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2022 Annual Report

Building the Future of Hematology

ASH Annual Report
ASH President Dr. Jane Winter
2022 ASH President
Jane N. Winter, MD

2022 was a year of celebrating the progress and promise of hematology.

ASH has always been committed to advancing the careers of the next generation of hematologists through awards, training opportunities, and career development programs. This year, we made an unprecedented investment in the future of the field by supporting the creation of 10 new hematology-focused fellowship tracks at nine academic institutions across the country. The demand for and interest in the programs was so great that four additional institutions were inspired to create new fellowship tracks of their own. This is a true testament to the appeal of hematology.

We also invested in hematology in a less tangible but equally important way, through the adoption of the term “classical hematology.” Use of the terms “benign” or “non-malignant” hematology has done its practitioners and patients a disservice, either minimizing very real and often life-threatening blood conditions by calling them “benign,” or defining the field by what it is not, as in the case of “non-malignant.” Classical hematology fosters interest and recruitment by evoking the field’s rich, centuries-long history of scientific advances that are so central to every aspect of medicine.

Indeed, one of the most rewarding things about hematology is its intersection with other medical specialties and its important role in our interconnected public health community. The connection between hematology and maternal health was brought to the forefront this year when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The ASH policy statement featured cases of hematologic conditions adversely affecting maternal health and served as the cornerstone for our ongoing advocacy and education efforts at the annual meeting and beyond.

Speaking of the annual meeting, there is no better way to showcase the progress we have made and the bright future we are facing in our field than this premier event. This year’s meeting offered the latest scientific and clinical content to more than 30,000 attendees, most of whom participated in person in New Orleans. The liveliness of the meeting matched that of its host city, with conversations in the halls and session rooms ranging from beignets to B-cells, from jazz to JAK inhibitors, and from Cajun cuisine to CAR-T. We continued our focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) through not only the maternal health sessions, but also through the Health Equity Studio and DEI sessions, and inaugural networking events for members from historically underrepresented communities.

Representation was key to the advances we made this year as we continued our longstanding leadership in sickle cell disease (SCD). The extraordinary work of the ASH-led Consortium on Newborn Screening in Africa (CONSA) in screening more than 70,000 newborns and providing early interventions for more than 250 babies diagnosed with SCD reminded us that ours is a mission that transcends borders. The launch of the Bringing Sickle Cell Disease to Life podcast commemorated the great progress we have made in SCD diagnosis and treatment, and also acknowledged just how far we have yet to go.

It has been an honor and privilege to serve as president of the Society during this remarkable year of progress and promise. I wish to thank all the members of our community for their support throughout the year, and I look forward to seeing the accomplishments in store for 2023 under the leadership of my able successor, Dr. Robert Brodsky.

– Jane N. Winter, MD, 2022 President of the American Society of Hematology (ASH)

ASH supports hematologists around the world by offering various research awards, training programs, and other resources designed to enhance knowledge, research, and expertise. In 2022, ASH made a substantial investment in the future of hematology by funding a set of hematology-focused fellowship tracks across the country to provide vital education, mentorship, and research opportunities for fellows interested in pursuing careers in hematology.

$ 19 M

ASH investment through HFFTP

105

Total new hematology-focused fellowship slots by 2030

ASH Hematology-Focused Fellowship Training Program

This year ASH announced the institutions that were selected for the ASH Hematology-Focused Fellowship Training Program (HFFTP), an innovative initiative to address the critical need to expand the hematology workforce. ASH invested $19 million to launch 10 new hematology-focused fellowship tracks at nine academic institutions. As a result of ASH’s groundbreaking investment, three institutions were inspired to launch additional hematology-focused fellowship programs. Altogether, institutions across the country aim to provide as many as 105 new hematology-focused fellowship slots by 2030.

 

 

ASH has been engaging with federal partners and policymakers about maternal health over the past several years. The Society accelerated its advocacy in response to the June 2022 Supreme Court decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade. ASH opposed the decision for interfering with the relationship between patients and providers and hindering patients’ ability to seek necessary medical treatment. ASH worked to inform lawmakers and the voting public of the consequences of Dobbs, meeting with elected officials in Louisiana, offering special sessions at the annual meeting through the Grassroots Network and the ASH Working Group on Maternal Health in Hematology, and encouraging ASH members to advocate. This year, 134 ASH members took action to urge their officials to protect access to maternal health care by participating in the Society’s action campaign; a total of 741 letters and 76 tweets were sent to federal and state legislators.

