Mon, 07/12/2021 - 11:15
What a marvelous experience seeing all of our fellow CTMSS members at the 2021 Pulses Course and Annual Meeting in West Palm Beach, Florida last month. For most of us it was the first time
we were able to gather together both socially and to attend a live scientific meeting in over a year. It was refreshing to interact with each other and learn from the leading experts in our field of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. The Education and Annual Meeting committees, along with our administrators at PESC (Professional Exchange Service Corporation), worked through challenging times to produce these excellent academic events and I want to laud them for their efforts. The Pulses Course had the largest subscription ever with over 90 Students attending the two-day, hands-on, education course. We believe that this course is the best clinical TMS course in the world. Furthermore, the scientific agenda at our Annual Meeting was replete with the latest research informing us on theta burst stimulation, SAINT protocol, TMS maintenance therapy, treatment of OCD and pain syndromes, TMS therapy for adolescence, future directions in the field among other important topics. It is clear that our society is thriving as our membership is nearing 800. We look forward to an expanded program next May, 2022 for our 10th annual CTMSS Annual Meeting in Chicago lead by Co-Chairs Johnny O’Reardon, MD and Robert Sammons, MD.
After the Annual Meeting the new Board of Directors for 2021-22 met for the first time. Subsequently at the direction of our Executive Committee and with the support of our administrative staff at PESC , we held the first Strategic Planning Meeting since 2017. In this meeting we performed a SWOT Analysis and outlined our society’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and goals. It was a very lively and energetic interchange with the total board participating and moderated by Marcel Bourdase, current Chief Operating Officer of PESC and our former Executive Director, and Ashleigh Servadio, our current Executive Director. From this engaging meeting we came up with goals for our society that we want to attain over the next year.
I have tasked our committees and our new committee chairs to work on these very important initiatives. First, there was a strong desire by the board to standardize and promote residency education of TMS treatment. It is through the education of young clinicians that our society will grow and thrive and fulfill our mission of increasing awareness and access of TMS therapy . The Education Committee, under the leadership of Co-Chairs Michelle Cochran, MD and Debra Stultz, MD, will be working on this initiative. True to form, they have already established a task force led by our Member-at-Large Suzanne Kerns, MD and Kristin Raj, MD, to meet this goal.
There was a strong desire to expand our membership to over 1000 members with an increased contingent of international members. Also, the board wanted to encourage our new members to be mentored. Membership Committee, under the direction of Co-Chairs Ken Goolsby, MD and Rebecca Cohen, MD, will be taking these initiatives on and has already establish a quarterly New Member Welcome Webinar to improve onboarding new members and provide guidance on how to obtain the most benefit from our society. Furthermore, the Membership Committee, through the initiatives of Phil Janicak, MD, Brian Smith, MD and myself, developed a Fellow designation to honor our active members who have given much to our society and the field of TMS. The board will review this honor designation this summer.
There was much discussion about improving community awareness and access for TMS. The Outreach Committee with its Co-Chairs Saydra Wilson, MD and Nate Upshaw, MD, will be updating the CTMSS website and patient portal to make our website more accessible to both patients and society members.
As we continue to grow as a Society, the financial aspects have become more involved so the board suggested developing a Finance Committee to assist our treasurer, Rebecca Allen, MD. Legal, Business and Ethics Committee, lead by Co-Chairs Ian Cook, MD and Max Okasha, MD, have been charged with amending our bylaws to include this new committee.
The board also tasked our Clinical Standards committee, lead by Co-Chairs Nolan Williams, MD and F. Andrew Kozel, MD, with clarifying the standard education and qualifications of a TMS prescriber and updating the practice guidelines.
The Insurance Committee, under the strong leadership of Rebecca Allen, MD and Richard Bermudes, MD, will continue its wonderful work by interfacing with medical directors of insurance companies to encourage a broadening of their policies to improve access of TMS therapy for patients and assist our members with documents for insurance appeals.
Co-Chairs Martha Koo, MD and Andrew Leuchter, MD, will continue their exemplary efforts in developing the bimontly Affinity Group meetings to assist in improving communication and collaboration between members who share similar interests in our field. Furthermore, a pregnancy registry has been established by one of our Affinity Groups! This committee also oversees our Poster Presentations, an important offering at our Annual Meeting. You can find past posters published in the Brain Stimulation Journal.
During the past presidency of Paul Croarkin, DO a goal of establishing a non-profit Foundation called FACT (Foundation for the Advancement of Clinical TMS) was set. The board felt that its important to complete this goal and it is my desire to see this enacted over the next year. This non-profit foundation’s mission will be to promote continued access and patient awareness of TMS but also to provide funding for research, scholarships and grants.
Our board and the Executive Committee are mindful of the need for diversity. Already, CTMSS has voted in a strong contingent of women and people of color onto the Board of Directors. We will be looking to mentor and bring a greater diversity into our leadership of CTMSS and in our academic programs. The Annual Meeting, Education and Outreach Committees will be charged to increase awareness of and encourage diversity in all of the programs they produce. The next Pulses Courses, with its continually updated content, will be held in Nashville in September, 2021 and another in Las Vegas in January, 2022. So remember to register. As a special bonus, the Education Committee is working on the first of its kind Advance Pulses Seminar that will be held during the Brain Stimulation Meeting in Charleston, SC in December, 2021. Stay tuned!
Finally, the board wants to increase openness and transparency of its activities and to this aim, I as your President will provide our members with a quarterly report of our society’s activities in TMS Today so our members are updated on the progress towards completion of these important initiatives.
Wishing you all a wonderful summer!
Randy I. Pardell, MD, DLFAPA
President
Clinical TMS Society