“My involvement in ARHP has introduced me to people who hold the qualities I look for in professionals and in friends,” she explains. “They are experts in their field, a wealth of information, always willing to collaborate, and they encourage me to give back to ARHP and the rheumatology community as a whole.”
As the largest gathering of rheumatologists & rheumatology health professionals in the U.S. each year, the Annual Meeting is a place for researchers & clinicians to share breakthroughs from the bench to bedside while increasing their professional networks.
Get Involved
As Ms. Dodge became more involved in the ARHP in the 1990s, she was identified for opportunities to impact the mission of the organization as a volunteer. She began volunteering for the organization and sees her involvement as an opportunity to gain different skills than she would typically gain as a practicing clinician. “Just learning how to run meetings and make them productive is a valuable experience as an ARHP volunteer,” she explains of the experience. “But, you also get a better look at the diverse rheumatology healthcare team and gain a better understanding of how we all contribute to the care of people with rheumatic diseases.” This is particularly important to Ms. Dodge as she works with a broad range of healthcare professionals—from rheumatologists to pulmonologists, cardiologists and plastic surgeons—while managing the university’s three hand clinics and working as a part of its scleroderma program.
As a busy clinician, a mentor and an ARHP volunteer, it would be very easy for Ms. Dodge to suffer from email fatigue and information overload, and it would be even easier to miss out on networking and relationship building while sifting through all that information. For Ms. Dodge, the ARHP consistently makes education, advocacy and networking easier by providing her what she needs, when she needs it.
To learn more about the benefits of ARHP membership, visit Rheumatology.
Erin Latimer Meadows is a communications consultant and writer based in Atlanta. She is the principal consultant of Cause Collaboration LLC and works with organizations to help build their brands and meet their missions.
Striking a Balance in a Content Is King World
Ms. Dodge understands that you can’t read everything and can’t be everywhere, and she looks to the ARHP to give her the information she needs so she can focus on her patients and colleagues, and find precious time for some work-life balance.
