l eT ’ S con T inue T he momen Tum o F change From our immediaTe PaST PreSidenT It was truly an honor and a privilege to be the plastic Surgery Foundation (the pSF) president in 2012. over the past year, the pSF provided reliable and needed support to ensure that our specialty has the research resources to continue the advancement of care for our patients and to improve outcomes. we continued to be pioneers and innovators creating and managing change in the wake of new challenges. one of the steps we took to improve the lives of our patients was to establish the Breast reconstruction awareness Fund of the plastic Surgery Foundation. with the fund, we will work to raise awareness of breast reconstruction options, support breast reconstruction organizations, and fund breast reconstruction research to ensure your patients experience the best care possible. we’ve begun a journey to change the way we support research. over the past number of years, the pSF has morphed into a body whose responsibilities are primarily research and the development of new innovation. our vision is to establish the pSF as a ”virtual” university, where we all are faculty. we have moved away from merely giving away money for grants to adding a proactive infrastructure to identify and address emerging areas of interest that impact the clinical practice of our members. we need to continue to develop this infrastructure in order to respond to more inquiries from our members and successfully compete for external funding. this infrastructure will help us grow our capacity and enables us to conduct the needed research to advance and innovate. we will continue to tackle issues that impact the entire specialty and partner with other organizations in industry and government for the purpose of advancing surgical quality and patient safety. we want to respond to your needs. one step forward in this direction is our recent work with the FDa. the pSF leadership, committee members and staff, together with the aSpS, have collaborated with the FDa since 2010 to develop partnered registries for patients with breast implants who have acquired anaplastic large cell lymphoma (alCl). we are also now working with the FDa to establish a national Breast Implant registry. this new registry is truly a remarkable endeavor realized by your Foundation and never before attempted by our Society. our ability to impact and advance the specialty through research support and project development is directly related to the generosity of the individuals and organizations that believe and share our vision. we are thankful to all of our supporters that help us achieve our goals. over the past year, they contributed more than $974,000 to help further our important initiatives. thank you to everyone who has given. we have many success stories to share in these pages and many more to look forward to. let’s continue the momentum of change in 2013. Sincerely, michael W. neumeiSTer, md, FrcSc, FacS pSF Immediate past president T h e P S F. o r g