Welcome. I am David Schwartz, President of the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine. Thank you all for joining us today for our annual membership meeting. I trust you have had an exciting day of learning and hope the annual meeting is providing you with valuable insights and takeaways to implement in your practice. It's been a long day, so I will attempt to make this meeting brief but informative. I'd like to start our meeting by introducing the Board of Directors. On the Officers of the Board, we have Mitchell Levine, President-Elect, Kevin Postol, our Secretary-Treasurer, Nancy Addy, immediate past President, and I have the honor of serving as President. Our Directors on the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine Board are Michael Adame, Michelle Cantwell, James Hoag, Nellie Winn, Paul Jacobs, and Rosemarie Rohatke. Doctors Kevin Postol and Michelle Cantwell were both reappointed by the membership for second terms, so there will be no outcoming or incoming Officers or Directors for the upcoming year. And now it is my pleasure to introduce you to our Secretary-Treasurer, Dr. Kevin Postol, who will present an overview of the financial state of our Academy. Thank you, Dr. Schwartz. Good evening. I've had the privilege of serving as your Secretary-Treasurer for the last year. Each year, the Academy has an audit of its financial records. The information I'll be sharing today reflects the information from the 2020 audit. In 2020, we experienced a 20% decline in revenues. We generated $4.785 million in revenue compared to $5.968 million in 2019. Much of this revenue came from the AADSM's Mastery Program, other educational offerings, dues, and investments. The decline in revenue was mostly due to the cancellations of the 2020 Annual Meeting, fewer new members, and a decreased investment growth, all which were related to the pandemic. We were able to offset the decline in revenue with a 24% reduction in expenses. In 2020, we had a $2.65 million in expenses compared to $3.373 million in expenses in 2019. 67% of the expenses were related to programs or other membership services. Due to the willingness of our members to transition to web-based learning, the prudence of the Board of Directors, sound management, and decreased expenses, the assets of the organization grew approximately 9% in 2020. The Board of Directors understands that the financial position of our organization is due entirely to our members. Knowing that, we need to prove value of AADSM membership now more than ever. We continue to add benefits and resources to help our members. Recognizing the financial challenges many members face during the pandemic, the Board of Directors voted to subsidize much of the costs for the 2021 Annual Meeting. Dr. Schwartz will touch upon many of the other benefits, new benefits, and resources in just a few minutes. We as members of your Board are aware that our organization is dependent on your yearly financial investment. We take this responsibility very seriously and we are very proud of our ability to manage operational expenses efficiently and prudently. While remaining steadfast in our commitment to invest in activities and initiatives, we will be a great benefit to our members. This concludes the report of the Secretary-Treasurer. I am now going to pass the screen back over to Dr. Schwartz to present the report of the AADSM. Thank you, Dr. Postol. At the start of the Annual Meeting, I reviewed some of what the AADSM has accomplished this past year. This evening, I would like to review the results of our recent membership survey, provide some details on how the AADSM is responding to the survey results, and review some of the important initiatives for the upcoming year. Last October, we hired ORI, an independent research firm, to survey members on their professional needs and priorities, as well as the effects of COVID-19 on member practices. The survey was sent to 2,595 members, of which 572 members responded. This is a 22 response rate. 79% of the respondents were diplomats or qualified dentists with slightly more diplomats responding. The majority of respondents were 35 or older, with 42% being 55 and older. Approximately half of the respondents practiced general dentistry for 16 or more years before adding dental sleep medicine to their practice. More than half of the respondents are relatively new to the field of dental sleep medicine, having added it to their practice within seven years. Most respondents felt well-informed about the AADSM's efforts to support its members and promote the practice of dental sleep medicine. This was attributed primarily to the AADSM emails and newsletters. Negative comments about communications were related to the volume suggesting an opportunity to streamline and summarize the information that was disseminated in those emails and newsletters. Focus areas related to awareness of oral appliance therapy among providers and the general public were most important, especially among diplomats. Respondents want the AADSM to help legitimize the field of dental sleep medicine among providers and build awareness of the field as an effective treatment option for patients. I'm sure it will come as no surprise to you that COVID-19 negatively impacted the health and well-being of the AADSM members. COVID-19 negatively impacted dental sleep medicine practitioners and those who have been in practice the longest