an extremely talented and caring group of surgeons, fellows, Advanced Practice Providers, nurses, and administrative team members. In this role, I must maintain the “big picture” vision for the group while also prioritizing the viewpoints and concerns of every individual on the team. I am also the Director of the Reproductive Medicine Course for the first-year medical students at my institution. This role provides the opportunity to collaborate with clinicians in various specialties, basic scientists, administrative leadership, and medical students. I must process continuous feedback from all stakeholders in order to deliver high-quality educational content.

Throughout my career, I have learned the importance of effective communication and building relationships in order to achieve a common goal. In the designated DEI-role, I will learn from others’ experiences and use my voice to express my viewpoints with the goal of making all AUGS members feel valued and respected.

What do you believe are the major challenges facing AUGS?

Growth and engagement of AUGS membership: With differences in generational thoughts and ideals, it will be important for AUGS to be multifaceted in how we recruit new members to the organization, while also sustaining engagement amongst current members. I think we will experience continued growth as a subspecialty but will need to be proactive and intentional in how we present our organization to medical students and residents. We must also continue to highlight and honor those that have worked tirelessly to make our specialty what it is today.

Equity and Inclusion: With DEI efforts being attacked in many states across our nation, it is more important than ever for AUGS to show support and a commitment to those in underrepresented communities. In addition, AUGS must be mindful of other aspects of diversity including differences in geological locations, resources, types of practices and our non-physician members.

Organizational Growth: It is clear that AUGS has made changes to sustain its presence as a top-tier organization worldwide. We need to continue this momentum by making wise decisions regarding finances while also being aggressive in finding new sources of funding both within AUGS and outside of the organization.

What suggestions do you have to respond to these challenges?

Growth of AUGS membership

• Maintain a consistent and intentional presence on all forms of social media
• Highlight the work of various AUGS members including junior/mid-career faculty, APPs, and those working in non-academic settings
• Although it is important to maintain a virtual presence to allow for maximum access, we must push in-person meetings and events in order to build and foster relationships amongst members

Equity and Inclusion

• Acknowledge and support research addressing social determinants of health and have educational content focusing on this topic
• Recognize AUGS members doing important work in non-academic settings such as those in private practice and those practicing in low-resource settings
• Commitment to having a presence at other national meetings including those that focused on underrepresented or lower-resourced communities such as: the National Medical Association, the National Hispanic Medical Association, and the National Rural Health Association
• Ensure our patient-educational information is broad in content and accessible to various communities

Organizational Growth

• Determine innovative initiatives to promote philanthropy from AUGS membership and also searching for philanthropic funding sources outside of the organization
• Engaging with Industry in ways that will benefit the organization while also improving the care we provide to our patients
• Promote organizational and member advocacy in areas of access to care, payment reform, and other public health issues

Administratively, I have been a proven healthcare leader at the Inova Health System in Northern Virginia, and I am passionate about program building and process improvement. I have built the pelvic floor program at Inova and worked with various service lines to work through multiple operational meltdowns involving operating rooms, COVID, and provider-related matters. By inspiring a culture rooted in a commitment to excellence, service to others, and improving the community's health, under my leadership, Inova Gynecology rose to the #6 program in the country. Clinically, I am an international authority in robotic surgery, biomedical engineering educator, and researcher in the field of pelvic floor ultrasound and urogynecology. I transformed the field of urogynecology with the introduction of my studies involving Pelvic Floor Ultrasound, which has become central to the practice of diagnosing and healing physical and psychological aspects of pelvic floor trauma. My practice pivots between a clinic consulting room, the operating rooms, and the health system meeting rooms. As a servant leader, I engage in crucial dialogues to improve processes, resolve conflict, and create a cohesive culture. Socially, I promote emotional literacy and break social taboos surrounding childbirth and mental health. Harnessing my first-hand experience as a healer working with mothers for the past 30 years, I brought an empathetic lens into the complex experience of being a mother. I leverage my knowledge of anatomy, maternal mental health, and post-traumatic stress disorder to amplify diverse voices from different ages, cultures, gender identities, and abilities. Personally, I have been blessed to be with my wife for the past thirty years and to raise three amazing and successful daughters together. My wife is a nationally known physician and a professional singer. In my “spare” time, I paint (www.ShobeiriArt.com). My painting exhibitions, “Do You See Me? Paintings of Postpartum Trauma and Healing,” received outstanding reviews from the Washington Post and ABC News. I concentrate on stories and general motifs of post-traumatic stress disorder that postpartum patients convey. I am passionate about advocating for vulnerable populations.

What do you believe are the major challenges facing AUGS?

AUGS comprises its members, and the question of how AUGS can serve its members needs to be reframed. Urogynecologists navigate a complex and dynamic environment where it’s imperative to respond to changing market conditions, industry regulations, and competitive pressures, all while providing quality care to patients in need and supporting the staff that do this meaningful work. Like all healthcare services, AUGS struggles to remain relevant in an ever-changing environment with the emergence of AI and regulations that allow competition to intrude into the field of urogynecology.

What suggestions do you have to respond to these challenges?

