Bill Klaproth (host): This is AAOMS On the Go. I'm Bill Klaproth. Today we are joined by the 2024-2025 AAOMS President, Dr. David Morrison, to reflect on his impactful year of leadership, the initiatives he championed, and his unwavering focus on the theme of the patients we serve.

Dr. Morrison welcome.

David Morrison, DMD: Thank you, Bill. It's a pleasure speaking with you and I look forward to this conversation.

Host: Yeah, me too. First of all, thank you so much for your leadership this past year. We really appreciate it.

David Morrison, DMD: You know, it's been a labor of love and it's been a busy year, been an exciting and rewarding year at the same time.

Host: Absolutely. That is no doubt about that. So, to begin, Dr. Morrison, what was the guiding principle behind your leadership this year as president?

David Morrison, DMD: As you, as you kind of stated before, my theme this year was The patients We Serve. As president, I used the AAOMS Strategic Plan as basically my roadmap, with every decision basically coming back to being guided by our commitment to patient care and advancing the OMS specialty.

Host: And then speaking of that, I'm wondering if you could share a few examples for us of that guiding principle in action and maybe specifically some initiatives that you focused on this past year?

David Morrison, DMD: Yeah. We actually have a Strategic Plan and part of that Strategic Plan, it kind of – once again – acts as a roadmap or a guide plate, so to speak, for our initiatives and the primary areas that focused on were the first being advocacy, which is, obviously very important in our association and representing our members and our specialty and taking care of our patients. Certainly, education and research are always important component. Anything that we do as an association. And you know, practice management, workforce development, followed by fostering our member engagement and organizational excellence. And then ultimately the Association has really worked hard this past year, with myself and the Board, working on public outreach. It's been a, been an important aspect this past year also.

Host: That's a, you've been busy. That's a very broad spectrum of initiatives. Everything from advocacy to, you said, excellence in education and research, practice management workforce development, member engagement, public outreach. So you've had a lot going on Dr. Morrison, and again, we appreciate your leadership.

Can we walk through some of these a little bit more and hear how they evolved under your leadership?

Let's start with advocacy. Advocacy certainly plays a key role in association activities. What were the most pressing advocacy issues addressed this past year?

David Morrison, DMD: Well, on the federal level, our advocacy primarily centers for our members as an activity called Day On the Hill, which is very important annual event we hold usually early spring, which was the case this year. Actually, this year we had almost a record number of OMSs. We had 107 OMSs and residents visit nearly 180 congressional offices, which obviously has a very positive impact when they hear our story in person. During those visits, we discussed issues surrounding the REDI Act, which is due to with resident financial concerns and interest payments for residents in debt. With the Ensuring the Lasting Smiles Act. We would discuss drug shortage solutions and Medicare payment reforms. So all critical things that our members are interested in. We've had a number of successful federal advocacy wins, I would say.

On the state level, we launched a strategic initiative to increase OMS representation on dental boards. And I'm happy to say, currently we have 42 OMSs serving on 33 state dental boards. We've actually provided extensive support to our state component societies with our state advocacy grants. And we've had a lot of institutional support when significant issues have arisen in various states this year. And we've been very successful in supporting our states.

And once again, advocacy is often is something that you don't see in your day-to-day practice, but ultimately for our specialty, it makes a difference. Also, as an organization, we've expanded this year our grassroots outreach with our OMS Action Network and our AAOMS Advocacy Circle. We are now expanding our recognition and in trying to empower our top legislative voices that are in the communities.

Host: Yeah, advocacy. It may not sound fun, but like you said in the background, it's really important. All the initiatives and the work that goes on backstage, if you will, at the federal level, the state level, local level. You mentioned grassroots as well. Really, really important.

One of the other things you mentioned, Dr. Morrison, was excellence in education and research, continuing to advance clinical excellence, as you know, critical in this field. So can you tell us what noteworthy education initiatives were addressed?

David Morrison, DMD: Yeah, I'm actually, this is probably one of the proudest things I did this year. I had a discussion early in the spring with Dr. Steve Roser, and during this conversation came up with an idea with his assistance and was able to accomplish this event rather quickly. And it was developing a OMS Program Directors Program, which we actually held in the AAOMS headquarters this past August.

