Editor’s Corner
Why Did You Become a Hematologist?
I
AM TRULY CURIOUS as to why doctors in training choose a
career in hematology, particularly malignant hematology.
In one of his past Editor’s Corner columns, my ASH Clinical News editorial colleague, David Steensma, MD, said he was
hooked after witnessing the beauty of an eosinophil under a
microscope as a first-year medical student. For me, it was my
fascination at the seemingly endless number of color-coded intravenous lines (it was the 1980s, after all) that could be attached
at one time to a single, conscious person. I hope I can attribute
my decision to the thrill of working in a laminar flow room – and
not to a fixation on alopecia.
When I was deciding which area of medicine to specialize
in, I had to rule out intensive care because, contrary to popular
opinion, I am not entirely the misanthrope I seem to be and
actually do enjoy people. Well, I try to – at least once every
other day and as long as they don’t ask me difficult questions or
expect me to spend more than three minutes in conversation.
That’s probably also the reason I abandoned teaching responsibilities in 1994.
It is also important to remember that, when I was in training, heparin-induced thrombocytopenia and inferior vena cava
filters were not a disease yet, so I never expected to actually have
to deal with coagulation except for the occasional patient with
acquired hemophilia who required cyclophosphamide. We didn’t
even know then that we were infusing gigabytes of hepatitis C, so
transfusion medicine didn’t resonate with me, either.
So, I knew hematology was for me, but what led me to
specialize in malignant hematology? Pediatric hematology was
quickly ruled out; I still rate my first night on call as a hematology trainee covering the Hospital for Sick Children among the
most terrifying of my career – and that was before I met the
children’s parents, or spent an evening watching the current
Presidential primary debates.
Now that you know the reasoning behind my decision, I have,
for your benefit and in the name of popular science, conducted
an entirely non-scientific poll of past and present hematology
trainees and Tau protein–replete colleagues selected at random to
determine the 10 most popular reasons for joining the ranks of
the International Society of Bloody Cytotoxics.
Here are the most popular reasons listed, in no particular
order:
1. I experienced a strange
thrill after using the longest
needles ever made.
2. I believed palliative care was
only appropriate after two
transplants.
3. I liked impressing people by
saying “paroxysmal nocturnal
hemoglobinuria” 10 times
really fast.
4. Hand cleanser gives me such
a lovely, tingly feeling.
Keith Stewart, MBChB, MBA,
is Carlson and Nelson Endowed
Director Center for Individualized
Medicine and Vasek and Anna
Maria Polak Professor of Cancer
Research at Mayo Clinic in
Scottsdale, Arizona.
5. I enjoyed irritating pathologists by leaving immersion oil on the scope.
6. I thought MDA, DFCI, and MSKCC were all rap stars.
7. I looked at my bank account and realized I couldn’t afford the
designer wardrobe of an oncologist.
8. I misspelled “hepatol