UP FRONT
ASH Directions
Fighting Back Against
Cutbacks
ASH Announces Fourth-Round of Bridge Grant Recipients
Biomedical researchers are operating in
a tepid – lukewarm, at best – funding
environment. The National Institutes of
Health (NIH), a major source of research
funding, has experienced across-theboard funding cuts and a steady budget
decline, from a peak of $31.2 billion in
2010 to $30.15 billion in 2014. Over the
past decade, research grants awarded by
the NIH have also declined 20 percent
– leading some young researchers in the
lurch or scrambling for scant remaining
research dollars.
In 2012, ASH launched its Bridge
Grant program to help hematologists
continue their critical blood disease
research amidst severe funding reductions. This grant program supports ASH
members whose R01 (or equivalent)
grant proposals could not be funded by
the NIH, despite earning high scores.
Several categories across the breadth
of hematology research are supported:
basic, translational, patient-oriented,
and outcomes-based.
Recipients of the ASH Bridge Grant
Award receive a total of $150,000 over one
year, providing short-term relief to help
“bridge” talented hematology investigators
to their next NIH research grant. In the
long term, though, continued investment
in NIH is necessary to keep U.S. biomedical research moving forward.
The Society provides a total of about
30 one-year awards in two award cycles
annually. Below are the recipients of
the fourth round of ASH Bridge Grant
recipients:
• Diane F. Jelinek, PhD, Mayo Clinic,
Rochester, MN
• Mark Y. Chiang, MD, PhD, University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
• Fotis Asimakopoulos, MD, PhD, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
• Tatiana V. Byzova, PhD, Cleveland
Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH
• Frits van Rhee, MD, PhD, University
of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
• W. Stratford May, MD, PhD, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
• Lisa Borghesi, PhD, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Notification of application acceptance
for the fifth round of Bridge Grants will
be sent in early February 2015. Applications for the sixth round of grants will be
available in mid-February 2015, with a
deadline of April 15, 2015.
For more information about eligibility
requirements, visit www.hematology.org/
Awards/Career-Training.
Whither the Practice
of Hematology in an Era
of Mergers?
Highlights from the 2014 ASH Practice Partnership Lunch
Each year at the ASH Annual Meeting,
the ASH Practice Partnership (APP) – a
network of practicing hematologists –
hosts an annual luncheon to hear from
nationally recognized speakers on issues
affecting practice throughout the country,
from payment to administrative burden to
drug access.
This year, the APP lunch, led by Steven Allen, MD, chair of ASH’s Committee
on Practice, featured remarks from Alice
Gosfield, Esq., a renowned health-care
10
ASH Clinical News
attorney, and Andrew Pecora, MD,
president of one of the largest specialty
practices in the country, discussed a
central question: “Whither the practice of
hematology in an era of mergers?”
According to ASH’s recent survey of
practicing members, Dr. Allen noted, only
25 percent of ASH members in practice
were still in a traditional private practice setting, while 47 percent worked in
an academic setting, and 28 percent for
some kind of non-academic entity not
Upcoming Events
2015 Blood and Marrow
Transplantation Tandem Meeting
British Society of Hematology
Annual Scientific Meeting
2015 Highlights of ASH® in Asia
International Symposium on
Myelodysplastic Syndromes
February 11 – 15, 2015
San Diego, CA
The combined annual meetings of the
American Society for Blood and Marrow
Transplantation and the Center for
International Blood & Marrow Transplant
Research will cover the latest in blood and
marrow transplant technology.
February 28 – March 1, 2015
Bangkok, Thailand
2015 Highlights of ASH® in Latin
America
April 23 – 24, 2015
Cartagena, Colombia
Hear internationally recognized experts
analyze the latest updates in hematology
research from the ASH Annual meeting.
National Comprehensive
Cancer Network’s 20th Annual
Conference
March 12 – 14, 2015
Hollywood, FL
The NCCN 20th Annual Conference will gather
more than 1,500 oncology professionals
to discuss the latest cancer therapies and
advancing the standard of cancer care.
2015 American Association for
Cancer Research Annual Meeting
April 18 – 22, 2015
Philadelphia, PA
The AACR Annual Meeting 2015 will highlight
the latest discoveries in every area of
cancer research and will provide a unique
opportunity for investigators from all over
the world to meet, interact, and share
their insights. This year’s meeting theme is
“Bringing Cancer Discoveries to Patients.”
owned by physicians. Driven by declining
payments and expanding expectations
from payers and the government, many
hematologists are choosing to align with
hospitals or larger health-care systems in
recent years.
In her experience, Ms. Gosfield noted
that most hospital integrations are poised
to fail because, instead of focusing on
clinical integration, many contracts are
mere acquisitions. Hematologists should
be cautious in exploring mergers, she
advised, to ensure that their professional
autonomy is maintained and that they
are able to reacquire their businesses in
the future if the partnership is no longer
tenable.
Dr. Pecora, president of Regional
Cancer Care Associates, a practice covering more than 26 locations throughout
April 20 – 22, 2015
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
The 55th Annual Scientific Meeting gathers
the British hematology c ommunity to
network and discuss the changing clinical and
laboratory practice landscape, as well as report
on advances in the field. The theme of this
year’s meeting is “improving outcomes.”
April 29 – May 2, 2015
Washington, DC
The 13th International Symposium,
presented by the MDS Foundation, will focus
on advancing research and patient care in the
area of MDS.
2015 American Society of Clinical
Oncology Annual Meeting
May 29 – June 2, 2015
Chicago, IL
At the 2015 ASCO Annual Meeting, more than
25,000 oncology professionals will explore
the theme of “Illumination & Innovation:
Transforming Data into Learning” through
scientific presentations and comprehensive
educational content.
20th Congress of the European
Hematology Association
June 11 – 14, 2015
Vienna, Austria
The EHA Annual Congress will provide a forum
for presenting original unpublished data and
sharing ideas for hematologic innovation,
as well as disseminating evidence-based
knowledge of primary clinical relevance.
Alice Gosfield, Esq., Steven Allen,
MD, and Andrew Pecora, MD
the state of New Jersey, provided the
physician perspective. Collecting quality clinical data is essential to ensure that
physicians can demonstrate value in new
payment models, he said, and position
themselves as collaborators with hospitals
– rather than employees. ●
January 2015