ASH president discusses ‘silver lining’ of COVID-19 for hematology practice, research
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At the start of his ASH presidency and a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, Martin S. Tallman, MD, reflected on the challenges the pandemic has presented to his field.
“Necessity is the mother of invention,” Tallman, a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and chief of the leukemia service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said in an interview with Healio. “I think there actually are some benefits that have been derived from the pandemic. ASH has responded very quickly, and through the ASH Research Collaborative, we established a COVID-19 registry. We’ve published a number of studies related to COVID in our journals and have had several webinars on COVID-related complications. The pandemic has prompted all of us to reevaluate how we take care of patients. So, there’s a silver lining.”
Tallman, whose term as ASH president continues until December, spoke with Healio about his goals for ASH during these unusual times.
Healio: How has COVID-19 affected hematology practice and research?
Tallman: The pandemic has encouraged us to reevaluate our therapeutic strategies. Sometimes, there are instances where it’s not entirely clear whether a patient is best served by treatment with intensive chemotherapy or less-intensive chemotherapy, but we often administer a more intensive regimen out of habit. The COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged us to rethink that notion. For example, in my area of acute myeloid leukemia, we have begun to consider less-intensive regimens (for example, the recently approved combination of hypomethylating agents plus the BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax [Venclexta; AbbVie, Genentech]) more than we have in the past, if we feel such regimens aren’t less effective.
Another way in which the COVID pandemic has had some benefit is in the logistics of the clinical trial process. The activation, and approval process through the various committees, are steps that usually take 3 to 4 months or longer. However, the pandemic led to a need for clinical trials to be developed, activated and accrued very quickly to study and develop treatments for the disease itself. Some of these went through the approval process in a few short weeks. If we can have a less cumbersome clinical trials process under pressure, surely we can continue to do this in the future. So, we learned it is possible to streamline the process.
Another change has been the ability to work remotely. A year ago, generally there was a very good reason to work from home. Now, at many institutions, if you don’t have to see patients in the clinic, you are asked to work from home. The development of telemedicine represents a major advance that is likely here to stay.
Healio: What prompted you to seek out the ASH presidency?
Tallman: Several colleagues encouraged me to run; one initially serves as vice president, then president-elect and then finally president. I’ve been involved with ASH for more than 20 years in various capacities, including as a councilor, and it has been gratifying. ASH is an exceptional organization. It’s an opportunity to work together with colleagues and the highly professional and dedicated ASH staff to contribute to the society and to the field of hematology.
Healio: What are your goals for your term as ASH president?
Tallman: I see my role as twofold: to help address ASH’s challenges and to support ASH’s priorities. One of the major challenges I see facing medicine in general, and our field particularly, is the rapid pace of discovery of new knowledge. That is a terrific thing — it is one of our major assets. The challenge is that this new knowledge then needs to be exchanged, disseminated and implemented. In other words, if you discover a new drug that seems to be effective, everyone will want to know how to implement it. Should it be used instead of chemotherapy or with chemotherapy? Before or after? How can its use be optimized for the patients’ benefit?
As ASH president, I look forward to facilitating these conversations to address this challenge. The ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition and smaller education and scientific meetings will continue to play a vital role in connecting tens of thousands of hematology professionals from around the world so they can share the latest updates in the field. ASH publications, such as Blood and Blood Advances, are important forums for the publication of original clinical and scientific research to keep our community up to date. In addition, we will need to continue to find other innovative ways to connect.
Another challenge is the need to learn to collaborate more than ever before. We need to collaborate with an increasingly diverse community of colleagues now, including nurse practitioners, physician assistants and clinical pharmacists, as examples among others, who are indispensable partners. We all educate each other.
In terms of international collaboration, many blood disorders are rare diseases. However, if you collaborate with people around the world, particularly in locations where there is a higher prevalence of the disease, more patients can be accrued rapidly. This is just one of the benefits of collaboration. The ASH Research Collaborative Data Hub aims to create the largest shared information resource in the hematology community and is currently housing data on COVID-19, sickle cell disease and multiple myeloma. I look forward to continued growth of the Data Hub in the upcoming year, which will facilitate further collaboration.
For more information:
Martin S. Tallman, MD, can be reached at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Ave., New York, NY 10065.
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Healio Interview
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