CLINICAL NEWS
How does this year’s Education Program
differ from previous years?
Dr. Konkle: Each year the Education Program co-chairs and planning committee
work to develop a program with content
that will aid the clinician in keeping up-todate on hematologic issues and help them
with complex medical decision-making.
We worked toward that goal again this
year but opened up a few new areas.
Dr. Steensma: We want to avoid talking
about the same things every year, so each
year’s Education Program has a little bit of
a different flavor, depending on what is currently happening in the field and the topics
of previous years. I think some of the exciting things about this year’s program are the
multiple sessions focusing on incorporating
molecular testing into diagnosis and treatment plans for different diseases.
The “Palliative Care in Hematologic
Malignancies” session is a new topic, and an
important one (Note: See the Feature article
on page 104 for a deeper look at this topic).
We normally think of palliative care in relation to patients with solid tumors, but many
of our patients with hematologic malignancies could certainly benefit as well.
Another new session, “Patient-Reported
Outcomes in Hematology,” will feature several speakers discussing both how to design
patient-reported outcomes and how to use
them in clinical trials and clinical practice.
This type of data is collected from the patients themselves about their symptoms and
experiences, which lets clinicians detect if a
treatment is successful, not just through objective findings, but also whether it makes
the patient feel better or worse.
There are also sessions on “Recent
Advances in Histiocytic Neoplasms” and
“Pediatric Hematologic Malignancies:
Beyond Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia”
that are new to the Education Program.
What were your goals in designing this
year’s Education Pr