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Transfusions Carry No Increased Risk of CLL Transmission ... p. 33
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volume 01 | number 10
CONTENTS
10… Editor's Corner
Mikkael Sekeres:
A Rehash of the
ASH Dash
32… Practice Update
ICD-10:
Ready or Not!
43… On Location
ASH Meeting on
Hematologic
Malignancies
october 2015
What’s the
Big Deal with
BIG DATA?
54… PASHions
Carol O’Hear Goes
the Distance
DEPARTMENTS
13 UP FRONT
24 CLINICAL NEWS
50 TRAINING AND EDUCATION
51 FEATURES
54 BACK OF THE BOOK
www.ASHClinicalNews.org
How health care is cutting big
data down to size
Letters to the Editor:
The Cost of Thrombosis
... p.12
Literature Scan:
New and Noteworthy
Research ... p.39
Trial Roundup:
Clinical Trials to Keep
an Eye on ... p.42
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20
ASH Clinical News
Pulling Back the Curtain: David A. Williams, MD
career is of little significance,
but what you do to foster other
people’s career is long-lasting
and of much importance.” So, my
goal has been to facilitate young
people’s training to allow them
to have meaningful careers and
develop themselves independently.
Hopefully, I did that well.
When you work with
trainees and early-career
hematologists, what advice
do you pass on to them?
I stress to them how important it
is to do what you are passionate
about. Whatever it is that you are
passionate about, do it, and do it
to the very best possible level that
you can. In other words, what I
often tell people in our fellowship
program who are entering their
research training, for instance, is,
“Whatever it is you decide to do
at the end of your training period
– whether that’s three years or five
years – you should come out on the
other side as a world expert in that.
Focus and dedicate yourself to that.”
My own view is that, while
intelligence is needed, it is also
highly overrated. I believe that
whatever success you have in your
career comes from hard work and
dedication, as well as a little bit of
good luck. Much of that has to do
with the mentorship you receive
early in your career.
In a typical day, what is your
rose and what is your thorn?
In general, I love my days, and I
enjoy coming to work. I get up
at a quarter to 4 every morning
and start working at 4 to get a
lot of work done before I get to
the office. I would say, although
it sounds quite corny, every day,
I think about how lucky I am to
have the position that I have, the
colleagues that I have, and the
family that I have.
I’m a pretty upbeat person,
so it’s hard to think of anything
that I dread. As an administrator,
naturally, the thing I like least
are useless, seemingly endless
meetings that don’t get us very far
down the road to where we want
to be. But, that’s part of life. We all
have disappointments and things
we don’t want to do. I’m not sure
I have more or less than anybody
else. But I try to think about
where I am and how I got here,
remembering all the good things
that I have in my life.
My wife is a nurse
administrator now. I love her,
of course, as a wife, but I also
admire her professionally. She is
one of these people who gets the
job done and cares more about
helping folks than politics. Both
of us are dedicated to helping
people to get started early in
their careers.
Both being in the medical
field, did you and your
wife think that your
daughter would follow your
footsteps?
Not at all! I asked my daughter,
Emily, why she decided to study
medicine, since we tried not to
influence her. She is currently a
third-year cardiology fellow at
Children’s Hospital of Atlanta. She
is a wonderful, compassionate,
caring, and smart person. She loves
people, so it was an understandable
choice, but she told me that, over
the years when she was at friends’
houses, she saw that their parents’
often hated their jobs. My wife and
I, however, continued to love our
jobs, ev