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Dear ANA members: I am honored to serve you and the ANA for the next two years. This is incredibly meaningful to me to have this opportunity to lead at a national level and to further the potential for academic neurology and neurology departments in academic institutions. First, I want to thank Justin C. McArthur, ANA’s Immediate Past President, for all the work he has accomplished in the last two years. He steered the ANA during the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the hardest times we have all experienced. Through his leadership the ANA has grown and become a stronger place for neurology and I look forward to building on the impressive programs he launched, such as the Inclusion/Diversity/Equity/Anti-Racism/Social Justice (IDEAS) Task Force. Next, I want to acknowledge the tremendous growth and opportunities ahead of us. The past few years have seen an explosive change in neurology where many of the basic research discoveries are converging with exciting advances in clinical diagnostics and biomarker development. This exponential change has happened because of academic neurology departments that have contributed significantly to the advancement of our field. As a result, neurology is occupying a new position in many academic institutions and is responsible for many of the downstream successes, from financial to patient longevity, survival, and mortality and morbidity improvements. We are learning how to redefine ourselves and continue to evolve our relevance and service to ANA members. My presidency will be largely devoted to helping academic neurologists define themselves within the larger healthcare system and in university research. As we move forward I believe that the ANA should reflect on its current identity and what it means in this rapidly and dynamically changing landscape. It's important that we think about our role in the scope of other national entities in the neurosciences in general, other neurological associations, other neuroscience associations, and reach out to them and become important partners with these groups. I’ll continue to maintain our incredible strengths in bringing cutting-edge research to our membership and ANA’s remarkable professional development programs. As we grow, we can also serve our multidisciplinary, multispecialty domains of neurology in new ways. We must consider helping our subspecialty organizations come together and share best practices. From epilepsy to critical care, MS, and stroke, developmental disorders to neurodegenerative disease, the ANA is in a privileged position to use our Annual Meeting and year-round activities to explore intersections between these different parts of neurology. |
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Regards,
Frances E. Jensen, MD, FANA, FACP Arthur Knight Asbury, MD Professor of Neurology Chair of the Department of Neurology Co-Director Penn Medicine Translational Neuroscience Center Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania |
