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ASH Career Development Timeline for Trainees
While every person’s career path clearly requires an individualized plan for true success, based on insight from hematology leadership and fellows, the Trainee Council has created a generalized framework to help guide those training for a career in hematology.
GENERAL INFORMATION
- It is important to have twice-yearly formal meetings with your program director and your division chief. If they are different people, know that their interests may be different: the program director’s primary interest will be in your individual interests and career development; whereas a division chief seeks to identify your interests within the context of the needs of the division.
- Attend a weekly research conference at your institution to help scout out potential mentors and to break from “hospital” thinking.
- Make a point to attend a national or international research meeting as soon as possible after starting your fellowship. This is usually quite difficult during first-year clinical rotations, but not insurmountable, and is absolutely necessary by years 2 and 3. The ASH Web site is a good resource for identifying conferences of interest in addition to the annual meetings of ASH and ASCO.
- Sign up early for any available “research methods” or “scientific writing” courses that your training institution and/or affiliated teaching hospital may offer to its junior faculty or trainees as part of its research development initiatives. These are often more accessible than competitive, and more committed, research degree programs or workshops. Increasing numbers of academic centers have a clinical research program or center with educational aims and logistic support for its local researchers.
Mark Your Calendar
A listing of upcoming medical meetings that you can incorporate into your personal timeline.
OBJECTIVES BY YEAR OF TRAINING
This timeline assumes that year 1 will be devoted to clinical training, with remaining years focused on a specific career pathway.
Year 1
- Become a member of ASH.
- Visit the trainee section of the ASH Web site frequently for training updates and notices about conferences and research award opportunities.
- If not assigned to you at the beginning of your fellowship, ask your program director to assist in the identification of an advisor for your first year of training. The role of this advisor would be to serve as a resource to you as you begin to consider career pathways and research careers. As your plans become more focused, the advisor should also be able to suggest potential mentors to you for subsequent training.
- Attend conferences at your institution (within your division, department, cancer center, undergraduate/graduate departments) to gain exposure to faculty's research interests.
- By six months, develop a vision of your clinical and scholarly life. Begin meeting and gathering information on potential mentors, and narrow your choices by the spring of your first year so that you may ultimately find the best mentor for your career goals. Try to have your mentor identified by the spring of your first year so that you may begin to work with your mentor on outlining a specific research project.
Note: Before you meet with a potential mentor, do your homework. Know what the faculty member's research focus is, review at least one of his/her recent publications, and research the publication track record of other fellows who have worked with this mentor. Talk to other fellows who have worked with this faculty member to determine how supportive the mentor was and the degree of guidance offered to trainees.
Suggested Questions to Ask Potential Mentors
- Between 6-10 months consider applying for training in clinical/translational research degree programs or workshops (i.e., explore master's programs at your home institution, the ASH Clinical Research Training Institute, CEC, ASCO, or AACR intensive training).
- In preparation for eventually conducting research at your institution, complete the requisite tests for certification, should they be necessary for the review of a forthcoming institutional research ethics board proposal on a study that you and your mentor are planning (i.e., proof of HIPPA awareness and the ethical conduct of research). Such proposals, for retrospective case series reviews or small pilot studies, are also good practice for scientific writing and are an opportunity to have a concrete start (and precious approval lead time!) on a project.
Year 2
- If your primary project will take over a year to complete, consider a small secondary project that may lead to an abstract, poster, manuscript, etc., during year 2.
- Writing a review article or book chapter that will enhance your knowledge of your field may be useful, but these publications are usually not peer-reviewed. Since they may not be regarded as highly as peer-reviewed publications, you may want to limit such projects.
- Alternatives to review articles or book chapters, and a way to “get started” in the arena of producing the more appealing genre of “original research,” may be to do the following:
- Writing up the results of an already-established data base or abstract that might have been left unfinished by another trainee.
- Writing up an interesting case report or case series.
- Composing the proposal for a short and feasible pilot study that may lead constructively into a larger prospective study proposal or grant application in the future. Demonstrating consistency in interests and a preliminary reputation in the field of relevance can only bolster the legitimacy of larger research plans in the area. Your mentor may in fact be interested in having a number of pilot questions answered for his/her grants too!
- Have explicit conversations with your scholarly mentor at the outset regarding eventual funding (this will help you focus your thinking and will clarify expectations for both you and your mentor).
- Identify grant opportunities to apply for to fund your research. Note that the AACR, ASCO, and CALGB sponsor trainee grants with deadlines in the fall of your second year. Keep track of these and other grant opportunities throughout your second year.
- Note that the AACR runs a grant writing course each spring, for those who do not have such a course at their own institutions. Also look for the Hematology Grants Workshop for trainees and young faculty at the ASH annual meeting.
- Although self-funding is not a requirement for most programs, and grants won’t increase your salary, obtaining research grants early will help to establish your track record as an academic.
ASH Awards and Other Hematology-Related Research Grant Opportunities
Where to Find Funding for Your Clinical or Basic Science Research Project
by Scott D. Gitlin, MD, FACP (PowerPoint)
NIH Loan Repayment Program
- Begin to research job opportunities in the spring. Search job banks, and have the division chief help by keeping his/her ears open. Keep your CV up to date; write a cover letter.
- Take advantage of presentations at meetings that discuss job searching/interviews; they are very helpful in terms of knowing how to negotiate incentives, fringe benefits, etc.
- Attend the 2006 ASH Trainee Simultaneous Didactic Sessions. Trainees seeking an academic research career frequently benefit from an extra year of research training.
Discuss this with your mentor and program director.
- Meet with your program director at least every six months regarding the quality of your mentoring and research experience.
- Trainees seeking further specialized clinical skills development, with an opportunity to incorporate protected research time, may search for a subspecialty Fellowship training program, (BMT, thrombosis, vascular medicine, transfusion medicine) rather than a non-specific year of research training, especially if the certainty of funding is questionable, or if there may be more to gain in expanding employment opportunities by developing an expertise or obtaining additional credentials. Be open-minded; some fellowship opportunities may lie in other departments, such as Pathology, or exist geographically far away from home. Use the FREIDA/AMA Web site or direct online searches for fellowship terms to find institutions with available programs.
Year 3
- Keep a file of academic or research talks that can be used on the interview trail.
- Keep a “teaching dossier” of the presentations (oral or poster) performed at the local/regional/national/international levels, and retain, if available, any associated feedback from the conference providers. Proof of teaching skills may also be of importance in a clinician-educator career track.
- Decide what you will do after year 3: Academics? Private practice? Industry? Additional training?
- Even if your preference is to stay at your own institution, seriously consider looking elsewhere. A potential drawback of staying at your own institution is that it is sometimes hard to establish yourself as independent from your previous mentor.
- Strive to give talks at other institutions and present abstracts at meetings. Use discussions about your work to explore the potential for a position at other institutions.
- Request a recruitment package from potential employers.
- Begin your search for a position as an independent investigator.
- Begin your search for a position as a private practitioner.
Jobs in Hematology (PowerPoint)
by Daniel Rosenblum, MD
Preparation for Life After Fellowship (PowerPoint)
by Robert F. Todd, III, MD, PhD
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