Announcing Hematopoiesis, Our New ASH Trainee Council Newsletter by Trainees and for Trainees

The events of 2020 were unprecedented for all of us, disrupting the hematology trainee experience and the entire spectrum of medical education. For the ASH Trainee Council, creating online platforms for you, the hematologists-in-training that we represent, has become even more important as we all discovered the power of virtual spaces for learning and collaboration in the COVID era.

In response to the survey of hematology fellows that we administered and presented at the 2020 ASH Annual Meeting, which revealed significant concerns about education and career advancement due to the pandemic, we have been working over the past year to design a new dedicated publication for all budding hematologists across the training pipeline.

The ASH Trainee Council is elated to announce the inaugural issue of Hematopoiesis, our new newsletter by trainees and for trainees.

Hematopoiesis is a reimagining of the former TraineE-News newsletter and is part of the Council’s broader mission to provide all levels of trainees with equitable access to educational and career development resources, including our online Hematology Review Series and virtual access to one-on-one Blood Buddy mentoring sessions at the upcoming ASH-a-Palooza.

he·mat·o·poi·e·sis

Hematopoiesis is the formation, maturation, and differentiation of all blood cells. The Trainee Council chose this name to reflect our mandate to represent the entire spectrum of hematology trainees, from medical students to housestaff to fellows, to clinicians and graduate researchers, to adult and pediatric hematologists.

Just like the bone marrow milieu where blood cells are formed, we as a community are made stronger by our diversity and by uplifting each trainee to succeed in any field of hematology. By opening Hematopoiesis to contributions by all trainees, it is our vision to create a virtual platform that transcends barriers and enables trainees to connect and learn from one another.

New trainee-authored content

In the spirit of mutual learning, we are introducing several new types of articles on Hematopoiesis that build upon our previous experience with TraineE-News, with all content generated by trainees and edited by members of the ASH Trainee Council.

In our Morning Report section, we aim to deliver high-yield didactics about both fundamental and emerging topics in hematology, such as the evolving use of measurable residual disease, the current landscape of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, and the basics of peripheral blood smear interpretation for our new budding hematologists.

By expanding our Career Advice section, we can present articles on novel career paths in hematology, such as infusing patient and political advocacy into hematology practice, and practical advice from graduate students on how to begin a research career in the COVID era.

Building community around our shared experience through the medical humanities has always been an important aspect of training, even more so now as we weather the ongoing pandemic. From articles to create catharsis around the tumultuous transition between training years to promoting women in hematology, we are committed to presenting the lived experience of being a hematologist-in-training, with an eye for representing diverse voices.

Just as with TraineE-News, we will continue curating educational Case Studies for trainees, with an emphasis on increasing the variety of cases, including pediatric cases and descriptions of novel hematologic disorders.

Our new Hematopoiesis podcast

To bring our platform into the modern era, we are elated to release our first episode of Hematopoiesis, a brand-new podcast produced and curated by the ASH Trainee Council, now available on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, and more.

In our first episode, former Trainee Council chair Dr. Lachelle Dawn Weeks begins her three-part series on the mythical history of blood transfusion, including an interview with Professor Douglas Starr, author of Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce.

With this new podcast, we hope to bring thought-provoking educational and career-focused hematology content to you and to the community of hematology trainees around the globe, and we invite trainees interested in producing their own Hematopoiesis episodes to contact us at training@hematology.org.

The future of Hematopoiesis

In our mission to create an organic and equitable ecosystem for hematology trainees across the training pipeline, we affirm that the most vital aspect of Hematopoiesis is you, the hematologist-in-training. In that vein, we open the doors to any and all hematology trainees to contribute to our new publication, regardless of your level of training. We seek articles or podcasts on any topic of interest to the hematology community, and we invite you to email us at training@hematology.org if you are interested in contributing.

We are overjoyed to finally share Hematopoiesis with all of you, and we thank you for your support, as well as the support of the American Society of Hematology, for enabling this project to come to fruition. We look forward to your feedback and invite you to read our inaugural issue.