By Stan Miller, MD*
No compass or GPS will help you find your way if you don’t know where you want to go.
That’s why the ABD has spent hundreds of hours over the past 15 months reviewing our goals and strategies to ensure we know where we are headed and how we want to get there. The result is a new strategic plan, “Advancing Excellence and Promoting Distinction in Dermatologic Care.”
Many diplomates, trainees, program directors, and strategic partners volunteered their time to participate in developing this plan. Through research, dialogue, and debate, they helped us better understand how the environment around us has evolved, and how the needs of diplomates and trainees have changed.
As a result, we have refreshed our Mission and Vision to state our core beliefs and purpose more clearly:
Mission
To serve the public and distinguish the profession by certifying that diplomates have the knowledge and skills to provide high-quality, safe, and effective dermatologic care.
Vision
Advance excellence in dermatologic care and improve outcomes for all patients.
Then, we identified a set of strategic priorities that support the Mission and Vision and address the issues we learned were most important to our diplomates, trainees, and many strategic partners.
We plan to focus on four key priorities in the coming years. By concentrating our efforts and resources in these areas, we hope to make substantial progress in important areas. Our goal is to provide leadership, as well as programs and services for our diplomates, that help ensure we are all well-informed about advances in our specialty.
Here are those priorities:
- Cultivate and strengthen our partnership with diplomates and trainees. We have an obligation to explore new ways to increase engagement and make sure we know what programs and outreach will best support lifelong learning and excellence in care.
- Support diplomates’ ability to treat patients of all backgrounds compassionately and effectively. The ABD is committed to ensuring that all ABD-certified dermatologists are equipped to diagnose and treat skin disease in people of all skin types.
- Distinguish the value of ABD Certification: Working with you, we will find ways to better articulate and communicate the distinction and value of ABD board certification.
- Enhance ABD governance processes and effectiveness. We want to be efficient and effective in carrying out our programs, and transparent about how decisions are made that affect you. We seek to incorporate broad perspectives and innovative ideas in all that we do.
We have planned tactics for each of these strategies – you can see what those are here.
We are excited about making progress toward these strategic goals. As we do, we will keep you informed of what we have learned and accomplished. We look forward to your continuing engagement with us to achieve, as partners, the best outcomes for all our patients.
*About the Author
Dr. Miller is the ABD Associate Executive Director for Continuing Certification and helped lead the ABD’s strategic planning efforts. He has been in private practice in Towson, MD, since 2002. Previously, he spent 10 years as a full-time faculty member at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
The ABD Announces New Five-Year Strategic Plan
