TRAINING and EDUCATION
How I Teach
“How I Teach” is ASH Clinical News’ forum for sharing best practices
in teaching hematology to medical students, residents, and fellows.
We invite essays providing insight into teaching and modeling clinical
practice (history-taking, the physical exam, informed consent, giving
bad news), successful research mentoring, disease-specific tips,
or more general advice. Gamini S. Soori, MD, MBA, writes about
educating elected officials and hematologists about graduate medical
education and the need for advocacy.
TEACHING THE ART OF
ADVOCACY
By Gamini S. Soori, MD, MBA
or some time now, the United
States health-care system has been
undergoing a significant transformation, marked by changes to our
delivery and payment systems,
accountable care organizations, and
the ways we use electronic medical records. The
practice of hematology is becoming increasingly regulated, and these regulations are being
created by people who are not hematologists.
This is why hematologists need to be engaged in health policy issues: No one knows the
demands and intricacies of practicing hematology better than hematologists. If we don’t come
to the table with input, we will operate under
regulations that ignore our needs.
Unfortunately, our current graduate medical
education (GME) and training programs do
not necessarily include education in health
policy matters and health systems awareness.
Before that becomes a reality in our GME
programs, we all must be proactive in ensuring
that our needs are met.
Headed to the Hill
Engagement in health policy among practicing
physicians, both in academia and in the private
sector, is critical to advancing the day-to-day
issues of the practice of hematology, hematology education, hematology research, and its
funding. While these issues are important to
every hematologist, it is not in our DNA to do
this kind of work.
In the Council on Graduate Medical