Planning for the next year begins immediately after the current year’s meeting, when STAR’s board convenes to discuss what worked, what didn’t and to go over feedback from the meeting. This year, the feedback from attendees—physicians, practice managers and exhibitors alike—has been entirely positive.
In the planning phase, Mr. Loggins focuses on logistics and finances. He and Ms. Torbett evaluate potential conference sites to ensure there is a suitable meeting hotel and good restaurants within walking distance for attendees and sponsors.
The physicians take responsibility for planning the content and work hard to ensure that they obtain dynamic speakers who can address a good balance of topics, Dr. Mosbacker says. Regular clinical topics include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis. Other sessions sometimes address osteoarthritis, myositis, scleroderma and other more niche topics.
Catering content to practice managers is also important to the planning process. “Managers are crucial in this day and age with so many government regulations, reimbursement changes—everything is changing on a daily basis,” Mr. Loggins says. Advanced practitioners are “the future of the specialty,” he adds. When they attend the STAR meeting and sit with physicians to learn about the science of rheumatology, “they love it,” he says. “They are talking and learning, and it’s a joy to see.”
Supporting Broader Society Efforts
Participants also discussed patient advocacy during the annual business meeting in support of the association’s priorities. “[We] encouraged [members] to not only get involved with STAR, but also the ACR and other organizations that fight for the specialty of rheumatology and our patients,” Ms. Torbett says.
As the society has grown in recent years, it has started seeking out ways to get members involved beyond attending the annual meeting. Advocacy at the state level is a logical next step for STAR, not only for the field of rheumatology but for the practice of medicine and patients overall, Dr. Mosbacker says. To support this goal, STAR brought in a lobbyist to speak at the business meeting and offer guidance on advocacy efforts. Recommendations included how to organize and get people involved at the local level, grassroots advocacy and how to use other organizations’ successes as a springboard. The Texas Medical Association, for example, has delegates who lobby in Washington, D.C.
STAR aims to put together a state committee that can team up with the Texas Medical Association on lobbying efforts and help ensure that rheumatology has a voice in the state legislature, Mr. Loggins explains. STAR is also working to establish an insurance subcommittee to support physicians who are dealing with payor issues. Additional plans entail hiring a lobbyist to work on STAR’s behalf, similar to efforts that have been successful in Florida, and possibly creating a state PAC.
