A Message from the President

Reflections and a Look Ahead

Wishing all of you a wonderful 2024! I hope you are celebrating the good work we have done individually and together in the past year, and I know we are all looking forward to the road ahead. As part of the final Quarterly article of my term as president, I’m happy to report that our AAHPM Board of Directors, volunteer leaders, and staff took part in a rigorous and enjoyable strategic planning process in the fall and winter. In the past, we have done strategic planning every 5 years. Because of the pandemic, we decided to do it a year early, as so much has changed. Taking stock of all we are doing as an organization was inspiring, and we spent time wrestling with challenges, considering the uncertainty that the future may bring, and thinking big about the future of our organization in the larger context of health care in America. We will share the plan with our membership in the spring and anticipate it will be a strategic framework that adjusts with the changing environment each year—with our mission and values as our North Star. I have been through strategic planning multiple times now as part of my work on the board, and I am always invigorated and humbled when we, as a group, thoughtfully consider how AAHPM can grow and serve our membership now and well into the future. I am proud that AAHPM is both the medical specialty society for physicians in hospice and palliative medicine and a big tent for the field of hospice and palliative care in partnership with other organizations in the National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care.