This program gave residency leaders basically a roadmap for training residents and a platform to share their strategies for mentoring and recruiting and preparing the next generation of OMSs. We actually had 62 educators present during this meeting that represented 55 of our 102 residency programs. So it was very successful for the initial meeting.

Another educational initiative we've had this past year was developed in response to a, what I would say is a noted drop in our resident applicant pool and also the open match positions that we've seen over the past several years. These are especially affecting our six-year integrated programs, and we've actually seen in the last several years an eight to nine percent rate of unfilled positions at the initial match announcement. So, I created a Special Committee on Student Recruitment and Residency Match that was chaired by Dr. Brent Ward. This committee subsequently brought to our Board multiple recommendations to improve our visibility of our specialty across the dental education and ultimately with the goal of correcting our, this negative trend that we've seen with the match. This past year, we also established new guidelines to assist of programs regarding non categorical interns with a commitment to ultimately standardize and strengthen our residency training programs.

From a research part of that, from the educational initiative, you can't really take a educational initiative and take out the research component of it. Certainly, our Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery under the leadership of Dr. Tom Dodson, is a leader in OMS research, as we have seen a significant increase in our journal impact factor from 2.3 to 2.6, and this is actually very significant in what, seeing what the journal means to the research community and our OMSs in general.

We have continued to support those interested in research when we hosted the Clinical Trials Methods Course at our AAOMS headquarters earlier this year. This basically gave a platform for learning and developing clinical research proposals, especially for our young practitioners.

This year, we've expanded the educational opportunities of the National Simulation Program by bringing the OBEAM model to 17 states in addition to the annual meeting location. And we still hold classes throughout the year at our AAOMS headquarters.

We've also continued to expand our online CE library. This continuing education gives members flexibility in how, where and when they want to learn. For example, we developed quick practical CE modules, which are under 30 minutes titled Bite Sized Wisdom.

And we also began offering CE credit for some of our select AAOMS On the Go podcast episodes, which would make you happy. And lastly, I would be remiss in not mentioning that we've released this year a new continuing education tracking tool that is free for our members, which is available on our website, that they can then manage and track and report their CE credits for themselves. It's just another useful tool in this whole educational process initiative that we rolled out this year.

Host: You've had a lot going on this past year.

David Morrison, DMD: Very busy.

Host: Very busy. A lot happening here. We appreciate the podcast shout out. Very proud of that. So, thank you for mentioning that too. So let's talk about professional development. I know this is very important in the specialty. How has AAOMS supported members in managing their practices and staff?

David Morrison, DMD: You mentioned, we just mentioned on AAOMS On the Go this podcast, you know, this is actually an award-winning podcast. And it starts here. This podcast offers discussions on topics that basically helps our members manage their practices in, in various different episodes.

I would encourage people who are listening to this, if you haven't gone back to listen to previous episodes, go back and look at the menu and find, you'll find topics that are of interest to you and that can be beneficial to you and help managing your practice.

It's also important to keep our members informed and help them navigate when critical issues do arise. A classic example is earlier this year in the fall, earlier fall, there was a critical IV fluid shortage following the Hurricane Helene that basically shut down a major supplier's North Carolina plant, which unfortunately happened to be the plant that produced over 60% of the IV fluids in the U.S. and once again, that occurred this past fall.

So in response, I organized a taskforce and we invited several other organizations to participate, and we were able to rapidly provide a timely and practical guidance for our members in conservation and strategies for the IV fluid shortage, which lasted almost for three months.

We've also spent some time and efforts this year expanding our support for the allied staff. We developed a new recruitment video and flyer for surgical assistants that was just recently developed and released. We also are beginning or have begun to update our surgical assisting skills series thereby expanding significantly the training opportunities for the OMS teams, which once again help support and manage practices.

This year we offered a revamped the practice management track at our AAOMS Educational Weekend that was held in the late spring. These Practice Priorities class premiered during this event, and with it, it actually had a record breaking attendance. The sessions that were presented that developed hands-on device in business operations and staffing and marketing; basically, empowering our practices to thrive in today's fairly competitive healthcare environment.