and fit the greatest number of oral appliances have been hit harder. Yet dental sleep medicine as a proportion of respondents' businesses remain largely stable, suggesting that respondents felt declines in other areas of their practices. Most respondents incorporated some form of telemedicine into their practice because of COVID-19 and expect to use it moderately in the future. As for events, respondents slightly prefer in-person events for education and have a stronger preference for in-person networking and learning about exhibitors. But remember, their survey was done in this unprecedented period of time. From the responses received, we were able to gain important feedback that will help us continue to provide timely and valuable resources to members. The results confirm that we are on target with the strategic plan approved in July of 2020. The goals of the strategic plan are to position qualified dentists to help meet the public burden of obstructive sleep apnea and position the AADSM as the leading educator for dental sleep medicine. This includes increasing awareness among the public and providers and raising awareness among commercial insurers of the role of the qualified dentist in effectively treating patients with obstructive sleep apnea. The survey also included four open-ended questions that allowed respondents to provide specific feedback and insights. These questions asked about how informed members feel and why, what professional needs the AADSM has helped them with, what the AADSM can do to support dental sleep medicine, and any additional feedback. Most responses can be grouped into five categories. Communication, website, education, member resources, and patient provider awareness. Overall, members are pleased with communications they receive from the AADSM. They would, however, like more detailed communication on what the AADSM is doing specifically for members. Members mentioned the website is also very informative. However, they expressed having trouble sifting through information, so they are seeking improved clarity and navigation. Respondents noted that the top professional need the AADSM helps them meet is education. With that, there is an increased interest in the AADSM providing more opportunities for continuing education through webinars and additional virtual learning opportunities. Respondents shared an interest in educational opportunities for the dental team as well. Overall, respondents are appreciative of current member resources and benefits. Suggestions for additional resources include a guide for incorporating dental sleep medicine in your practice as a beginner, more tools for self-promotion, a retired member category, patient education materials in additional languages, state-specific meetings or meetups, and more resources to onboard new members. As mentioned earlier, respondents most often noted a need for the AADSM to help legitimize the field and build awareness about oral appliance therapy to medical providers and the public. This includes promoting the effectiveness and benefits of oral appliance therapy, educating the medical community of the rigor involved in achieving the qualified dentist or diplomate certification, and encouraging dental schools to incorporate sleep medicine into the curriculum. Members are looking for the AADSM to accomplish this by generating a national campaign connecting with hospitals, clinics, and medical associations, and working with schools and universities. To address this feedback, the AADSM will include information specific to member needs such as updates on public awareness campaigns, details on new resources for members, and updates on advocacy efforts in its monthly email newsletter. The content will be as streamlined as possible. Archives of the newsletter are searchable at aadsm.org. We are currently creating a more user-friendly website for our members. In 2020, we began offering webinars and will continue to do so in 2021. We also introduced the case of the quarter as an opportunity for free continuing education for members. The dental sleep medicine team training program was launched at the end of 2020 and additional resources geared toward the dental team are currently in progress. We also now have a dental sleep medicine team member membership category and an online discussion board exclusively for dental sleep member team members. An updated policies and procedures guide was recently launched providing templates for new dental sleep medicine providers. We are about to publish 20 plus practice management tools and resources on our website for members. The product review task force is also reviewing our brochures and fact sheets to determine which ones will be most useful to convert to Spanish. It was clear from the membership survey that public and provider awareness campaigns are a top priority. As I mentioned yesterday, the AADSM launched a public outreach campaign earlier this year that has resulted in more than 1,000 percent increase to the find an AADSM dentist web page. In May, we will be launching a provider outreach campaign aimed at primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. We have hired K&B Communications, a healthcare marketing agency, to assist with this campaign. Clients of K&B have included Pfizer, Johns Hopkins, Densply Serona, and the American Cancer Society. The campaign will include a combination of programmatic advertising, public