American Thoracic Society: Belong, Contribute, Thrive! Talking with ATS President, Dr. Raed Dweik

Podcast Transcript

Raed Dweik, MD: Hello and welcome to the Respiratory Exchange Podcast. I'm Raed Dweik, chief of the Integrated Hospital Care Institute at Cleveland Clinic. This podcast series of short, digestible episodes is intended for healthcare providers and covers topics related to respiratory health and disease in the areas of lung health, critical illness, sleep, infectious disease, and related disciplines. We will share with you information that will help you take better care of your patients. I hope you enjoy today's episode.

Dan Culver, DO: Hello, I'm Dan Culver. I'm the Chair of Pulmonary Medicine at Cleveland Clinic. I'm the host for this edition of Respiratory Exchange. I'm very pleased to have with me today, Dr. Raed Dweik. He is the chief of the Integrated Hospital-Care Institute here at Cleveland Clinic and is installed as the President of the American Thoracic Society. Welcome, Raed.

Raed Dweik, MD: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Dan Culver, DO: So this is a very exciting moment for us. You've been the president of ATS since May, starting with your inauguration in San Francisco at the international conference. I'm curious about how your experiences compared to your expectations going in.

Raed Dweik, MD: Yeah, thank you. These are definitely exciting times. And the nice thing about the way we do ATS leadership these days is that you just don't walk just into the presidency. As you know, I was elected as treasurer a couple of years ago and secretary. So you start as secretary, then you become president-elect, then president. So you kind of get a sense of what you're getting into instead of just all of a sudden becoming president.

So that is kind of one of these surprising things to me, I think. I thought you would just sit and watch for a while and then become president. The nice thing about it is we are an executive committee that has all these individuals, the treasurer, the secretary, the president-elect, president, and the past president along with the CEO of the ATS all work together on regular basis to lead the society. So that's the governors actually that that helps.

And the other thing that really I think I'm excited about, which exceeded my expectations, is something I talk about now all the time working with the ATS staff. And that's an area that we all experience when you're in the assemblies They support assemblies and the committees, but when you work with them every day, you realize all the amount of work that goes into running the ATS, whether it's the assemblies or the committees. Of course, the biggest event that we have is the international conference. So much work goes into that behind the scenes, and the dedication of the ATS staff is just exemplary to make that happen.

Dan Culver, DO: Well, you came in with eyes wide open then. Yeah, part of the leadership lineage. Right. So, you know, now that you have started this role, I want to ask you a broader question about the society.

As you are aware in the fall of 2024, the ATS developed a strategic framework, and I wonder if you can tell us a little bit about that and what do you see as the biggest opportunities for the organization as we enter the second quarter of the century? And maybe you can also reflect a little bit about what do you expect we'll achieve in the next quarter of the century as an organization.

03:17

Raed Dweik, MD: Yeah. Thank you. I think that's another good thing that I learned about the ATS, is that we have a strategic plan. I mean, you remember the days, probably you have been a member of ATS long enough that it used to be in the past that every president comes in and just upends the strategy for that year. They come, they have an initiative and they're all good initiatives. There's nothing wrong with them. But to really try to turn this entire “ship” every year in a different direction was, I think, not the right thing to do for the society.

So a few years ago, I think the executive committee came together and decided to establish a strategic framework. We have it everywhere on our website. And it's gonna make sense for us as an organization to support our members, promote science, you know, all these, you know, build an ATS community. I think that the strategic framework now - we adjust it every year. We add to it, we subtract, we say what we're going to maintain, what we're going to enhance. But the strategy doesn't change every year, which I think is very good for an organization like ours.

However, every president has a nuanced approach to it, you know. So, my approach, the two things that I'm going to focus on this year as president is one, to really maintain the premier status of our society and ATS, to me, is the best conference to go to for our specialties. And I’d like to keep it that way. And it's a place where you know, clinicians, researchers, educators come together. There's really no other conference for all of these. Some conferences are more focused on clinical, some more research, some more education. This is the one place where you kind of get to see everybody.

