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By Chris Tomlinson, MBA, CRA, FAHRA
Happy New Year! While the New Year brings a sense of renewal and a chance to address the things we have been putting off, it also affords us the opportunity to refocus our efforts at work. Most of us are very committed to the privilege of helping our fellow human beings in our role within healthcare. To that end, why not recommit our efforts to our patients and our teams? It’s a chance to make a new start and I encourage us all to embrace the opportunity and roll out a new patient facing program or employee recognition program for the new year.
Thank you to all who filled out the Diversity and Inclusion survey. The feedback received will enable our Task Force to focus efforts and resources on areas where we can embrace all of our members, and the experience and value they bring, to the benefit of all of us. We would also like to include the Task Force’s recommendations in our Strategic Planning process (taking place this March), which guides the direction of our organization. We have also added a session at the 2020 Annual Meeting to report out on the progress of the group and provide some “real world” experience from one of our members on how diversity and inclusion has impacted his career.
I would also like to recognize all of our military members – active, reserves and veterans. Wherever you stand on the politics of the day, we must always support our military and show appreciation for their service. I would like to especially recognize one of our active duty AHRA members, Alex Koroll who is currently stationed in Iraq. Thank you for your service and safe travels home.
We noticed that many of our military scholarships are going unused. In speaking with some of our military members, it came to our attention that the scholarships may not be clear on military status. We are going to clear that up. Our military scholarships are available to active and reserve status as well as veterans. Please visit the AHRA website to learn more about the various scholarships available.
Bill Algee, as the Immediate Past President chairs the nominations committee and has asked for nominees for the board and president elect. This is an important part of the success of the AHRA and the organization’s succession of leadership. Please consider nominating someone who you feel is deserving.
Lastly, we have members worldwide and some of those members are experiencing hardship, like the bushfires in Australia and the earthquake in Puerto Rico. We urge you to consider supporting those folks thru one of the many relief organizations. Though our good friend, Dennis from Australia, is retired now, many of us remember him making the long journey to the Annual Meeting giving out those legendary gold kangaroo pins. Dennis, your AHRA family is thinking of you and your country.
As always, please contact me with any feedback or thoughts you have on the direction of the AHRA.
Chris Tomlinson
Chris Tomlinson, MBA, CRA, FAHRA is the 2019-2020 president of the AHRA Board of Directors. He is Enterprise Vice President, Radiology/Imaging, Clinical Lab & Pathology, Emergency & Hospital Medicine Service Lines at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia, PA. He can be reached at Christopher.Tomlinson@jefferson.edu
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