With the switch from Munksgaard to Harcourt-Brace in 2001, members of the IAOMS began receiving a 30% increase of scientific information by 2003 for the same price. The number of issues of IJOMS also went from 6 to 8 per year in 2003. The net payment to IAOMS from the publisher, after deducting the cost of IAOMS membership subscriptions was $112,215. The guaranteed minimum advance payment that was previously paid in 2003 was $36,680. The larger amounts were due to substantial increases in electronic licensing, offprint/reprint income and advertising.

In 2003, the number of submitted papers was 380, almost quadruple that of when former Editor-in-Chief Paul J.W. Stoelinga took the post, and somewhat less than doubling compared to 1999. Accordingly, the number of published pages has increased. In the late 80s, 360 pages were published; in 2001 that number had jumped to 720 pages; and in 2005 the total number of published pages for eight issues was 920.

Editor-in-Chief Piet Haers appointed Mr. James Brown of Liverpool to be the Journal’s Assistant Editor-in-Chief in 2003. Mr. Brown’s responsibility was to take on 40% of the editorial time, dealing directly with the authors of submitting papers.

Based on a survey of affiliated nations and on the results of regional workshops at the ICOMS, the Education Committee recognized the demand from national associations of less developed countries for criteria for accreditation of OMS training programs. The committee began working in early 2003 on such a document for consideration by the Executive Committee.

The Education Committee also began working on a set of criteria for the exchange of trainees and Fellows.

With the final objective in the IAOMS’ Strategic Plan concerning research in OMS, a proposal was put forth to the Executive Committee to assign a specific subcommittee to the subject. The new group, if approved, would work closely with the Education Committee.

As of the 2003 Annual Report, 8 of the 10 scheduled modules in the Thailand project had taken place.

The number of participants ranged from 100-130 throughout from 6-8 countries of Southeast Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Hong Kong(Peoples Republic of China)). Wrote IAOMS Past-President Paul J.W. Stoelinga in the Annual Report 2003: “The Hat-Yai project has become a huge success also because of the support from the Hong Kong department and the excellent support of the Chairman of the Education Committee, Professor Nabil Samman.”

Meetings took place in 2002 and 2003 with the presidents of the Indonesian and Thai associations and members of their councils to discuss their expressed wish for an educational program. These programs would extend beyond lectures to include one or more of the following: hands-on workshops, surgical demonstrations, cadaver dissections. The centres proposed were Bangkok and Hat Yai, Thailand, and Jakarta and Bandung, Indonesia. The program will remain free of charge to participants.

A second educational program was established in 2003 in Lima, Peru.

Under the direction of then IAOMS Treasurer John Ll Williams, the association realized its first-ever three-year working budget that was tied to specific activities in the Strategic Plan. The careful budgeting not only put the association’s finances in balance, it also allowed the association to take on the new office accommodations in Oakbrook Terrace and to initiate the appointment of a paid Executive Director. Dr. John F. Helfrick answered the Executive Committee’s request to become the new salaried Executive Director.

New IAOMS Treasurer Donald F. Booth reported to the membership in the 2003 Annual Report that the association ended the year with total assets of $1,331,964, an increase of 7.25% over year-end 2002.

The IAOMS Annual Report of 2003 set forth the association’s mission and vision as follows:

 The establishment of patient care quality and safety standards.
 The establishment and implementation of guidelines for education and training.
 The facilitation of research This vision, public, private and professional organizations worldwide is accomplished in cooperation with affiliated regional and national associations and through communication with the specialty.

Representation: By being the recognized international representative organization of oral and maxillofacial surgery.

Safety and Quality Care: By expanding the International Association’s leadership role in the improvement of the safety and quality of care in oral and maxillofacial surgery worldwide.

Education: By facilitating the continual improvement of dental, medical and oral and maxillofacial surgery education as it relates to the practice and scope of the specialty. Research: By supporting research as a priority and by identifying mechanisms for funding of oral and maxillofacial surgery research.

In communications and education, the common denominator is one of quality--quality of care reflected both in the educational process and the ability to effectively disseminate information. The biggest challenge in serving the IAOMS membership is the ability to educate the members, provide advocacy for the members and to advance research in our specialty. The biggest operational challenges amount to: maintaining sufficient financial resources, managing meetings and events, managing scientific journals and computer/data systems.