Host: Well, I know these initiatives are very well received. Anytime you can help someone manage, run and grow their practice is really appreciated. So these are all wonderful things that you've done Dr. Morrison, and I appreciate the podcast shout out. You're doing my job for me, so I appreciate that too.

You, you, you do it all. I love it. You're a full-service president. It's fantastic.

David Morrison, DMD: I aim to please.

Host: I love it. So, as we know, and I love this about AAOMS, the engaged membership and the people are so passionate about it. So we know that an engaged membership in any association really is the foundation of a strong association, moving forward, building community, those types of things.

So how did you work to foster member involvement and build organizational excellence?

David Morrison, DMD: We start out, I mean, let's, talk about our young members. This year we formalized an outreach to expand our AAOMS mentorship program to help build a stronger foundation for the young members.

We simplified and streamlined our membership application process, making it much easier for membership applications going forward. If you're a new resident who's graduating and looking at joining the association is now easier now than ever to become a member.

This past year we have completed a comprehensive review of all the AAOMS's committees, which was initiated by my predecessor, Dr. Mark Egbert. The Board of Trustees had a special subcommittee on committee structure. This committee completed its work and had a significant amount of changes that'll hopefully streamline the workflow and reduce redundancy and modernize our governance of our association.

We also launched a new AAOMS.org website. After years of getting input from members of what was working, what wasn't working, and now we have a website that has better mobile access, provides a more intuitive navigation with much faster searches enabled, which primary complaints that we'd heard from our membership and we acted on it. As the changes that have occurred and the update has happened, we are actually now seeing a record number of page views on our website. So it's actually been very effective changes that we've instituted.

In the area of global outreach and collaboration, I had the pleasure and the opportunity to attend some several international meetings – the British Association and the International Association meetings. But I was especially honored to represent AAOMS at the 7th African Congress of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in Addis Baba, Ethiopia. I was able to witness firsthand the commitment that we share with our colleagues overseas and healing and teaching and improving the lives of our patients through surgical excellence. And it's a kind of a common goal across the oceans that we share common bonds and it was great to share the American AAOMS perspective of our specialty with these organizations.

Host: That had to be some trip.

David Morrison, DMD: It was incredible.

Host: Yeah. Did you come back with like an ‘oh wow’ moment, like, Wow, I didn't think I would experience this or feel this way before I went. But now I do after returning?

David Morrison, DMD: From the African Congress, I realized when, when we talk about, the European, the Asian community, you look at the, we have a lot of common sharing of information and we're really all on kind of the same level. But then when you, when I went to the African Congress, you realize there are some countries that aren't at the level of opportunities that we have here in the U.S. and we have materials that they don't have access to. We have materials and technology that is ahead of where they're at, only because they don't have access to it. And when you see that and you, I saw their presentations, and the sharing of knowledge. And I tell you what, it an incredible experience and the whole experience was just amazing. And we would talk. I was there with several of my colleagues from the U.S. who were also presenting. And when you shared the information, the eagerness of them to learn from us, once again, it was just an incredible experience.

Host: Oh man. It really, really sounds like it, and I'm glad that we as a country, we as a profession, the specialty is out there, going out to other countries to talk about this and share experiences and techniques and other things too. I'm sure that's really, really interesting.

So raising awareness of course is important, especially on our own shores, in our own country here to the general public. It's very vital. So what outreach efforts stood out this year to you on that front?

David Morrison, DMD: Certainly, raising awareness starts with our AAOMS's – basically our award-winning – Informational Campaign. It's continued to build what I would consider a significant awareness of our expertise as a specialty. We had a recent public survey and found that 50% of the respondents of the survey reported seeing or hearing a promotion within the past six months about consulting an OMS.

And then, if you look back at it historically, this compares to just 34% who in that same survey in 2022 stated that. While when the campaign initiated somewhere back around 2016, only 7% had seen a promotion or heard about the expertise in consulting an OMS. So we've really come a long way.

This year we also launched a new public children's oral health initiative called the Milestones Campaign. With this campaign, we're trying to raise awareness of dental specialist visits at the ages of one, seven, and 15. One being a child's first visit, seven is a visit to establish skeletal growth and look for any skeletal or dental anomalies that need to be addressed.

