George B. Bartley, MD

The American Academy of Ophthalmology, for more than a century, has served patients and practitioners with distinction. While taking pride in its history, the Academy must act wisely and assertively to address today’s unprecedented challenges. Success will require excellence in advocacy, in each of several dimensions.

The Academy must be an exemplary advocate for quality and value improvement, devising relevant methods to enhance patient safety and to demonstrate that the treatments we recommend are both effective and affordable. We expect no less when we ourselves are patients, and we would probably demand much more if we were personally responsible for balancing the health care budget. The onus -- or, more optimistically, the opportunity -- to prove value is ours.

The Academy must be an advocate for interdisciplinary communication and collaboration. Health care increasingly crosses traditional specialty training lines, so we must actively engage our colleagues throughout medicine to improve the overall body of knowledge. Fragmentation is an ever-present threat, not only to the care we provide for our patients but to the viability of our specialty if we neglect the realities of health care legislation and regulation.

To that end, the Academy must advocate for its members at local, state, and national political forums. We are fortunate to have skilled and respected liaisons in this realm, and their efforts deserve our support.

The purpose of political advocacy, ultimately, is to ensure that medicine remains a profession rather than devolving into a commodity. Professionalism is characterized by adherence to principles that promote ethics, service, and education. The Academy must conduct its business affairs with unimpeachable integrity; this is one of the specific responsibilities that the membership rightfully expects of its Board of Trustees. Professionalism spawns service, which has long been a hallmark of the Academy and is a great opportunity for growth both in the United States and abroad as the Academy’s international presence expands. Education is arguably the most lustrous jewel in the Academy’s crown. We are obliged to sustain and enhance our programs and offerings as a commitment to lifelong learning. This is the foundation on which the quality and value improvement goals mentioned earlier will be based.

Why must the Academy be successful? I find a statement written by Dr. William J. Mayo a century ago, in 1910, to be eminently relevant: “The best interest of the patient is the only interest to be considered, and in order that the sick may have the benefit of advancing knowledge, union of forces is necessary.” By advocating partnerships between the subspecialties of ophthalmology, with other disciplines of medicine and health care, and with the public and its elected representatives, the American Academy of Ophthalmology will fulfill its mission of ensuring that the public can -- and will -- obtain the best possible eye care.