It behooves me to talk about CAOMS as a recently appointed executive director to the organization.
Let me first mention I’ll be as excited as uncomfortable trying to walk in shoes quite larger in size than my small footprint. So happens when one follows Chris Robinson in a task.
Back at consonants and vowels:
C for Canadian, what else? A mix of diversity and dispersion not only geographical but also cultural and economic. As if it were not enough, also a wide array of statutes and regulations unevenly shared at federal and provincial levels. C for complexity too, finally, breeding necessity for Communications and Collegiality.
A, an association, a gathering, a group of interest(s) not always self-centered but equally looking outward in the health arena, at the edge of dental, medical and surgical frontiers. A force for advocacy on behalf of the members but with patient benefit and satisfaction in sight. Can resonate with Altruism when applied to care giving.
O is obvious for oral but certainly not exclusive to that organ as an endpoint. No mouth stands alone, all are attached to a patient… Our first Origin, merely a starting point for a fair number of the care we provide and structures we cure.
M as in maxillofacial, a larger anatomical field of intervention, a wider scope of practice and a closer connection to neighbors within the surgical community, sometimes unduly querulous about our qualifications … Hence, Multidisciplinar commonalities a growing issue and an unavoidable avenue.
S, seriously, surgeons? Like in medico-surgical Specialists from a dental origin (or extraction…)? Well yes, no less and even a little more than ENT or Plastic colleagues on a common playing ground where we were born and raised, and nowadays at par with them in upbringing, through a growing era of dual-degree qualifying programs across the country.
All in all, CAOMS the acronym is a condensation and abbreviation. Expanding on its content and components leads to a comprehensive knowledge of who we are and what we stand for.
May I be blessed with a fraction of the subtle and most invigorating talent and energy of my predecessor. Most of all, may I succeed in sharing, spreading and creating some of the same on behalf of our officers and constituency.
Belonging to a national and provincial organization is a must; being thankful is a given; participating and getting involved is a mission and will make all oral sciences and specialties true health organizations in an almost solely medico-surgically committed environment.
After all, properly spelling out an identity is the safest way to have a name well written and rightfully remembered. OH
About the Author
Dr. Pierre Eric Landry graduated in Médecine Dentaire at l’Université de Montréal in 1976. A year of GDR at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal and two years of hospital practice at le CHUL in Quebec City preceded his training in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS) at l’Hôpital de l’Enfant-Jésus affiliated to l’Université Laval from 1979 to 1983 in Quebec City.
After two years of honorary fellowships in Glasgow, Nantes and Halifax under Kursheed F. Moos, Jean Delaire and David S. Precious, he was appointed assistant professor and further nominated director for the graduate training program in OMFS in 1997 at his alma mater, until 2013. He concurrently took office in numerous hospital medico-administrative committees before acting as chief executive medical officer. He is a past president of CAOMS and QAOMS for which both he now stands as executive director.
He is currently active in teaching at the undergraduate and postgraduate level, involved as an international lecturer with AO/ASIF, serves as an instructor for ATLS as well as a senior examiner with the RCDC and reviewer for the NDEB and JOMS, mainly in the fields of trauma, orthognatic, preprosthetic and reconstructive surgery.