And then at 15, you know, evaluation of wisdom teeth and third molars. Do they need to be monitored… or not should be monitored. Should they need to be treated, or can they just be monitored? So we're rolling out this campaign and encouraging our members to become brand ambassadors. We think it's a worthwhile campaign.

We also continue to support and update our public website, MyOMS.org, which has really continued to see a dramatic increase in traffic.

And lastly, we have a public facing, award-winning, podcast, Voices OMS, which covers topics for potential patients to learn about services and that OMSs provide. And once again, it's all about raising awareness and outreach to the community so they know what we do, what services we provide, and be available. And, to be able to serve our patients, they need to know we're there and what services we provide.

Host: All this outreach definitely is important and glad to hear those numbers improving on the specialty, the awareness of it. And I think the Milestones Campaign, the 1-7-15, is just dynamite. Very easy to remember. It sticks in the brain and every parent wants good oral health for their children. So I think that is just a dynamite campaign.

So Dr. Morrison, looking back over your presidency, what are you most proud of?

David Morrison, DMD: When I reflect, that's a good question. When I think about over this past year, I think I'm most proud of when an issue comes up or when it came up over this past year, whether it was a hard issue, I was willing to address it and I tried to find a solution that was inclusive and in the best interest of our patients and our specialty.

And I certainly would be remiss and I don't want to forget, looking back on during my presidency, that the support I had, not only from the members of our specialty when I called upon them and asked them for help in addressing these issues, but I specifically, I, want to shout out and I'm proud of the members of our Board and our AAOMS staff.

I couldn't have done it without them. And I'm extremely proud of the way this team has worked together this past year for the common good of our patients and our specialty. I think everyone should be very proud of the organization that, that we have.

Host: There's no question about that. And again, we appreciate your leadership over the past year that you've given us. So thank you for that, Dr. Morrison.

So if I could ask you to look into your crystal ball that you have right there. What do you see on the horizon for the future of the OMS specialty?

David Morrison, DMD: Well have that, now you're asking a difficult question. Our specialty is really very unique. We're in that bridge between the professions of dentistry and medicine. We have a foot kind of in each camp, and certainly we're in a very unusual position, you know, of seeing the best and the worst of both of these worlds.

But I, really looking into the future, I think our specialty will start to embrace a third pillar. And we're actually kind of already seeing the early signs of that and that really honestly being the field of engineering, which, which sounds kind of like a weird thing to say, but you know, we're seeing significant transformative technology in 3D printing, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, which is the new buzzwords. We have computer assisted surgery and we are seeing dramatic advances in regenerative medicine and biomaterials. We have developing, it is an exploding field of patient specific procedures and implants.

I think it's really exciting and the rapidly changing technology is going to continue to shape the appeal and the importance of our specialty. I really, truly believe the future of our specialty is bright and it's truly one of the best specialties to be a part of. And I'm very proud of that.

Host: Yeah. That's interesting. Kind of a third leg there. Engineering, and when you bring all those things up, that makes sense. Truly some really some amazing technological advances in this specialty, and certainly more to come.

Well, Dr. Morrison, this has been great. Loved talking to you. Thank you so much. Just wondering if there's anything else you'd like to add, anything else you'd like to say to the specialty here on the podcast?

David Morrison, DMD: I want to thank you for the opportunity to be your president and to have a year to lead this amazing organization. To be a part of this specialty is something that I can't describe. Very proudful of what I've accomplished through my career and the opportunity that I was given by the members of the Association to serve this past year has been the feather of my in the cap of my professional career.

And I want to thank everyone out there. Thank you.

Host: That's so nice of you to say. Very well said, and again, as I've said a few times, we appreciate your leadership over these past couple of years. Thank you so much for everything that you've done for us and for the specialty.

David Morrison, DMD: Thank you, Bill. Been a pleasure.

Bill Klaproth (host): You bet. Once again, that is Dr. David Morrison, the 2024-2025 AAOMS President, and please visit AAOMS.org for more information about the work being done to advance patient care and the OMS specialty.

And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels. And make sure you subscribe so you don't miss an episode. I'm Bill Klaproth, and this is AAOMS On the Go. Thanks for listening,