Raed Dweik, MD: So that's one. And the other one that is really related to that, as well, is to make sure that the ATS remains a large tent. You know, we want everybody in our society or who potentially could benefit from our society to feel at home here at ATS, whether you are a junior investigator, a mid-career, or a seasoned professional, whether you are a clinician, researcher, or educator, whether you’re a US or international member. A patient or a family with the family member who has a respiratory illness. I want you to feel that ATS is a place where you belong, where you can contribute and can thrive you know, when you join.

So the next 25 years – it’s like knowing what's happening around us right now, I don't know if I can predict the next two months, it's just there's so much uncertainty going on around us. But still, I think our strategy is our strategy. We are a mission-driven organization, and I think our mission is not going to change, but how we get around it and how we get about it may change over time, but I think our mission is our mission.

05:45

Dan Culver, DO: I think the older I get, the more I realize one year is not very much time to accomplish anything. So this idea of a strategic framework makes a lot of sense to me.

Raed Dweik, MD: Yes, absolutely. Yeah, I agree.

Dan Culver, DO: Yeah. Wonderful. So, you know I think what the ATS would like to achieve, and what you see in other societies as well, is a desire to expand and to grow and to reach new markets. You mentioned a little bit about a big tent. As you think about geography or you think about new types of professionals, how do you go about doing that?

Raed Dweik, MD: Yeah, definitely. I think, in my role as an ATS executive committee member and president, we travel to other countries and join other society meetings, and I can tell you there is a desire by almost every place we go for people to come to the ATS and join this meeting.

So, I think our role at ATS leadership is to make that easy for people, and I know sometimes some things are out of our control, like you know, whether it's visas, etc. But we can make things like the cost of the conference or the location of the conference so that it's more conducive for people to come. Like we notice sometimes that if you're on the East coast you get more Europeans to join us. If we're on the West coast, you get a few from Asia to join us. So, it's kind of interesting. So, keeping that in mind, making sure that we keep things convenient for people to join us, I think, and also continuing to have offerings that will encourage people to come and knowing the geography is important.

But I think the most important thing for us is to maintain the science and the clinical offerings and the educational offerings that we have at ATS. That's really, I think, what will keep people coming. One, I think a particular segment [of attendees] that we support more than any other organization I know, is the researchers.

That ATS has always been the home for our researchers and there's a lot of competition now from smaller meetings. You know, I think there is space for these meetings. I don't feel competition, honestly. I view them as complimentary meetings. Like Gordon conferences or these kinds of things that have a100, 150 people, they have their place, but I think they do not replace the ATS, where, as I mentioned earlier, you have everybody there. You know, you see the new science, you see the clinicians. because as a scientist, you want to communicate with the clinicians to see what they're thinking about your science. You don't want to be your own bubble. So, the ATS allows you to get out, step out of your own bubble and just network and hear what other people think about it, whether it's your science or clinical practice or your educational activities.

Dan Culver, DO: With the scope of ATS conference, I think that there's an opportunity to make new connections that you might not have predicted before. I always find it's valuable to go to content areas or scientific sessions outside of my space. That orthogonal learning is always really helpful to me.

Raed Dweik, MD: Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that. My favorite, I have a lot of favorites at ATS, whether it's the plenary sessions or the year in review. But the most favorite thing I have is the poster hall. Just go, you never know what you're going to run into, you know. You just walk around and something grabs your eye, whether it's a figure or a title or a graph and then you learn a lot. That's, you know, one of my favorite activities is to walk through the poster hall and see what the latest breaking science is.

09:14

Dan Culver, DO: It's also fun how often in doing that you run into people you haven't seen for years.

Raed Dweik, MD: Yeah, that's right.

Dan Culver, DO: It's almost inevitable.

Raed Dweik, MD: Yeah, that's correct. That's exactly,

Dan Culver, DO: I know part of this plan about expansion is also a program called MECOR, and I suspect a lot of the membership hasn't really got very aware about it. And I wonder if you want to talk about that for a minute.

Raed Dweik, MD: MECOR is one of those programs, and just to explain, MECOR is Methods in Epidemiological Clinical and Operational Research. So, but most people know it by MECOR. I have to, and sometimes you forget what it's about 'cause of the long acronym, but it is one of the flagship activities for our international engagement. This idea here is to support people from under-resourced countries to help them do research in these areas, epidemiology, clinical, and operations.

And it's one of the things that I also did not know much about until I came into ATS leadership, but I'm impressed by this outreach and how it helps people and many have become, you know, established resources in their own countries and become you know, ATS members and you know, ATS attendees.

And actually, I'm excited to meet the faculty in MECOR Africa later this year. I'm traveling, as a faculty member, mentoring some people who are trying to learn about research. So, I'm looking forward to that.

Dan Culver, DO: Oh, that's great. Where are you going?

Raed Dweik, MD: We're going to Kenya.

Dan Culver, DO: Kenya. Yeah. Wonderful. I hope you can connect with a safari or something like that.

Raed Dweik, MD: Well, it depends. You know, there's so much travel these days. I may be able to, I hope so. We'll try, we'll see.

Dan Culver, DO: You know, there is so much energy and passion to do academic work and research outside of conventional areas where it's happened, and I think this is a great way for ATS to engage some of that energy and, and really help all these places develop together.

Raed Dweik, MD: Yeah, absolutely. And of course, the society has a lot of offerings and the conference has a lot of offerings. So I think it's complimentary and this is one of the ways also to keep people engaged throughout the year with ATS. I think one way clearly is the international conference, it’s our biggest function. It's our flagship function. But we're looking more and more to continue to engage our members throughout the year, whether it's educational activities, research activities, or other things, so that you'll continue to benefit from being part of the society.

Dan Culver, DO: Right. Science never stops.

Raed Dweik, MD: Yeah, exactly.

Dan Culver, DO: I'd like to pivot a little bit now to, to something that's also quite timely. I want to just talk a little bit about the role of ATS as a guardian or advocate for a fact-based and science-driven advocacy. This has been a big passion of yours I know. I wonder if you can share a little bit about what efforts have been made to date so far by ATS around that and, kind of, your roadmap or vision for how ATS can be involved in that kind of role?

12:10

Raed Dweik, MD: Yeah, definitely. I think especially in this time and age where, you know, science is under attack in many ways, and scientists and even clinicians, you know, the level of trust and mistrust in them has really evolved.

I think societies like ATS play a big role in having incredible information out there. Credible information for clinicians, for researchers, for patients, and for families, but also as you point out, advocate for the work of our members and for science. ATS does have a Washington office in Washington, D.C. to advocate for the things that we believe. Things like tobacco cessation, changes in weather patterns, care for chronic respiratory illnesses.

So I think that's part of the parcel that is our mission and like that's something that I know that many of our members are passionate about. And the key is to, despite all the changes that are surrounding us, is to continue to be true to our mission and advocate for the things that we believe in.

Dan Culver, DO: I know it's not easy. Can you, do you have some ideas of what's more or less effective in that advocacy work? What's been the most successful?

Raed Dweik, MD: I believe, of course, everybody thinks of advocacy differently because it's a passionate thing. I think, in my opinion, keeping positive messaging is the best way to do it. I don’t know if you've seen our editorial area this year - this is focus on what's important, focus on the positive message. I think there's so much negativity and negative messaging out there. You should do this. You shouldn't do that. You are wrong to do this. You are wrong to do that.

To me, focus on the science, focus on the evidence, focus on what works, focus on what's important. And I think if we do that, I think we can cut through all this negativity that's, I think, coming from all directions.

