Mikkael A . Sekeres , MD , MS , is director of the Leukemia Program at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland , OH .
Mikkael Sekeres , MD , MS Editor-in-Chief
Jennifer Lonzer , MA Editorial Project Leader
Cleveland Clinic , Cleveland , OH
REFERENCE 1 . The Radicati Group , Inc . “ Email Market , 2016-2020 ,” June 2016 .
6 ASH Clinical News October 2016
Editor ’ s Corner Letters to the Editor just be thoughtful in deciding which suits you best .
Caveat emptor ; it is very hard to establish yourself as the maven in both disease-specific and research methodology – specific academic circles , as you will have to attend twice as many conferences and publish in twice as many journals to both move your field forward and maintain your reputation in both camps . And I ’ ve recently learned , there are just so many hours in a day . Who knew ?
Tip # 4 : Be deliberate when you go to meetings . By the time you read this , you already know if you ’ re the person who first started thinking about the ASH annual meeting on December 1 , or if you ’ ve been mulling over your meeting game plan and assiduously putting in Outlook calendar appointments ( in Pacific time zone ) for months .
If you ’ re a young clinical researcher ( or an aspiring one ), and you ’ ve been invited to a clinical consortium meeting , or a company advisory board , or a clinical trial investigator meeting , or you ’ re attending a symposium , or an oral abstract session , do your homework : Find out who else is going to be attending , and introduce yourself to those people with whom you may want to collaborate . Bring ideas for research projects , even if they are only tangentially related to the small meeting you ’ re attending . This is how I met many of the people on my “ heroes ” list . I had seen their names on important journal articles and was thrilled to actually get to meet them . The poster session is ideal for this type of interaction , as a lead author will be a captive audience for 90 minutes . You can even bring along your complimentary soft pretzel and beer !
If you fancy yourself a clinical trialist , a conference is also the time to meet with pharma and pitch ideas – of novel therapeutic interventions or indications , or of ways to analyze established databases . Don ’ t be shy about initiating a meeting – enthusiasm is often rewarded with enthusiasm .
Tip # 5 : Be a short order chef . At any restaurant , the multiple components of a meal should be timed so they are all ready at approximately the same moment , to be served hot . If your fries will take 10 minutes to cook in the fryer , and the burger takes six minutes on the grill … you get the point . From the moment of conception of an investigator-initiated trial to the publication of the manuscript describing its results spans roughly five years . Have other projects on the stovetop constantly simmering , so your productivity doesn ’ t ebb and flow . Review articles are okay , as are retrospective studies ( some of which can be quite high quality ) while the prospective investigations mature . Get your name out there in a disease specialty , even on social media . You will find that publications beget publications .
Just make sure you have the capacity to deliver on each of these projects , lest your collaborators come away feeling burned .
Mikkael Sekeres , MD , MS Editor-in-Chief
Editor ’ s Corner
E
The content of the Editor ’ s Corner is the opinion of the author and does not represent the official position of the American Society of Hematology unless so stated .
Have a comment about this editorial ? Let us know what you think ; we welcome your feedback . Email the editor at ACNEditor @ hematology . org .
A Primer on Email Etiquette
VERY DAY , MORE THAN 200 BILLION emails are sent and received , for an average of 122 emails sent and received , per user , in a business setting . 1 Having just returned from a week of vacation , we believe that approximately all of those 200 billion emails were waiting for us in our inboxes .
As we spend increasing amounts of our time reading , writing , deleting , avoiding , or embracing these electronic missives , here are our wholly opinionated recommendations for the best way to approach the typed word , with apologies to a previous piece on conference call etiquette .
1 ) Limit your message to three succinct points – and lead with your best . We love the rule of threes , which also applies to the number of bullet points that should appear on a PowerPoint slide .
In the 1984 movie “ Amadeus ,” a fictionalized biography of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , the curtain has just fallen on the first performance of his opera , “ The Abduction From the Seraglio ,” commissioned for the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II . When asked what he thought of the piece , the Emperor responds , “ There are simply too many notes , that ’ s all . Just cut a few and it will be perfect .” The royal ear , and anyone receiving your emails , can only absorb so much information , so keep it brief . When a topic may be confusing or might generate too many questions , pick up a phone and call someone − it ’ s that hidden functionality on your iPhone . We forget that oral human communication is good for the soul , and , if that isn ’ t impetus enough , remember that most smartphone inboxes only display two lines of preview text for each email . If you don ’ t capture the recipient ’ s interest in those two lines , that person may just swipe and delete your unread message .
2 ) Don ’ t email when angry . Or drunk . Or emotionally labile , like after viewing the “ Downton Abbey ” finale . Take a deep breath , and count to 24 hours . The written word can be taken out of context – both in the content of an email you are reading and in the one you are about to send . Studies conducted in the 1960s at the University of California , Los Angeles , found that 55 percent of effective communication derives from body language , 38 percent from tone of voice , and only 7 percent from content – the part that appears in an email .
We have found independently that an email ’ s body language and tone of voice is often hard to interpret , unless using ALL CAPS , WHICH COMES ACROSS AS SHOUTING !!! People can be terse in emails , sometimes because they are annoyed with you , but sometimes because they ’ re multitasking and trying to respond to an email , while simultaneously cooking a meal and mediating conflict between their rambunctious children . ( Note : Both authors are guilty of the latter .)
