ASH president advises that early-career women be persistent, ‘show up and be in the room’
Jane N. Winter, MD, the current American Society of Hematology president, advised that it’s essential to be persistent with your goals and choose mentors wisely during the early years of a medical career.
Healio spoke with Winter about her early experiences, as well as her goals for her term as ASH president, which began at the 63rd ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition in December.
“ASH is a very multifaceted organization,” said Winter, who also is a professor of medicine in the division of hematology/oncology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and a member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Our mission is broad and includes research, education and patient clinical care. We hope to accomplish a great deal for patients with blood disorders with our huge portfolio. Although many people think of us only in terms of the annual meeting, that is just a very small part of what ASH does.”
Healio: What led you to pursue hematology/oncology as a career?
Winter: It’s hard to put my finger on exactly when that came to be and how, but I think it’s common for the best experiences during medical school to impact career choice. I had some very exciting rotations as a medical student, particularly with hematologists who were dynamic.
I also had a close childhood friend who developed Hodgkin lymphoma and underwent treatment while living with me when I was a medical student. I think in retrospect that that experience in addition to the role models I had during medical school and residency likely determined my direction.
Overall, it does have to do with good experiences, which I did have. I liked the integration of pathology in hematology, and some of my best mentors were hematopathologists. It was interesting looking under the microscope at blood smears, bone marrow and lymph node biopsies, and I liked being able to integrate that work with the clinical picture.
Healio: Do you have any recent research you would like to highlight?
Winter: Over the past several years I have had the opportunity to develop two clinical trials for patients with Hodgkin lymphoma. Both studies have been incredibly positive with terrific outcomes.
Our investigator-initiated, multi-institutional pilot study, published in Blood, in previously untreated patients began with three doses of a checkpoint inhibitor, which stimulates the immune system and had been very effective in patients who suffered a relapse. These were mostly young patients, in their 20s and 30s. We had incredible responses with very large masses that would disappear with just these three doses of immunotherapy. Patients would then transition to conventional chemotherapy. The results have been better than we ever hoped for.
Now there is an international trial to confirm these findings. Certain things about the pilot trial were that the outcomes were good, the toxicity was low, but the treatment did not incorporate radiation, which is often a part of therapy, especially among patients with large masses. Hopefully, we will reduce the long-term consequences of treatment. The trial also did not include bleomycin, a drug which is associated with a risk for lung toxicity.
We are in the process of proposing a successor trial to the international clinical trial. This trial would further shift the paradigm from chemotherapy to immunotherapy.
Healio: What are your goals for your term as ASH president?
Winter: I’ve been involved with ASH for many years now. I’ve been on the executive committee, first as the chair of the committee on educational affairs, then as councilor, then as vice president, president-elect and now as president, so I’ve been involved with many of the programs ASH has developed over more than a decade from the start. One of the most important programs at the present time is devoted to maintaining and expanding the hematology workforce to be sure that we have sufficient numbers of trainees who are being trained in nonmalignant hematology.
ASH has made a huge financial commitment to provide funding to train individuals who will be committed to nonmalignant, or what some refer to as “classical,” hematology. Many people find what I do, the malignant side of things, to be very exciting with all the new drugs and therapies, but we need trainees interested in nonmalignant hematology careers, too, an equally exciting career path.
ASH also has other programs that are high priority right now, such as our sickle cell disease program that was established through our data hub in which we have collected longitudinal data on patients with sickle cell disease. We’ve integrated this program with our learning and educational program, our now-funded learning communities, and a clinical trials network. We also have a sickle cell disease screening program in Africa. I look forward to these sickle cell disease programs being front and center for ASH.
Finally, I’d like to note that ASH’s commitment to diversity and inclusion in hematology and to providing equitable care for our patients is longstanding. We have a variety of programs, including minority recruitment endeavors and awards. We also had many sessions that addressed these issues during the meeting in December, with plans for more next year.
Healio: What would you say makes a good mentor?
Winter: A good mentor is someone who derives as much from the relationship as the mentee. I find being a mentor fun. If you don’t find it fun and rewarding to mentor, it’s not going to work. It has to be a two-way street. Doing something with a fellow or junior faculty is so much more enjoyable than doing it on my own.
Healio: Do you have any advice for women early in their careers?
Winter: It takes persistence. For those of us who combine a career with a family, it’s definitely challenging. It has always been challenging and, unfortunately, I think it always will be. It’s never going to be easy because it always seems there isn’t enough time in life for everything that we all want to do. However, being persistent — show up and be in the room when things are happening — is key. When you have an opportunity, seize it.
I didn’t have an easy time of it early on. Mentorship wasn’t what it is today. Today, young trainees are very aggressive about seeking out mentorship relationships. When I was coming up, I had a career development award where my “mentor” met with me only to put his signature on the grant but never sat down or communicated with me. Members of the current generation know what they need to get from a mentorship relationship. I think they should demand it, and if they can’t find it at their own institution, there are many opportunities at ASH for young trainees that link them with important mentors who are good at mentoring and love doing it but who aren’t necessarily at their own institution. Choose wisely, I always say, in your collaborators, your mentors, your spouses — you have to be careful who you spend your time with and who you look to for help.
References:
- Allen PB, et al. Blood. 2021;doi:10.1182/blood.2020007400.
- ASH. Diversity, equity and inclusion in health care. https://www.hematology.org/diversity-equity-and-inclusion. Accessed March 15, 2022.
- ASH. Hematology-focused fellowship training program. https://www.hematology.org/education/educators/resources-for-training-program-directors/hematology-focused-fellowship-training-program. Accessed March 15, 2022.
- ASH sickle cell disease initiative. https://www.hematology.org/advocacy/sickle-cell-disease-initiative. Accessed March 15, 2022.
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