Dan Culver, DO: So a consistent message that's based on consistent positive messaging. Yep. I like it. I like it. Prior to joining the executive committee, you had experience with ATS as the chair of the guidelines committee. I think guidelines, sometimes, by the time they're published, they're almost out of date already. And of course we want them to be very rigorous. So as information and data just proliferate faster and faster every year, it makes guidelines difficult and there's the concept of a living guideline. Which of course is expensive and difficult to manage. How do you think ATS should tackle this? Where will guidelines go from ATS perspective?

Raed Dweik, MD: This is a very, very important area. I believe, you know, I’m biased here, but I think others can say the same, is that guidelines and documents are really the crown jewel of ATS publications, by far. They're things that get more cited and most read, the most downloaded, and I think most beneficial in day-to-day practice.

14:56

So, this is an area we've been focused on for many years, and we have been leaders in this area. And I have to really give credit to Kevin Wilson, who has done an amazing job in managing the document portfolio for ATS. When I first was asked to chair the documents committee, it wasn’t unusual for a guideline to take six, seven, or eight years to finish it. And as you pointed out, right now, 6-, 7-, 8 years, what you started with may, the world may be different by then.

So we worked very hard and supported Kevin and the rest of the team to really make it clear that guidelines need to be done within two years. Because if it’s taking more than two years it's not going to be as useful. There are several things we did at the time: reducing the number of questions, because the more questions you have, the more time you need to get to them. Get different kind of documents that come in, guidelines for that. Also, we have guidelines that most historically are guidelines, ideas for guidelines that came from the grassroots or individuals proposing them. But also we have developed a strategic guideline direction from ATS, so that [we can determine] what things are important that we want to make sure that we are involved in that work. So, I think all of that together, getting the right type of guidelines and doing them in a timely way, has been one of, I think, the accomplishments I'm very proud of at ATS, that we're able to do that and we continue to lead in that area. I think it's a great thing that we do.

Dan Culver, DO: Yeah, it's very important and Kevin is great. I've worked with him before. It is still challenging with pace of data to, to keep those updated.

Raed Dweik, MD: Yeah. The concept of the live guidelines I think makes a lot of sense. I don't know what the best practices are out there to do this, because as you pointed out, it's time-consuming. Somebody has to keep up with it and the challenge with the guidelines field is they get interested, they get together, they finish it and they move on. You need somebody who's got to own it moving forward. I think something is worth exploring for sure.

Dan Culver, DO: Guideline steward.

Raed Dweik, MD: Yeah, guidelines steward - I like it.

Dan Culver, DO: Another question I wondered about is early career members and how they get involved. I think sometimes ATS, because of its size and because of some of the science being so good, it can be intimidating. So, I know early career members often attend assembly meetings, but I wonder if you can share your experience a little bit about the journey of how you got involved and you know, what you’d suggest for somebody who's just getting into the organization now.

Raed Dweik, MD: Yeah. So there's so many ways to get involved in ATS. I think assemblies, as I pointed out, are the simplest, easiest and the quickest way. Assembly meetings are open. The business meetings, usually when we have them are in the evenings of ATS and usually they are Sunday and Monday evenings and they're open.

You can walk into any assembly and I walked into about seven assemblies before I settled on my current assembly. So you go and explore, easy, like you get to see people, you get to network. So to me, I think that's the best way to kind of as an entry level to ATS. You can meet people, you can share your passion, you can learn about ATS.

18:03

Also to be involved, the next level of involvement in my opinion is committees. ATS is all committees and they do a lot of great work. And the best way to get to be involved in these committees is networking, having them get to know you and what you're passionate about as a young investigator or faculty member.

The other one is the “Get Involved” website. The ATS has a Get Involved website you just type “get involved ATS” and you can put your name, your contact information and what you are interested in. And I can assure you, we look at that every year when we populate committees. When the executive leadership committee of ATS populates committees, we take that seriously and we look at it.

