- ASH to Raise Awareness of Blood Diseases With Educational Campaign and Documentary Film to Premiere on Discovery Health
- Blood Moves to Weekly Publication in 2009
ASH to Raise Awareness of Blood Diseases With Educational Campaign and Documentary Film to Premiere on Discovery Health
By Kenneth Kaushansky, MD
Dr. Kaushansky is president of ASH.
In 2007, ASH conducted a national survey to determine the public's level of awareness of blood disorders and hematology. Survey results revealed that Americans have low awareness of hematology, blood diseases, and health risks. When asked to name a common blood condition, only a small minority were able to identify common conditions like anemia, blood clotting, hemophilia, and deep-vein thrombosis, and only one in five people could define hematology. These results underscore the public's need for easy-to-understand resources on blood disorders and guidance on the role of hematologists in the health-care team.
To address this need and help people understand just how important blood is to their overall health, ASH has launched Blood: The Vital Connection, a public education campaign that provides credible information on many different blood diseases as well as risk factors, prevention strategies, and treatment options. An exciting component of this campaign is a documentary on hematology produced by award-winning filmmaker Joseph Lovett and supported by ASH, NHLBI, NIDDK, NCI, and NCRR. "Blood Detectives" shows the vital role hematologists play in treating complex medical conditions and in conducting basic research that leads to life-saving treatments. Mark your calendar to catch the film's premiere on the Discovery Health cable network on December 19 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT, and look for more details at this year's annual meeting.
As we all know, millions of Americans are affected by blood disorders each day, and more and more are using the Internet as their primary source of information. We encourage you to refer your patients to the Blood: The Vital Connection Web site at www.bloodthevitalconnection.org for reliable information on anemia, bleeding and clotting disorders, blood cancers, and women's blood-related health issues. The site also provides information about participating in clinical trials and a "Find a Hematologist" tool, which allows patients or their health care providers to search for a hematologist by location or specialty. (If you are an ASH member and wish to have your name added to this searchable database, contact Laura Stark.)
The site also includes valuable career resources for medical students, and, over the coming weeks, we plan to add blood disease animations, short videos, and more details about the documentary.
We need your help getting the word out about the important resources at www.bloodthevitalconnection.org. Please join us in raising awareness about blood diseases and the important work hematologists do by sharing this site with your patients, family, and friends.
Blood Moves to Weekly Publication in 2009
Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), will change from a semimonthly to weekly schedule effective with the January 1, 2009, issue.
Blood publishes original articles describing novel and precedent-setting laboratory, translational, and clinical investigations in the field of hematology and related areas of research. Editorial content also includes Inside Blood, succinct summaries of cutting-edge research; focused topical reviews; and clinically focused "How I Treat" articles from respected leaders in clinical hematology worldwide.
Most importantly, the shift of the journal to weekly publication will get research to members more quickly. Chair of Journals Committee Joel Anne Chasis, MD, said that the schedule change will provide several additional benefits for members and subscribers, including increased portability of the print journal due to more convenient size, greater visibility for ongoing and new content features, enhanced content, and distribution of a weekly e-Table of Contents.
Blood's Editor-in-Chief Cynthia Dunbar, MD, notes that the journal will increase the solicitation and publication of Review articles, Perspectives, and "How I Treat" articles to ensure sufficient material of interest to the Blood readership. The number of primary research articles will remain stable. The entire table of contents will be reorganized as of the January 1 issue to better reflect the balance of articles being published and to help readers find articles of interest more easily.
With a weekly publication schedule, an almost-immediate online prepublication, and a seven-week average time from acceptance to print publication, Blood will deliver high quality content that leads the world in reporting basic and clinically relevant hematology research.