ASH stands steadfast in its long-standing commitment to build and nurture a global hematology community and workforce inclusive of diverse perspectives, talents, and experiences. This year, ASH continued to expand its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and programs across the organization.

475

Minority Recruitment Initiative Awards Provided Since Inception

80 +

DEI-related Content and Sessions at the 2022 ASH Annual Meeting

ASH is a worldwide leader in promoting and supporting clinical and scientific hematology research through innovative programs and advocacy efforts. The ASH Agenda for Hematology Research, updated periodically and meant to be a living document, serves as a roadmap to prioritize research within the hematology field. In addition, the ASH Research Collaborative (ASH RC), established by ASH in 2018, continues to make important advances in fostering collaborative partnerships to accelerate progress in hematology.

ASH is committed to the development of resources to help hematologists and other health care professionals improve quality of care for patients. In 2022, ASH focused on updating and adapting evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. ASH also continued the development of upcoming guidelines on care for thrombophilia in VTE and acute leukemia among adolescents and young adults, and started to develop guidelines on amyloidosis. ASH created a suite of guideline-based tools and resources to aid clinician education about the guidelines.

Improving Quality of SCD Care

In 2022, ASH established a technical expert panel tasked with developing two quality measures based on the 2020 Guidelines for Sickle Cell Disease: Management of Acute and Chronic Pain, to drive systematic and evidence-based changes to equitable health care delivery for individuals living with SCD. The measures will be posted for public comment in 2023.


Guideline Implementation Champions Initiative

In 2022, ASH introduced the Guideline Implementation Champions Initiative, an annual recognition of practitioners who are working to implement evidence-based guideline recommendations at the point of care in their clinical setting. The successful projects of the 2022 champions (Dr. Jori May, Dr. W. Andres Vasconez Samaniego, and Dr. Jordan Shaefer) were showcased through ASH webinars, sessions at the Annual Meeting, and Quality Improvement Toolkits. 

ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition

The 64th ASH Annual Meeting and Exhibition was one of the largest and most comprehensive hybrid medical society meetings of 2022. More than 30,000 global registrants enjoyed the world-class content, of which 25,000 participated in-person in New Orleans. ASH established health and safety protocols that balanced safety with the ability to meet, network, learn, and participate in scientific exchange.

31,100 +

Total meeting attendees in 2022

4,900 +

Scientific abstracts presented

ASH supports hematologists around the world through its various awards including research grants, training programs, and other opportunities designed to enhance knowledge, research, and expertise. In 2022, ASH award programs continued the longstanding history of generous commitment of funding, training, and mentorship to support a new generation of ASH awardees.

1,000 +

Award Recipients Supported in 2022

$ 12 M+

Award Funds Committed in 2022

Honorific Awards

The Honorific Awards, ASH’s most prestigious awards, recognize exemplary hematologists who have made significant contributions to the field. The 2022 recipients are a diverse group of pioneering scientists, innovative clinicians, and selfless mentors who have advanced hematology through their work.

Irving Weissman, MD

Irving Weissman, MD

 

"How you train people is very important. You say, ‘Devise an experiment to answer the question you’re at. Let me know what it is.'"

 

John Atkinson, MD

John Atkinson, MD

 

“It is likely that hematology will increasingly embrace the age of molecular immunology and molecular genetics. This approach will lead to clinical breakthroughs in particular for employing DNA/RNA modulation to correct human disease.”

 

Peter Hillmen, MD, PhD

Peter Hillmen, MD, PhD

 

“I aspire to continue to improve care for PNH by making the treatment more effective, more convenient, and more widely available.”

 

James Gavin, MD, PhD

James Gavin, MD, PhD

 

“I remain engaged with efforts to increase the rates of entry of under-represented groups into academia and health care — areas where we clearly need more diversity and need it urgently.”

 

David Wilkes, MD

David Wilkes, MD

 

“Those two elements are mission critical. Mentorship and sponsorship early on in your career — you’ve just got to have that.”

 

Irene Ghobrial, MD

Irene Ghobrial, MD

 

“I am excited to see the amazing discoveries and therapies that will be available in the next few years. I believe we will be able to apply our understanding of the molecular changes that occur in each patient, not only in their cancer genome but also the surrounding environment including the immune system and harness those alterations to identify precision medicine for each patient.”

