It’s Been Quite a Year!
The American Association for Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology was established in 1992 by a small group of dedicated bronchoscopists who had the dream of advancing their field by promoting education and communicating developments in minimally invasive airway and pleural procedures via the creation of a society and a journal focused on a subspecialty that eventually became known as Interventional Pulmonology (IP). At the time, training in IP was obtained by finding a mentor with a busy clinical service and serving as their apprentice for several months. Fast-forward ten years, and there were now a handful of dedicated one-year fellowships in Interventional Pulmonology. As the program directors and graduates of these IP fellowships built upon the success of their mentors, a ‘critical mass’ formed resulting in several notable milestones in the last few years:
- The number of publications with keywords ‘bronchoscopy’, ‘pleural disease’, or ‘interventional pulmonology’ has grown exponentially. Interventional pulmonologists with skills ranging from epidemiology to basic science, have been recruited by academic medical centers, helping to transform the literature in the field from surgical type case series to bench research, outcomes analysis and randomized trials.
- The increased quantity and quality of publications in the IP realm have resulted in the milestone achievement of the Journal of Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology becoming listed amongst the journals in Index Medicus.
- IP joined the National Residency Match Program in 2012 with 13 programs. This year, there were 37 applicants to 20 programs. We are working with the American Association for Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology Program Directors to develop a streamlined, on-line application service that will allow the applicant to submit all relevant information to a universal site, track to see if their letters of recommendation have been uploaded and follow the progress of their application.
- For the past two years, the AABIP has organized a dedicated ‘Boot Camp’ for all of the incoming IP fellows throughout the country. The last course, held at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN was a huge success with outstanding hands-on training and didactics. It also served as a venue to foster future research collaborations and lifelong friendships. This year, the course will be hosted by The Ohio State University and is sure to be another winner.
- The AABIP continues to fund up to two research projects at $10,000, with a possibility of renewal up to $25,000 for the 2nd year.
- The AABIP has also organized bi-annual Scientific Symposia, held during the American College of Chest Physicians and American Thoracic Society meetings. These have been immensely popular, with over 100 attendees and presentations by fellows, junior and senior faculty. This has been a fabulous forum to learn about completed research, and perhaps even more importantly, serve as a venue for investigators to ‘bounce ideas’ of future / potential research projects off of their colleagues.
- After a tremendous amount of work, the 1st AABIP Board Review Course was given in October 2013 to an almost standing room only crowd and the 1st Interventional Pulmonology Certification Examination was taken by 79 physicians this past December.
Over the next several years, the AABIP will continue its mission focused around education, research and training. We will continue to standardize IP fellowship training and curricula as well as develop didactic and hands-on opportunities for our members. We will also be developing enduring material to be placed on the AABIP website. In addition to advancing the field of Interventional Pulmonology, we are dedicated to furthering education in basic and advanced diagnostic bronchoscopy and will continue to reach out to pulmonary and critical care training programs with regional ‘Introduction to Bronchoscopy’ courses that have become so popular over the last several years. Participation of our membership is essential to assure the success of the AABIP, and we encourage those with energy and ideas to become involved.
David Feller-Kopman, MD, FCCP
President, American Association for Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology
Director, Bronchoscopy & Interventional Pulmonology
Associate Professor of Medicine
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD 21208
Date of issue: January 22, 2014
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