The evolution of educating professionals both during and after training is shifting towards e-learning. This translates into web based self- learning modules, as well as the establishment of treatment and drug databases. This centralized knowledge base will afford the doctor immediate diagnostic, prognostic and treatment information, as well as uses for medical calculations and important outcome measures. This translates into evidence based treatment.

The Executive Committee and the Council unanimously voted to dedicate the International Conference in Vienna to Professor Rudolf Fries of Linz, Austria.

Professor Fries was President of the IAOMS from 1995-1997. It was the first time an ICOMS had been dedicated to a member of the Association.

Due to numerous requests from Fellows in developing countries, a special registration fee of 350 Euros was approved for up to 100 attendees from these countries.

The following cities were in competition in 2005 to host the 2011 ICOMS: Stockholm, Sweden; Santiago, Chile; Bratislava, Slovakia; Berlin, Germany; Kiev, Ukraine; Iran; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In 2005, the Board of Directors addressed the following:

 A draft policy on ICOMS speaker's sponsorship and conflicts of interest. This policy was approved the Executive Committee.
 The establishment and implementation of guidelines for education and training.
 The Association's policy on co-sponsorship of affiliated national or regional meetings was reviewed and amended.
 Because of the increased workload and sophistication of the headquarters office, it was recommended that the addition of a second full-time person be considered for the 2005 budget.
 Dr. Olsson gave a report on the new website.
 Chris Hammond from Elsevier reviewed with the Board the strategy he developed for dealing with the Association's concerns relative to distribution of the Journal.
 The Board allocated $5,000 for the organization of an African Regional Association. Seven countries plan to meet in Nairobi for purposes of organizing the Association: Kenya, Libya, Sudan, Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, and South Africa.
 The Association offered its assistance to Countries devastated by a Tsunami.

The Executive Committee voted to adopt:

 Policy on ICOMS speaker's Sponsorship and Conflicts of Interest
 Policy on Co-Sponsorship of Affiliated National and Regional Meetings
 Policy on Dual Committee Appointments

The following National Associations were approved for affiliation in 2005, bringing the number of affiliated national associations to 73:

 Slovenia Society for Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery (Slovenia)
 Asociacion Costarricense de Cirugia Oral y Maxilofacial (Costa Rica)
 Croatian Society of Maxillofacial, Plastic and Reconstructive Head and Neck Surgery (Crotatia)

Membership climbed in 2005 by nearly 400 - growing from 3,377 in 2004 to 3,775 by the end of 2005.

The purpose of the first IAOMS international summit was to discuss the current OMS environment and to strategize as to how to move the specialty forward into the 21st Century. Invited attendees were regional presidents and presidents-elect, national presidents and presidents-elect, councilors, executive committee, editorial board, the education and research committees.

Internationally known “futurist” Ed Barlow facilitated the sessions and Dr. Breda Bova, a professor from the University of New Mexico, presented on the differences between the generations: that is, why do faculty and trainees seems to be “marching to a different drummer?”

In his IAOMS Newsletter column, Executive Director John Helfrick summed up the various factors identified in the Summit that were currently impacting the OMS environment:

 “Migration of professionals - Aggressive recruitment of nurses has resulted in massive shortages in many developing countries. Physicians from those same countries are also migrating to developed countries resulting in a shortage of doctors.
 Working time directives - Limiting the hours professionals can work further complicates the shortage of health care workers and will potentially impact on the length of training of surgeons.
 Waiting lists - The first two issues mentioned combine to result in long waiting lists for procedures….and very unhappy patients!
 Expanding scope of non-professionals - To deal with the above shortages and growing demands for care, traditional scopes of practice have disappeared and expanded scopes for non-physicians and surgeons are becoming common place.
 Internet - The impact is huge and growing. Patients come to our practices more knowledgeable and demanding. This trend will increase.
 E-health - A child of the internet, it includes a push for paperless hospitals and private clinics, the demand for data collection and performance measurement, and the concerns for interoperability and confidentiality are all huge challenges.
 Generation Gaps - Put the silent generation, baby boomers, gen Xers, and gen Yers all in the workplace at one time and you have more than an interesting healthcare work environment!
 Changing Health Care Professional Demographics 70% of entering medical students in the U.K. this year are female - need I say more?
 Technological Advances - or should I say, explosion? Ranging from distant robotic surgery to nanotechnology.
 Medical tourism - Patients are moving around the world to deal with waiting lists and expensive surgical procedures.
 Pay for performance - A growing trend internationally; however, knowing that "money is the root of all evil," keep your eye on this one!
 Medical Outsourcing - MRI's and CT scans taken between midnight and 7am in Houston, are being read by radiologists in Bangladore. What's the impact on "contemporary" concepts of licensure and quality oversight?
 Lawyers - The number is growing. Sorry to end this on such a depressing note!”

