“Orthopaedics, just like all of medicine and healthcare, is in the middle of a paradigm shift,” Azer said in a news release. As president, he said he would work to refine new programs, products and services in education, advocacy, practice management, quality, research and communications.
Azer, during his installation as first VP last year, urged AAOS members to contribute to the organization’s political action committee to increase the effectiveness of AAOS advocacy efforts during the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. “Healthcare is changing for good, but likely not for the good of our patients and our profession,” Azar said last year. “This unprecedented government intrusion into our practices constitutes a threat to patient access to our expertise and calls for a unified approach and a sustained call to action from our academy.”
Drs. David Teuscher and Gerald Williams were also installed at the meeting as first and second VPs of the AAOS.
Teuscher, 57, is a partner and past president of the Beaumont (Texas) Bone & Joint Institute. He served in U.S. Army operations in Iraq during Desert Storm and is also a physician for athletic teams at Lamar University in Beaumont. Teuscher will become president at the AAOS annual meeting next March in Las Vegas.
Williams, 55, is chief of shoulder and elbow surgery and an associate professor at Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine’s Rothman Institute in Philadelphia. He will become president at the 2016 annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.
The AAOS has more than 37,000 members and its headquarters are in Rosemont, Ill.
Follow Andis Robeznieks on Twitter: @MHARobeznieks
