AAD is More Than Just a Conference

“I always try to remind everyone who's either new to the dermatology industry, new to dermatology press, or new to any part of dermatology that the academy is not a conference. I hear people say all the time, “Are you ready for the conference?” The conference is actually the least important part of the academy. The academy is the mothership where everything happens: the committees, the plenaries, the elections of officers, and obviously the networking and research, but also the presentations of new world data and everything else that goes along with moving the specialty forward in the structure. You can attend conferences all year long. But the academy is not a conference...There are so many different ways to find yourself at the academy,” said Neal Bhatia, MD, in an interview with Dermatology Times.

As a member of the American Academy of Dermatology’s (AAD) leadership team for many years, Bhatia, a board-certified dermatologist and the director of clinical dermatology at Therapeutics Clinical Research in San Diego, California, expressed the importance of understanding the magnitude of AAD’s annual meeting. He encourages clinicians starting out in their careers to “listen before you speak” as the way to be a leader is to listen and synthesize information or data first before acting.

“We all emerge as leaders and in our own different ways. We have to maximize our personalities, as well as our abilities to shine. Working through the academy is the best way to do that,” said Bhatia.

At the 2024 AAD Annual Meeting, Bhatia also presented his tips and tricks for managing office politics. In his session, “Managing Office Politics of Physicians, Patients, and Personnel,” Bhatia covered how to handle difficult social media or Yelp reviews, how dermatology clinicians can maintain relevance in leadership when middle management has stepped in, instances of corporate theft, and more.

“It’s very difficult nowadays with the demise of private practice and the slow erosion of physician leadership in the workplace on how to actually navigate situations when your hands are tied,” concluded Bhatia.

Transcript

Neal Bhatia, MD: Hi, Dr. Neal Bhatia. I'm director of clinical dermatology at Therapeutics Clinical Research in San Diego, California. I'm looking forward to everything that we learned at the Academy meeting and taking it forward.

Dermatology Times: What are the key takeaways for dermatologists from your session, "Managing Office Politics?"

Bhatia: On Friday at the Academy, I was part of a session with my friends, Steven Kenneth Shama and Frank Iacobellis. Joe Eastern was supposed to come but unfortunately, he couldn't make it. But we talked about managing office politics, and we created some scenarios about employees, patients, physicians, as well as just working in tandem in dermatology in the 21st century, if you will. All the issues that go along with social media with Yelp reviews with difficult patients putting us on defense and even more so about managing staff in a consolidated environment where many of us don't have control of the outcomes anymore. We presented some cases about patient extortion of the way they want things treated unless they're going to call the medical board.

We talked about physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners who try to maintain some relevance in leadership when middle management has taken over. And even more so some interesting cases about a medical assistant who was an influencer during the workday on social media and what to be done about that, as well as just simple things like clock watching, abuse of privilege, and even what many called corporate theft with stealing of supplies and use of time that personal rather than for work. So, a lot of interesting scenarios; it's very difficult nowadays with the demise of private practice and the slow erosion of physician leadership in the workplace on how to actually navigate situations when your hands are tied. So, that was a nice way of getting some audience discussion as well as presenting some really difficult real-world scenarios.

Dermatology Times: What advice do you have for navigating AAD for those who may not have attended before?

Bhatia: Having been in Academy leadership for many years, as well as my 25th year out, I always try to remind everyone who's either new to dermatology industry, new to dermatology press, or new to just any part of dermatology that the academy is not a conference. I hear people say all the time, "Are you ready for the conference?" And the conference is actually the least important part of the academy. The academy is the mothership, where everything happens, the committees, the plenaries, the elections of officers, and obviously the networking and research, but also the presentations of new world data and international data, and everything else that goes along with moving the specialty forward in the structure. And again, you can attend conferences all year long. But the academy is not a conference. I for one will run around with my head cut off. I know everybody else who's there is over-extended and wants to meet while you can, but also has a lot of committee meetings, a lot of things that are important to get involved in. That's also how a lot of the younger dermatologists get started is you start to present your own work at sessions, you get noticed by those who are around you to do other work.

I know I got my start from many of my mentors and my friends who opened the doors for me, and I tried to do the same for my younger colleagues as well. Even more so is getting involved, getting involved with committees, getting involved with task forces with initiatives, finding your passion. The academy is the place to do that, as well as cultivate your own identity as a leader or as someone who wants to just be someone who learns and gets involved passively. There are so many different ways to find yourself at the academy. But one of the things I talk about with new young leaders who all want to get involved, the first thing I teach them is to listen: listen, before you speak. Speaking in volume and being overboard is not the way to be a leader, the way to be a leader is to listen and to synthesize things before you hit the send button. And even more so, just work in tandem with your colleagues. And then think about how you participate in a group.

There are many young physicians now who want to be on committees, they want to chair committees, they want to be on the board of directors, it's, you know, let's get to baby steps and think about what can you contribute first and working in tandem, and working in a group and then think about the team before you think about yourself. I think leadership has taken on a new role. But yet, in many respects, we all emerge as leaders and in our own different ways. We have to maximize our personalities, as well as our abilities to shine. And again, working through the academy is the best way to do that. That being said, too, we're learning a lot about patient accounts and patient representation, trying to get drugs covered, trying to work on prior authorization models, all the different bureaucracy models and the advocacy issues that we face. That's where the academy is also the place to get some of those initiatives moving. And then they'll spill into the legislative conference. The Leadership Forum will be later in the spring. We also have an industry summit where we work with our industry partners. And one of the things too, that I always try to remind our team is we don't talk about sponsors or benefactors, we talk about partners when it comes to industry, because we want our industry dollars to not just be money spent or an ATM we want it to be, where's that going to go to actually help drive some initiatives forward. So, a lot of different things that come through the academy are very different than at other conferences, not to say that they also don't have their benefits. But for the same benefit that the Academy does through the structure, we can really find tomorrow's leaders today, we can really find the data that we need to move forward and build our advocacy machine to help protect the specialty.

[Transcript lightly edited for space and clarity]