AUGS has done a great job providing various educational venues for trainees and members, but when I asked one of my friends if she would attend AUGS this year, she asked, "What for?" Having to decide between caring for family, paying the bills, and keeping up with work environment changes, AUGS has to meet its members at their level to bring value to the individual member. I possess the interpersonal skills to ensure successful relationship-building with various internal and external stakeholders, including physicians, APPs, nurses, health system and society leaderships, foundations, and affiliated organizations. I have been accountable for translating organizational priorities into operational tactics. I have played a key role in promoting excellence in collaborative practice, developing integrated clinical care systems across hospitals and ambulatory environments, and advocating for high reliability, patient safety, and workplace safety. I can work closely with the board members and operational leadership to ensure that AUGS provides outstanding outcomes, experience, and value for the members.

By way of introduction, I am originally from Brooklyn, New York where I attended public schools through High School. Growing up, I loved sports (especially baseball), math and science. I graduated from Yale University, where I was pre-med while majoring in Economics and Mathematics. I received my medical degree from New York University School of Medicine, where I subsequently did my Obstetrics and Gynecology and Urogynecology training, under the tutelage of Dr. Robert Porges, a consummate professional and great vaginal surgeon. I remained at NYU as an attending for many years and served in various leadership roles, including Residency Program Director in the Department of ObGyn (for 18 years), Chief of Gynecology and Urogynecology at Bellevue Hospital and Director of the Division of Urogynecology at the NYU School of Medicine. At NYU, we were fortunate to have an excellent group of female Urologists, and were able to cut across traditional departmental boundaries and collaborate by creating a unified practice between our two divisions. We all worked together with residents from both Departments and trained fellows from ObGyn and Urology residencies, a very fulfilling endeavor.

I left NYU in 2019 to take on my current position as Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Jersey Shore University Medical Center in the Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH) system, a role which has expanded to Regional Chair of the HMH South Region hospitals. During this time, I have enhanced my administrative and leadership skills, collaborated with full-time academic and part-time community physicians, along with nursing and hospital leadership to grow our department, emphasizing high-quality, safe care in a supportive environment focused on the well-being and diversification of our team members. During the 5 years that I have been here and despite the Covid pandemic beginning 6 months into my tenure (indicating that I cannot list “good timing” as a strength!), we have seen Gynecology volume grow by 30% and Obstetric volume by 50%. During this time, we established new programs in Family Planning and Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology, while augmenting our subspecialty divisions in Urogynecology, Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Gyn Oncology. The academic output of a department which historically had been community-based, has more than tripled in terms of publications and presentations at national meetings. We also applied for and were granted a permanent increase in our residency complement. On a personal note, this year, I received the "Physician of the Year" award from the medical center, which was especially gratifying in that it is voted upon by nursing.

I am a member of many professional societies and organizations, including ACOG, APGO-CREOG, the New York Obstetrical Society, SGS and, of course, AUGS. I served as an oral boards examiner for ABOG for 15 years. For ACOG, I was one of two collaborators on the Pelvic Organ Prolapse Practice Bulletin (#85, 2007) and then was invited to join the Gynecology Practice Bulletin committee, which I served on for 3 years. During that time, I was one of two collaborators for the Urinary Incontinence Practice Bulletin (#155, 2015). Prior to my time with ACOG, I was a member of the Systematic Review Group for SGS.

After my term at ACOG, I was appointed to the AUGS Clinical Guidelines Committee and became Vice Chair of that committee one year later. Subsequently, the Guidelines Committee, along with 2 other committees, was folded into the Publications Committee, which I then vice-chaired for 3 years, before becoming chair of that committee, a role in which I currently serve. Thus, I have been on AUGS' committees handling guidelines and publications for the past 10 years. During this time, I've had the opportunity to work with many great AUGS members from around the country and, collectively, we've been able to produce a large number of documents providing guidance on a multitude of topics within our discipline. As chair of the committee, I've also had the chance to collaborate with some of our international colleagues on multi-society projects, which have been extremely satisfying to complete while working across multiple time zones.

I would be remiss not to mention my main community service which has been through involvement in youth sports organizations. I have 3 daughters who all (fortunately for me!) were interested in playing sports, primarily basketball and soccer. As such, I became involved in coaching travel basketball, which I did for 8 years (and 9 teams, having coached 2 teams simultaneously one year). Sports parallels what we do in the professional world in terms of having defined rules and competition, dealing with a variety of different personalities and situations, and having to utilize skills including flexibility, strategizing, teaching, communication and relationship-building. I truly believe that some of the achievements that have been attained during my time as Department Chair were the result of skills honed from coaching. I also went on to join our town’s youth basketball and soccer boards and became President of both (at different times), which not only required the organizational skills that go along with leadership positions, but also the ability to seek funding and establish philanthropic relationships in the community (in addition to the time management necessary in consideration of my day job!).

AUGS Directors at Large serve as Liaisons to one of the 6 councils within the organizational structure. I am seeking to join the Board as a Director at Large and would bring the skills and experiences I have developed over time in my various roles, a positive “can do” attitude, the desire and ability to build relationships, an objective metrics-based approach to problem solving and the motivation to continue to move our field and organization forward.

Having been a Residency Director for nearly two decades, I understand and appreciate how to work with people from diverse backgrounds, listen to their needs and involve them in the decision-making process. As a Division Director at a large academic-medical center, I learned much about faculty practice management, including the finances of medicine and intricacies of coding in Urogynecology in particular. I became especially aware of the challenges of blending academic and clinical demands and the importance of emphasizing well-being to avoid burnout. Now as Department Chair, all of these learned skills have coalesced, with the addition of learning about and understanding the needs of community-based physicians, while instituting policies to achieve high quality, safe care across all the divisions in the Department. My time on AUGS Guidelines and Publications committees, especially the past 3 years as Chair of Publications, has enabled me to understand the Society’s structure, vision and strategic plan better, align committee members with these goals, formulate strategies to meet the objectives, represent AUGS when working with other societies and ultimately, provide oversight in the development of high-quality content for our members. In all of these roles, an ability to communicate effectively and transparently and facilitate relationships between parties is of paramount importance (between residents and attendings as Program Director; faculty and fellows and mid-level providers as Division Director; private and community physicians and nursing as Department Chair) and I believe lends itself well to the role of liaison for the AUGS board.

I have been attending AUGS meetings since the mid-1990s and, at one of the very first meetings I attended, the inaugural June Allyson Grant was announced--by June Allyson! In the years since, I’ve seen and appreciated the growth of the Society, the refining of its goals, and the advancements in our subspecialty that it has fostered. I am happy and honored to have served the Society and hope to continue to do so as a Director at Large.

What do you believe are the major challenges facing AUGS?

My list is below, but what I think the challenges are that are facing AUGS is not as important as what the membership thinks. To successfully identify and respond to the issues, effective communication with the membership at large is critical and I would want to speak with, poll and/or survey members to gain a better appreciation of what they want to address.

1) Provider Reimbursement - In particular, differences in reimbursement by physician gender exist in Urogynecology as in other medical specialties, with female surgeons receiving lower payments from Medicare. In addition, disparities exist between specialties; e.g., Urologists vs. Urogynecologists.

2) Accessibility to Care - Research by several members of our society has demonstrated that the prevalence of Pelvic Floor Disorders is increasing and one study estimated that approximately 3700 PFD specialists will be needed in the United States by 2030. Currently, we are well short of that number.

3) Finances of the Society - Largely as a result of the pandemic, AUGS’ profitability has been impacted and a portion of our reserves depleted in order to finance operations. This has improved in the past 2 years but is an important focus for the Society going forward.

4) Emerging technology - AI tools hold the potential to improve surgical care, including preoperatively (patient selection and preparation), intraoperatively (improving performance and OR efficiency), and postoperatively (potential for reducing complications).

5) Relative lack of Research Funding - Urogynecology still lags many other medical specialties in availability of funding for research.

6) Increasing and diversifying membership/competition with other societies

7) Physician Burnout

What suggestions do you have to respond to these challenges?

First, my standard approach to problem solving is to diligently gain a complete understanding of the issues, which involves information gathering, data analysis and obtaining opinions from a diverse group of stakeholders, before formulating a strategy. Therefore, an inherent aspect of problem solving is being intimately involved in the process, and, if I’m fortunate enough to join the Board, that is how I would go about responding to these issues.

That said, my brief thoughts at this point are as follows:

1) Provider Reimbursement

• Support the function of Payment Reform and Coding committees
• Advocacy
• Utilize published data demonstrating lower reimbursement for female providers in Urogynecology (and all specialties) as well as disparities between Urology and Urogynecology subspecialties

2) Accessibility to care

• Raise awareness and education
• Increase training programs and incentives for rural practice

3) Finances of the Society

• Continue to augment content in user-friendly and interesting formats at the Annual meeting (as has been occurring in the past several years) to drive attendance
• Philanthropy
• Based on Dr. Bradley's Presidential Address in Portland last year, less than 5% of our membership had donated to the AUGS foundation (this may be the reason why, to my surprise, I received the Donor of the Year award in 2023–there is not a lot of competition when 95% of people are on the sidelines!). We need to continue to promote the important things that AUGS does for its members and ensure that they are aware of them.

4) Emerging technology

• Promote and support research on applications of AI in Urogynecology, recognizing its potential impact on more rapid acquisition of information, evaluating the ability of natural language processing platforms to provide accurate information to patients, and assess the ability of AI to improve procedural performance.
• Dovetailing with this will be the need to continue to recruit a younger, more diverse membership, as below, who will be more facile with emerging technology and more apt to utilize it

5) Relative lack of research funding

• Continued government advocacy, highlighting patient stories to drive the need for more research in this area
• Continued well-vetted partnerships with industry

6) Increasing/diversifying membership

• We have seen >30% increase in membership over the past 8 years and we need to continue that progress
• Marketing
• Use of social media
• Assuring that fellowship programs have distinct DEI statements (we recently reviewed this and found that < 15% currently have such a statement on their website)

7) Physician burnout

• Education on strategies for individuals
• Advocacy for organizations, hospitals, medical centers to implement and improve interventions to better support physicians
• Address systems issues, including EMR and reimbursement (as above)