 

Bruce Blazar, MD

Bruce Blazar, MD

 

“There are so many ways of making a difference in patient well-being. Whether you choose to focus on clinical care with compassion or laboratory research with dedication, the personal rewards of taking care of highly vulnerable patients can be extraordinary. On both fronts, there is ample opportunity to directly improve patient lives on many levels.”

 

Timothy Ley, MD

Timothy Ley, MD

 

“With the ability to directly modify the outputs of genes that are relevant for each disease, the effectiveness of therapies will increase, and toxicities will decrease. Decades of additional work will be required to make this a reality, but it will be well worth it.”

 

Robert Montgomery, MD

Robert Montgomery, MD

 

“It is an incredible honor to receive such an award from my peers. I feel that clinical curiosity has focused much of my research, so this award is also an honor I share with my mentors, collaborators, and mentees who have challenged me to learn from each patient I see.”

 

Michael Caligiuri, MD

Michael Caligiuri, MD

 

“While discovery is exciting and patient care very rewarding, I realize as my career has continued that it is the mentoring of the next generation of scientists and physician-scientists that is more important. So, I have worked hard to be always available to my mentees regardless of the issue, and to exude passion about what we do with the hope that they will continue to explore, discover, and teach.”

 

Dr. Christopher Flowers

Christopher Flowers, MD, MS

 

“My mentors were critical to career success, and I was compelled to pay it forward by mentoring the next generation of researchers. I greatly value the deep and long-standing relationships that I have had with many of my mentees across my career.”

 

Awards in Action

These profiles show how the funding, training, and mentorship opportunities provided by ASH awards directly support the careers of future leaders in the field of hematology.

Imo J. Akpan, MD

Imo J. Akpan, MD

 

In 2009 and 2010, Dr. Imo J. Akpan received mentorship, career development, and research support from the ASH Minority Medical Student Award Program. The experience and ongoing support from her mentor Dr. Linda Burns nurtured her interest in hematology. Today Dr. Akpan is a successful classical hematologist focused on a variety of blood disorders including anemia, iron disorders, bleeding and clotting disorders, hemoglobinopathies, and more. She founded and is the Director of the Women’s Clinic for Blood Disorders at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center to provide expedited access to a hematologist for women, especially pregnant women, with various blood disorders in the community. Early in 2022, her research on thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, a potentially life-threatening condition associated with viral-vector COVID-19 vaccines, contributed to the decision by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend mRNA vaccination when possible.

ASH’s early investment in Dr. Akpan’s research career laid the foundation for her future of continued involvement in the Society. She serves on the ASH Women in Hematology Working Group and is currently coming full circle by serving on the MRI Programs Subcommittee to help support other promising clinicians and researchers from underrepresented minority groups and foster a diverse and growing hematology workforce.

Dr. Coraline Mlynarczyk

Coraline Mlynarczyk, PhD

 

Dr. Coraline Mlynarczyk’s research progress was stalled in 2020 as a result of lab and facility closures during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her work had to be paused for several months, and her lab’s mouse lines were lost. She received an ASH Research Restart Award that allowed her to re-establish her mouse lines and complete her studies. ASH’s support for the continuation of her research was just the beginning of the Society’s investment in her as a future hematology leader. In the last two years she has received further support through the ASH Fellow to Faculty Scholar Award in basic/translational research, and her project was selected for an oral presentation at the 2021 ASH annual meeting as well as an ASH Abstract Achievement Award. She has recently authored a Science research article describing a novel mechanism of transformation for aggressive B cell lymphomas.

 

Sofia Toribio Castello

Frank Toohey Abstract Achievement Award for Myelodysplastic Syndromes

Sofia Toribio Castello, MSc

 

This year ASH honored the legacy of John Francis (Frank) Toohey with the creation of a new abstract achievement award dedicated to supporting the next generation of leaders in hematology through recognition of a highly meritorious trainee author and presenter of an annual meeting abstract submitted on the topic of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). The award was made possible through the generosity of Mary McGrane in memory of her husband Frank Toohey. The inaugural award recipient, Sofia Toribio Castello of the Universidad de Salamanca, shared work assessing the long-term safety of patients receiving lenalidomide.