After the Summit ended, the IAOMS decided to establish a Task Force on the future of the profession of oral and maxillofacial surgery, to be chaired by Dr. Gabriele Millesi of Vienna, Austria. The Task Force’s work focuses on six issues covering all the main struggles of the profession and of our OMS members, from young to old:

 Collaboration with and integration of professions related to emerging science and technology (multidisciplinary). Chairman: Stephen Feinberg (Ann Arbor, Michigan USA).
 Extending the productive work life of the retirement-eligible members of the profession. Chairman: Henning Schliephake (Göttingen, Germany).
 Establishing the profession as a great place to work (image and awareness building). Chairman: Rene Rojas (Santiago, Chile).
 Earn and learn approach to education/training and development of future members of the profession. Chairman: Steven Shen (Shanghai, Peoples Republic of China).
 Alternative approaches to work environment and work process (project work, etc.). Chairperson: Gabriele Millesi (Vienna, Austria).
 Maintaining knowledge and competency among the practicing professionals. Chairman: Rene Foltan (Prague, Czech Republic).

 

The Task Force’s first step was to design two questionnaires, one for members of IAOMS and one for trainees only. Both were designed to give the Task Force and the association a lot of potential important feedback. Results of the surveys are to be disseminated at the Bangalore ICOMS in November, 2007.

As of January 1, 2006, the IJOMS began publishing monthly—an increase from a bimonthly publication just a few years ago.

In all there were 27 lectures, the majority given by members of ANZAOMS. Lectures from non OMF Surgeons were given on Maxillofacial Imaging, Maxillofacial Prosthodontics, Anaesthesia, Non-Surgical Management of TMJ, Prosthodontic aspects of Implants and a CPR course. A forum was also held chaired by Associate-Professor Andrew Smith on the future directions of our specialty, and how OMS associations can gain funding for training programs.

Sponsors of the course were Nobel-Biocare, Stryker, Walter Lorenz International, Medical+Optical, and Synthes.

Accreditation of Training Programs and Certification of Individuals
The Committee agreed to further study the issue of accreditation and certification of individuals, given the following facts: Accreditation and certification are usually regulated by national authorities and a variety of countries do not have any official training program or the specialty does not exist. Where national systems of accreditation have been established, such as Australia and South Africa, a model for other Regions could be developed.

Proposal for a Trainees Meeting at Bangalore ICOMS
The Education Committee, recognizing the importance of the Trainee Group for the future of the specialty, as such agreed to organize an international meeting of trainees at the next ICOMS in Bangalore, India in 2007.

The Research Committee was asked by the Executive Committee in 2006 to consider the following questions in their deliberations:

  Should we develop an associate membership status for non-surgeons?
  Do we need to develop an “incentive” to encourage non-surgeons to belong to our organization and/or to interact with us?
  Should we develop a parallel research association, a sub-division of IAOMS, to focus solely on research issues and to hold a concurrent scientific meeting with IAOMS and/or other scientific and/or engineering associations?
  Should we “advertise” at other scientific and/or engineering associations of our interest to develop active multidisciplinary collaborations?
  Should money be set aside from the IAOMS Foundation resources to encourage and fund collaborative multidisciplinary research?
  Should we develop symposia at IAOMS and/or other scientific and/or engineering meetings to show how and why it is important to establish collaborative research programs that are multidisciplinary?

The IAOMS also co-sponsored the 2nd American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (AAOMS) Research Summit, held in Rosemont, Illinois on May 16-17, 2007 (www.aaoms.org).

In July, 2006, the IAOMS added a full-time staff member at IAOMS Headquarters to serve as the Association’s Marketing Director and the Foundation’s Director of Development.

As the Marketing Director for the association, Kerry Spaedy has been responsible for the redevelopment of the website, the quarterly Newsletter, and all efforts related to recruiting and retaining members.

As the Director of Development for the Foundation, Kerry has been responsible for developing and contacting OMS corporations for the “World Education Endowment,” working with Foundation Chair Paul Stoelinga in obtaining contributions from members and national affiliated associations, reporting on Foundation activities within the IAOMS Newsletter and developing the Foundation’s first-ever website.