American Society of Hematology Selects Three Resident Physicians for Minority Resident Hematology Award Program
(WASHINGTON, June 29, 2017) – The American Society of Hematology (ASH) today announced the names of three resident physicians selected to take part in the 2017 ASH Minority Resident Hematology Award Program (MRHAP). This program is designed to provide support for underrepresented minority residents to conduct hematology-focused research with the intended outcome of increasing interest in hematology research and choice of fellowship.
Program participants will receive a total support amount of $7,000, which will help cover their research projects and travel expenses to the 59th ASH Annual Meeting in December, where they will present the results of their projects at the Promoting Minorities in Hematology Presentations and Reception. In addition, each resident is paired with two ASH mentors: A research mentor who will oversee the research project and a career-development mentor who will guide the participant throughout his or her MRHAP experience. They will also receive complimentary subscriptions to ASH’s journal Blood, as well as to The Hematologist, the Society's newsletter, during their residency.
The MRHAP is one of four programs under ASH’s Minority Recruitment Initiative, a series of programs committed to increasing the number of underrepresented minorities training in hematology-related fields and the number of minority hematologists with academic and research appointments.
“The ASH Minority Resident Hematology Award Program establishes a new opportunity for outstanding resident physicians to further develop their passion for hematology,” said ASH President Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, of the Lebow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics and Jerome Lipper Myeloma Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. “Providing them sustained support through training will encourage these talented hematologists to continue to pursue hematology, and it will give them the extra support they need to excel in their careers.”
The 2017 MRHAP participants and their research topics include:
| Recipient | Project Title | Research Mentor | Career-Development Mentor |
| Owhofasa Agbedia, MD, MPH Howard University Hospital Washington, DC |
Incidence, survival and prevalence of hematologic malignancies amongst minority populations using the SEER program database | Patricia Oneal, MD Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Silver Spring, MD |
Deepika S. Darbari, MD Children’s National Medical Center/George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences Washington, DC |
| Elisa Quiroz Beaumont Health Royal Oak, MI |
Variations in microRNA expression in Latin American patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia | Dan Douer, MD University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center Los Angeles, CA |
Ivan Maillard, MD, PhD University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI |
| Samuel Wilson, MD University of Michigan Health System Ann Arbor, MI |
Role of Duffy antigen phenotype in clinical outcomes of individuals with sickle cell disease on hydroxyurea therapy | Andrew Campbell, MD University of Michigan Health System/C.S. Mott Children's Hospital Ann Arbor, MI |
Scott D. Gitlin, MD University of Michigan Medical School Ann Arbor, MI |
The American Society of Hematology (www.hematology.org) is the world’s largest professional society of hematologists dedicated to furthering the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disorders affecting the blood. For more than 50 years, the Society has led the development of hematology as a discipline by promoting research, patient care, education, training, and advocacy in hematology. ASH publishes Blood (www.bloodjournal.org), the most cited peer-reviewed publication in the field, which is available weekly in print and online. In 2016, ASH launched Blood Advances (www.bloodadvances.org), an online, peer-reviewed open-access journal.
CONTACT:
Sara Khalaf, American Society of Hematology
[email protected]; 202-552-4925
