New ATS president says TB won’t fade from agenda
New ATS president says TB won’t fade from agenda
ATS and ALA must keep working together
[Editor’s note: This past May, William J. Martin II, MD, assumed his new duties as president of the American Thoracic Society (ATS). Martin, a pulmonologist, is the first head of ATS elected in three years who is not also a TB expert. In the following interview, TB Monitor asks Martin, also president and CEO of Indiana University Health Care in Indianapolis — what he sees in store for ATS over the coming year.]
Q. What are the main responsibilities of the ATS president?
Martin: The president makes all committee assignments for the ATS. A great deal of the work of the organization occurs in these committees. The president also runs the board of directors’ meetings and sets the agenda nationally by trying to determine what are the most important issues that require resolution.
Our infrastructure is complicated and also includes 12 scientific assemblies. As president, I’ll have the job of answering all of the hard questions but distributing the credit where it belongs. I’d like to add that the roots of the ATS are in the study and care of patients with TB, and the commitment into the next century is as strong as it has ever been in the past century.
Q.As incoming president, what challenges do you see ahead for the American Thoracic Society?
Martin: The challenge for next year is to have the ATS and the American Lung Association (ALA) functionally work together to fight lung disease in North America and worldwide. Now that the two organizations have officially separated and the ATS has become its own not-for-profit organization, I think it’s imperative to reconnect the two organizations to provide a coordinated approach to the health of the American public in particular. I also think tuberculosis is a "perfect" disease that indicates the need to have both physicians and scientists team with health volunteers to fight the disease.
The ALA has a long history of enlisting health volunteers to help support education of the public about diseases such as TB. They’re used to working with state and county health departments. By the same token, on the scientists’ side, which is represented by the ATS, there’s a need to maintain a close relationship with the volunteers. I believe it’s that sort of functional relationship that will keep the ATS and the ALA working as close partners in the future. TB is a great example of where you need a lot of education of the public as and the need to work closely with public agencies.
Q.Since you don’t have a clinical background in TB, should we expect to see any difference in the ATS’ approach to dealing with the disease?
Martin: Though it’s true that my interest in TB has not been on the clinical side, my basic science interest has been in TB. I have two National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants that are focused exclusively on TB, but they’re for looking at the science or basic research of the disease.
One area where the ATS and ALA work closely together is in our advocacy agenda in Washington, DC. It’s very important that the two organizations coordinate our efforts with agencies such as the NIH and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to continue funding for research on TB and to work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to promote the health aspects and epidemiologic studies on TB.
A very positive aspect of our relationship with the ALA is the international scope. The ALA is also taking a world view on TB, and think that has lot to do with the influence of the ATS.
Q.How would you describe the status of the battle against the spread of TB?
Martin: TB is disease that demands respect. As soon as you see things are improving in one area, they’re getting worse in another. The issue of multidrug-resistant TB remains is as important a problem as it’s ever been, and with rapid transportation of people, TB has to be viewed as a worldwide illness. At this point, I don’t feel that the problem is less severe than in the past.
A renewed public interest about TB occurred with the AIDS epidemic, and the disease is likely to become better controlled as the spread of AIDS is better controlled. But as a health problem in this country, I think TB is as important a threat now as it was five or 10 years ago, and we need to keep the American public informed.
Q.How well does the public understand the importance of controlling TB?
Martin: The American public was just beginning to understand the importance of TB at the height of the AIDS epidemic, but with better treatment for AIDS, I think that the public’s knowledge about TB will continue to backslide, which is why we need to redouble our efforts to keep the American public informed because it is a well-informed public that provides the necessary federal support for all the TB programs. So it’s very important that the public continue to be made aware of TB-related issues.
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