Welcome to spring. Hopefully, all are healthy and starting to regain some semblance of normalcy. The AOAO Foundation also hopes to continue our activity and expand our reach and fundraising projects.
With that, I am excited to announce new projects that the Foundation will put forth this summer to aid our Program Directors, residents and students. Both of these projects will be funded by the AOAO Foundation and have also been vetted by representative Program Directors, the AOAO Foundation Board of Directors and the AOAO Board of Directors.
Resident Research Dashboard
Based on feedback from our Program Directors, the first project developed by the AOAO Foundation is a residency research database. This database, or dashboard, of research projects will reside on the AOAO website. Residents will be able to enter information about their research projects and scholarly activities.
This portal will provide the opportunity for various programs to interact and collaborate. With an exchange of ideas and project designs, we look forward to multi-center studies emerging within our profession from this effort. This database’s other function is to offer AOAO member students an opportunity to assist residents in their projects which will help them gain exposure and meet their research requirements. The expected release of this new dashboard is mid June, just prior to the start of the new training year.
Online Research Course
The Foundation’s second project, also with feedback from Program Directors, is the development of an online course that will help residents design and navigate a quality scholarly project. The course will address various research types, including posters, case reports, and double-blinded original projects. Hopefully, the fruit of this effort will be excellence in scholarly resident projects.
Foundation Award Deadline Approaches
The Foundation is now accepting applications for two awards: the Emerging Leader Award and the Outstanding Student Scholarship. AOAO members may nominate a colleague, or self nominate. If you know someone who deserves this recognition, visit our website at https://www.aoao.org/aoao-foundation-awards/. The deadline to apply is June 15, 2021.
Once again, the AOAO Foundation would like to thank AOAO members for your ongoing support so that we may continue our work. We hope to have fundraising activities as we move forward to more in-person meetings again in the upcoming year. In the meantime, please consider a donation to the AOAO Foundation.