The last few years we’ve developed a new, it's not a new process in a way, but we're enforcing our rule to try to rotate people off committees, senior people who have been on it for several years so that new members can come in and experience what it's like to be on a committee. So this is why the Get Involved site has become more important than ever because that's where we go to, to find people, to populate committees, and to replace people who are moving on.

Dan Culver, DO: So we heard it here. Just go on the Get Involved link and you can get involved.

Raed Dweik, MD: Yes, absolutely.

Dan Culver, DO: Alright. It speaks for itself and I'm always surprised by the entry to get into and start to establish a reputation, I think sometimes it’s less than people perceive. If you can get into something even small and just be a doer, get something across the finish line, even small - that gets noticed, doesn't it?

Raed Dweik, MD: They get noticed very quickly. That gets noticed very quickly. I think the reason for that is pretty much all the work we do at ATS as members is volunteer work.

We have day jobs, so many of us get distracted and pulled away, so the people who end up showing up and doing the work end up moving up very quickly in the organization because probably half the people on, you know, committees or assemblies and stuff, they really are too busy to kind of engage and do the work.

So, if you are at a time in your career where you want to contribute, you want to grow and you want to evolve, it's just show up and do the work. Volunteer, raise your hand when volunteers are asked for, there's so many tasks that come up on committees and assemblies that we're always looking for good people to do the work.

Dan Culver, DO: Great. Well, we only have a couple of minutes left. I wonder if you want to just make a comment or two about the journal portfolio. There are definitely changes in the publishing industry. There are changes in the funding model for journals and also some of the ways that they're put together. ATS has a pretty stable portfolio of journals. Do you see changes there?

Raed Dweik, MD: So clearly, I think the Blue Journal, for example, is our flagship journal. We have the Red and we have the White Journals and the Scholar. So we have a robust portfolio that covers, you know, the high end, but also basic research, clinical and education. And we see that as a good balanced portfolio.

21:04

You know, some journals are stronger than others and I think the challenges are, there are many headwinds coming in front of journals. One of them is the cost, you know, the cost of publication is, is going higher. So, I wonder how long many journals will stay in print, for example, in physical print. I know, 'cause many people actually access their articles online.

You know, I don't remember the last time I actually opened a physical journal. If I want something, I go online and that will reduce the cost. Along with the rising cost [of print] is the reduced revenue. That's something I learned just by being a member of the executive committee at ATS - journal advertising has been progressively coming down the last several years.

Many companies are moving on to a couple of areas, such as direct-to-consumer. Of course, we are all bombarded by these ads on TV and radio and digital, online digital advertising. So that is taking away 'cause they feel that's where they get more bang for their buck. So really with these challenges of increasing costs and reducing revenue, something has to give, I think.

And as a society we are looking at ways in which we can maintain a robust portfolio while also being fiscally responsible for the society. So there are a lot of options that are being considered and we'll see where we go from.

Dan Culver, DO: Great. Well, we covered a lot of territory today. Thanks for the insights. Is there any other thing that you think is important for the listeners to know about something exciting or something on the horizon that you want to share?

Raed Dweik, MD: What can be more exciting than ATS in Orlando? I encourage everybody to come to ATS in Orlando next May [2026]. We haven't been to Orlando for a while, so I think that conference is going to be very exciting. Again, a place to showcase your science, a place to see other people's science, and most importantly for me and many others – a place to network with colleagues.

So I really encourage you, if you have science to share, just submit an abstract or submit a proposal and hope to see everyone in Orlando in May 2026.

Dan Culver, DO: I'll be there. Okay. Thank you for joining today, it was really nice to spend some time with you.

Raed Dweik, MD: Thank you, Dan, I appreciate you taking the time as well.

Dan Culver, DO: Thank you everybody.

23:19

Raed Dweik, MD: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Respiratory Exchange Podcast. You can find additional podcast episodes on our website, cleveland clinic.org/podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.