So , rather than assuming the former , reply neutrally and avoid the temptation to over-interpret intent . Similarly , it ’ s a good general rule to never send a deliberately testy or belittling email to anyone else . It ’ s hurtful and it places the receiver in the awkward position of either having to respond or calling you to discuss ( which you should have done to start with ). Emails are forever , but your job isn ’ t .
3 ) Review your email before sending it . Autocorrect is our friend and our foe . It has magically converted the gibberish of our errant typing into cogent
October 2016 Editor ’ s Corner sentiments , but has also introduced absurdity into what would ordinarily have been a simple missed keystroke . While these malaprops can be hilarious – unless they are sent to your boss or a prospective client , or in a sensitive email to a patient – make sure you proofread your text before launching it into cyberspace . This is particularly true for the subject line , where that silly typo will remind people of your carelessness , writ large , with every reply or forward .
This goes double for the people to whom you are addressing or copying the email . We have learned through hidden channels that autocorrect and autopopulate belong to the same devious secret society , designed to undermine the confidence of the human race . The authors have both been guilty of sending emails to the wrong person when autopopulate converted , for example , crawley @ yourorg . org to crawl @ yourorg . org , derailing our attempt to send the Earl of Grantham electronic fan email .
Worse yet , autopopulate may direct your gushing message to a private email account , when an intended recipient has emailed you in the past from work and home , such as crawley @ downton . com . Honest mistake , until that email contains patient identifying information , at which point it becomes a reportable HIPAA violation .
Our advice is to delete these personal / professional email address overlaps from your contact list , or , at the very least , check your intended recipients before hitting Send .
Finally , be judicious with “ reply all .” We have both been on email chains , addressed to hundreds of recipients , in which a meeting is announced and some feel the need to reply to hundreds of others with “ I ’ ll be there ” or even “ Can ’ t make it , I ’ ll be out on PTO that day .” These responses then beget replies , also to hundreds of people , ranging from the tentative “ I don ’ t think I should be on this email list ” to the dictatorial “ EVERYONE STOP REPLYING TO ALL !”
Email is not an opportunity to test-market the new reality show “ Real Housewives and Househusbands of Hematology .” This may be hard to hear , but a vast audience does not care to know your daily schedule , whether or not you can make a meeting , and the reasons behind your attendance record . Do yourself , and everyone in your organization , a favor and limit your response to the meeting organizer .
On the other hand , we DO want to hear your comments and feedback , so FEEL FREE TO EMAIL US ANYTIME at ACNEditor @ hematology . org ! ( Caps intended .)
Dear Dr . Sekeres , I liked your commentary on the use of email , and it reminded me of my own experiences with the “ reply all ” function . Some years ago , when I was vice chair of our department and in charge of medical grand rounds , I wrote a somewhat snippy email to the housestaff program director regarding flagging housestaff attendance at rounds . He wrote that he was thinking of serving lunch to the housestaff just before rounds so he could corral them into the amphitheater . I replied that , knowing them , they would take the lunch and skip rounds .
Since I noticed that he had copied one of his colleagues who helped with the housestaff program , I hit “ reply all .” Little did I know , the email actually went to the entire Brigham and Women ’ s housestaff . My inbox was full for the next few days with emails asking “ How could you say that ?” ( along with a few agreeing with the original email ).
Things eventually calmed down , though my misdemeanor earned me a cameo appearance in the housestaff ’ s end-of-year video . I had to repeat my speech while a line of housestaff paraded off with their lunches .
With the passage of time , most of them have forgiven me , but I still look at the cc ’ d list very carefully before I hit “ reply all .”
In October ’ s Editor ’ s Corner , Editorin-Chief Mikkael A . Sekeres , MD , MS , and his colleague at Cleveland Clinic , Jennifer Lonzer , MA , provided “ A Primer on Email Etiquette ,” with helpful tips like “ Turn off CAPS LOCK ” and “ Don ’ t email when angry … or drunk .” The column struck a chord with ASH Clinical News readers who admitted to committing some of the email-related sins described in the editorial , or who offered other sins to add to the list .
Dear Dr . Sekeres , I read with interest the recent editorial regarding email etiquette . I believe some key points of discussion were missed , including the following :
1 . Use of colons – and other excessive punctuation – and abbreviations in the body of the email , should be avoided ( for ease of reading ).
2 . Disingenuous use of the exclamation point ( often more than one ) at the end-of-message salutation ( i . e ., “ Thanks for your editorial !!! – Steve ”). This is extraordinarily tedious and even , frankly , heavyhanded with a touch of passiveaggressive .
3 . The initial decision to use email versus another method of communication is critical . For example , use of email to send acute clinical or research events which , when received and reviewed at late hours – say , on a Friday after a night out in Cleveland – then acknowledged , may subject the principal investigator to a higher risk of FDA reprimands ( like the dreaded Form 483 ). The reporting clock starts ticking .
Thanks ( no exclamation point – implicitly sincere ),
The content of the Editor ’ s Corner is the opinion of the author and does not represent the official position of the American Society of Hematology unless so stated .
Have a comment about this editorial ? Let us know what you think ; we welcome your feedback . Email the editor at ACNEditor @ hematology . org .
— Robert I . Handin , MD Senior Physician , Hematology Division ,
Brigham and Women ’ s Hospital Professor of Medicine , Harvard Medical School Associate , Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology , Harvard University
Boston , MA
— Stephen D . Smith , MD Associate Professor ,
University of Washington Associate Member , Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Research Center Seattle , WA
14 ASH Clinical News December 2016