Dear APPD Family:
I hope these lines find you, your family, friends, and trainees healthy. I wanted to take a couple of minutes of your time to let you know that we continue to pray and think of all of you during these difficult times.
Today, the 2nd of April, would have been the final day of our Spring Meeting. And, today marks my last day as your president and the official transition of the APPD Presidency to Dr. Rebecca Blankenburg.
I want to thank you for all your energy and support during these past two years. With all your hard work, ideas and enthusiasm, we have accomplished a lot and, most importantly, you have created the platform to make us better leaders in pediatric education. I also want to thank you, really thank you, for your support during these past two weeks, in particular after the difficult decision to cancel our Spring Meeting. Each one of your supportive emails and ideas to work around this difficult decision meant a lot to us.
As we navigate through these next months, APPD is planning several activities to ensure we all continue to have the important communication, support and sharing of ideas needed to ensure best practices during these unprecedented times. We will add to our Virtual Cafés other similar virtual activities to enable both the sharing of ideas and recognition for those who would have been presenting at our meeting. We will continue to update you and voice your concerns to regulatory agencies and, most importantly, to help in any way we can those in need.
Words cannot describe how happy and honored I am to pass the baton to Becky – and all members of APPD Board. APPD is in good hands. In Spanish we do not like to say “Adios” since it means leaving and not seeing you again. To friends we usually say “hasta luego” – see you later. It has been an honor to serve you.
Stay safe, stay healthy, help each other, your friend always,
Javier
Javier Gonzalez del Rey, MD, MEd
APPD President 2018-2020