relation efforts, and social media awareness. The campaign will target providers in a geographic proximity to AADSM members, leading them to a landing page on the AADSM website and the find an AADSM dentist listing. If you have not done so already, I encourage you to make sure your find an AADSM dentist listing is up to date and accurate. This campaign is being funded through AADSM reserves, as well as the generous support of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine. The American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine has contributed all of their 2021 maintenance of certification fees to this outreach campaign. Additionally, we are creating a toolkit and other resources for members to use to build relationships with physicians. Earlier this year, we published a Myths of Oral Appliance Therapy fact sheet to debunk the myths surrounding oral appliance therapy and provide referring physicians the most current information. In addition to addressing the results of the membership survey, the AADSM continues to develop policies, guidelines, and recommendations to standardize the field. The July issue of the Journal of Dental Sleep Medicine will include the recently approved consensus recommendations for defining and measuring compliance with oral appliance therapy, new task forces responsible for developing tools to help members discuss the goals of oral appliance therapy with patients and physicians, a position statement on the use of temporary devices to treat obstructive sleep apnea and snoring, and a consensus recommendation on utilizing oral appliance therapy for snoring will all launch in 2021. We also continue to work with state dental boards, insurers, and Medicare to advocate on your behalf. As many of you know, earlier this spring, several medical associations wrote a letter to state dental boards claiming that the AADSM supported dentists diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea and urging dental boards to prohibit dentists from ordering or administering HSAT. Thanks to the many of you who helped clarify our position with state dental boards, we continue to work with state dental boards, medical associations, the ADA, and the AADB, the American Academy of Dental Boards, to promote that trained dentists can order or administer HSATs as part of a collaborative care model to help reduce the public burden of obstructive sleep apnea. We have created a new payer policy task force to monitor and evaluate developments related to payer policies and develop resources to help members advocate with payers on behalf of patients. Given the onslaught of new technologies and practice models for dental sleep medicine, we have also created a new policy and emerging issues task force, which will monitor and evaluate developments that have the potential to impact the landscape of dental sleep medicine. We will also continue to support research in dental sleep medicine. This fall, we will host a virtual conference focusing on best practices for clinical research. I recently met with Dr. Mariska Brown, the director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, to discuss ways to increase research and public awareness of dental sleep medicine. The NCSDR is responsible for fostering the coordination of sleep and circadian research within NIH and other federal agencies. Dr. Brown also chairs the Working Group for National Sleep Health Objectives in the Department of Health and Human Services, Healthy People 2030 Initiative. We have also worked with the National Institute of Craniofacial and Dental Research to survey the 6,000 members of the practice-based research network to gauge interest in dental sleep medicine-related research. Lastly, we have been discussing a collaborative grant with the CHEST Foundation in 2022. The CHEST Foundation is the philanthropic branch of CHEST, a membership organization representing 18,000 pulmonologists, 6,000 of whom provide care for patients with sleep disorders. The hope is that this grant collaboration would increase awareness of dental sleep medicine research and allow for collaborative dental sleep medicine research projects with dentists and pulmonologists. Also, as we put COVID behind us, we will ensure that there are both in-person and virtual educational and networking opportunities for our members. This fall, we will offer Mastery 2, either virtually or in-person. In December, we will offer an in-person Emerging Concepts course focusing on the ordering and administering of HSAT, chaired by Drs. Jarrett Gross-Didier and Ken Moguel. This course will include presentations by an expert faculty of board-certified sleep medicine physicians, respiratory therapists, and dentists, as well as interactive demos, an exhibit hall, and a reception, allowing time for the networking that we're all waiting for. It has been an absolute honor and privilege to serve as your president. I want to take this final minute of the membership meeting to thank you, our members. The initiatives I have outlined can only be successful with a strong membership base and volunteer leaders who are willing to provide their time and expertise to the AADSM. I thank you for your continued support, and I'm looking forward to all we can accomplish in the next year to help support you. I hope you have a wonderful 2021. Thank you very much.

David Schwartz

AADSM

Board of Directors

financial state

membership survey