ASH Clinical News ACN_3.13_FULL_ISSUE_DIGITAL | Page 90

Heard in the Blogosphere

BACK of the BOOK

# Fight4Hematology

On September 28 , the American Society of Hematology ( ASH ) staff and members met with several U . S . representatives and senators to advocate for increased funding for the National Institutes of Health . Below are a few snapshots from the meetings . To learn more about how you can become an advocate for hematology , see ASH ’ s new Advocacy Toolkit at hematology . org / Advocacy .
ASH
@ ASH _ hematology
Thank you , @ RepTerriSewell , for taking the time to discuss the benefits @ NIH brings to Alabama ! # Fight4Hematology
James Blachly , MD
@ jamesblachly
Great visit with @ SenSherrodBrown who supports @ NIH and helps us # Fight4Hematology and # conquerSCD
Is Health Care a Right ?
“ The United States remains the only developed country in the world unable to come to agreement on [ whether health care is a right ]. … We ’ ve all found ourselves battling over who deserves less and who deserves more . Our political debates seem to focus on what the rules should be for our place in line . Should the most highly educated get to move up to the front ? The most talented ? Does seniority matter ? What about people whose ancestors were cheated and mistreated ? The mistake is accepting the line , and its dismal conception of life as a zero-sum proposition . It gives up on the more encompassing possibilities of shared belonging , mutual loyalty , and collective gains . America ’ s founders believed these possibilities to be fundamental .”
— Atul Gawande , MD , MPH , on the difficulties of putting moral principles into practice , in The New Yorker
What Is the Future of International Scientific Collaboration ?
ASH
@ ASH _ hematology
We had a fantastic chat with @ SenShelby about the need to keep the @ NIH funded & how the Senate can act to # ConquerSCD . # Fight4Hematology
In a changing political climate , characterized by Britain ’ s exit from the European Union and President Trump ’ s executive order restricting immigration from six Muslim-majority countries , many scientists are concerned about the future of collaboration , which translates to limited global mobility and stalled research projects . In The Scientist , researchers share their experiences with these new policies , and how they predict limitations on collaboration will affect future scientific investigation .
“ International collaborations are essential to advance science . Limiting the exchange of ideas or practices or data across cultures will significantly slow down scientific progress , which ultimately hurts public health , not only in North America , but around the world .”
— Kenneth Anderson , MD , president of the American Society of Hematology
ASH
@ ASH _ hematology
Thank you so much to @ SenFeinstein for meeting with us to discuss ways to # ConquerSCD and fund the @ NIH ! # Fight4Hematology
Follow ASH and ASH Clinical News on :
@ ASH _ Hematology , @ BloodJournal , @ BloodAdvances , and @ ASHClinicalNews
Facebook . com / AmericanSocietyofHematology
@ ASH _ Hematology
“ The conversation has been a bit toxic when it comes to welcoming or not welcoming scientists from abroad , not just in regions that have been affected by these policies . It ’ s a difficult situation , even without thinking about specific policies or specific enactment of policies . I always am concerned about perception because that ’ s what drives people .”
— Mustafa al ’ Absi , PhD , director of the Duluth Medical Research Institute in Minnesota
“ With the uncertainty about what ’ s actually going to happen with Brexit , we see fewer applications to our PhD [ programs ] and when recruiting postdoctoral researchers from the E . U . If the pool of applicants is reduced , that means overall you won ’ t get the best applications .”
— Frank Dondelinger , PhD , a biostatistician at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom
“ Especially as a young scientist , traveling around is often required to get the best training because that expertise may be missing in your country of residence or even your continent of residence . Being able to get that expertise from different areas in the world where the best possible labs are provides real innovation .”
— Steven Spoel , PhD , a biologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland
88 ASH Clinical News November 2017