 

Simone Riedel, PhD

ASH-Peter Steelman Scholar Award

Simone Riedel, PhD

 

ASH established a new award honoring Peter Steelman, made possible through the Deerfield Foundation. The award is meant to honor the memory of Peter’s life and continue his legacy of kindness, respect, and hard work. The award supports Scholar Award recipients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML)-focused projects. Simone Riedel, PhD, of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, was the inaugural recipient of this award.

 

ASH continues to advocate for issues affecting hematology research and practice, including research and public health funding, access to quality care for patients, physician payment and coverage for hematologists, and policy issues related to sickle cell disease (SCD). This year also marked the return of an immersive advocacy program and the launch of new ASH-FDA collaborative workshop, both of which gave ASH members new opportunities to make their voices heard in support of hematology.

100 +

Meetings on Capitol Hill (virtual and in-person) in 2022

2,400 +

Grassroots Network Messages to Capitol Hill

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It really is a one-of-a-kind program that offers a great opportunity for any ASH member to learn more about how the legislative process really works, and how we as practitioners and researchers can make sure our voices and concerns are heard on behalf of our patients.

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ALI Co-Chair Dr. Jennifer Holter Chakrabarty

As the world’s premier hematology organization, ASH continues to expand its global programs and services designed to help hematologists conquer blood diseases worldwide.

Support for Ukraine

In partnership with the European Hematology Association (EHA), ASH contributed €50,000 to Helping to Leave, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people evacuate areas of military conflict. ASH’s donation covered transportation and accommodation costs for hematology and oncology patients needing to evacuate and seek medical treatment after the invasion of Ukraine.

ASH Support for Ukraine

Consortium on Newborn Screening in Africa

The ASH-led Consortium on Newborn Screening in Africa (CONSA) is an international network aiming to demonstrate the benefits of newborn screening and early interventions for children with sickle cell disease (SCD) in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2022, CONSA sites in the seven participating countries (Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, and Uganda) screened more than 47,000 newborns and worked to link and provide care for 648 babies diagnosed with SCD.

Global Research Award

The ASH Global Research Award was designed to support future international scientific leaders, increase hematology capacity, and nurture global collaboration. In 2022, ASH committed funds to support 13 recipients from 12 countries.

Dr. Fabiola Valvert Gamboa

Fabiola Valvert, PhD


After receiving an ASH Global Research Award in 2018, Dr. Fabiola Valvert collaborated with her ASH global mentor Dr. David Weinstock to establish an independent research team and facilitate the improved diagnosis of lymphoma at hospitals in Belize and El Salvador. She authored a Blood Advances paper on low-cost, transcriptional diagnostics for lymphoma and continues her important clinical and research work in Guatemala. Upon successful defense of her PhD thesis, she is poised to become the first PhD of Hematology in Guatemala. She says, “all of this work was possible due to the funds from ASH.”

As the world leader in hematology publications, ASH continues to uphold the highest standards for its publications, which cover the breadth of clinical and scientific research and education in the field of hematology. ASH publications – including two peer-reviewed academic journals Blood and Blood Advances, ASH Clinical News magazine, and The Hematologist member newsletter – play a monumental role in providing authoritative information and influencing practice. 

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Dr. Michaelis has had a truly transformative impact on The Hematologist. I am honored to follow in her footsteps and strive to advance the momentum she and the previous editors have built with this publication and companion podcast. I’m looking forward to making The Hematologist a medium for our community to connect over and to encourage participation from underrepresented minority, female, and junior faculty hematologists.

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Editor-in-Chief of The Hematologist Shaji Kumar, MD

Fiscal year 2022 (July 2021-June 2022) was a year of investment for ASH. ASH funds went to support the ASH RC mission, in addition to continuing to expand existing efforts, fund new projects, and support ASH’s overall mission of fostering high-quality, equitable care, transformative research, and innovative education to improve the lives of patients worldwide with blood and bone marrow disorders.

The ASH Foundation was created in 2012 to facilitate private philanthropic relationships with individual donors, foundations, and corporations that confer charitable grants. Thanks to generous donors, in 2022 the ASH Foundation provided additional resources to enhance and expand ASH programs dedicated to advancing hematology research, promoting career development and training, and making a global impact.

$ 1 .5M

Disbursements in Fiscal Year 2022

1,543

ASH Foundation Donors in Fiscal Year 2022

42

Countries Represented by Donors in Fiscal Year 2022