Latest / EHA Unplugged / Hematology Portraits: Prof Konstanze Döhner

Transcript

Hematology Portraits: Prof Konstanze Döhner · EHA Unplugged

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  We have to face a number of challenges in hematology, and
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  one important challenge for me is equitable access, equitable
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  access to diagnostics, to treatments, to emerging
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  therapies across all regions. Another challenge is to create
• 0:21
  inclusiveness, to take care of underrepresented countries and
• 0:27
  to integrate them into research and clinical networks.
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  Another important challenge is to remove borders.
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  That's why we have our purpose. Borderless hematology.
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  Remove borders with regard to your graphical borders,
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  disciplinary borders, hierarchical borders, many, many
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  borders. Welcome to EHA Unplugged, the
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  official podcast channel of the European Hematology Association.
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  EHAI am your host Isabella Rivera.
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  Today we have the privilege of speaking with Professor
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  Constance Donor. She's the current EHA president
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  and she's the head of the section of Mylod malignancies at
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  the Department of Hematology at all University Hospital in
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  Germany. Professor Donor is renowned for
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  her clinical and scientific expertise in myeloproliferative
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  neoplasms and acute myeloid leukemia, AML.
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  In this episode, we'll explore her career in hematology, her
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  involvement with the HA, and her vision for the future of the
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  field. Thank you very much for being
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  with us today, Professor Donner. Thank you very much, Isabel, for
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  the kind invitation. I'm happy to give this
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  interview. Professor Donner, to start, we
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  would like to understand your journey hematology.
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  What attracted you to hematology?
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  So my journey started a while ago and it started when I was at
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  the late stage of medical school, in the last part of
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  medical school and I had to do a practical part in internal
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  medicine and internal medicine. At this time it was the
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  hematology department at the University of Heidelberg, and I
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  had no idea at this time what hematology means because at
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  medical school hematology was only a very, very small part of
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  our education. So I started my work there and I
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  was surprised by the heterogeneity of the different
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  diseases. I've never heard before the
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  opportunities we had that this time to treat patients.
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  And I was fascinated by these blood diseases, I must say,
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  because it was very practical. You need a microscope.
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  You look at the blood smear or the bone marrow smear, and you
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  learned a lot about the diseases.
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  And I was also fascinated by the patients because these patients
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  are different. You stay with them for a very
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  long time. You are with them during the
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  whole treatment period, and you have a kind of relationship to
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  them. And often they have to come back
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  for the next treatment. Yeah, it was a very emotional
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  experience for me and I was attracted at this time by the
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  heterogeneity of the different diseases and what we can do for
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  the patients. Your clinical work and your
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  research have focused on acute myeloid leukemia and
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  myeloproliferative neoplasms. Why did you focus on this
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  specifically? At this time I started to focus
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  on acute myeloid leukemia, a disease that is really an
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  emergency This in in hematology because people come to the
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  clinic and they are really, really sick and you have to
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  react immediately. You have to make decisions
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  immediately. And I was also fascinated
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  because at this time in our department at the University in
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  Hospital in Heidelberg, there was a group of people, they were
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  mainly interested in understanding the impact of
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  genetic alterations in acute myeloid leukemia.
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  And at this time we had not really much knowledge about the
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  impact of genetic alterations. We just knew that they play an
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  important role for the disease, for disease biology, but also
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  for outcome. And I had the chance to join a
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  group quite early in the Department of Hematology and to
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  start some very small research projects together with
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  collaborators at other scientific institutes in
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  Heidelberg. And I learned new techniques and
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  I learned to understand much better the biology of the
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  disease. So that was the main reason why
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  I decided to focus on acute myeloid leukemia.
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  And much later, the myeloproliferative malignancies,
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  the neoblasms became also my field of interest because these
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  are really rare, often diseases and nobody took care of these
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  patients because they are not acute, they have not an acute
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  leukemia, they have chronic leukemic diseases and acute
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  myeloid leukemia. And this myeloproliferative
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  neoblasms, they have a lot of commonalities also with regard
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  to biology. So it was obvious for me to also
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  include these MPNS in my focus of interest.
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  You have combined it in the years clinical and scientific
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  work. So you you see patients, you
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  take care of patients, but you're also doing research.
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  What? What do you find more
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  satisfying? So there is no priority, to be
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  honest, because my scientific work translated into clinical
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  work. So it's very translational
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  research. And I think this is the most
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  fascinating thing that you do research on the one side to get
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  some new insights on the biology findings that are new and you
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  can translate your findings into the care of patients, into
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  treatment of patients. And this was always something
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  that fascinated me, not to do basic research and do not know
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  what happens to your findings with regard to the patients.
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  It was always very satisfying to translate your findings directly
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  into patient care. Are you involved in education at
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  the university also? Yes.
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  So at university we have to do clinical management of the
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  patients, we have to do research and we have to do teaching.
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  So we are also responsible for teaching students from medical
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  school, but also PhD students in the lab or biologists in your
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  lab or medical students that are doing their thesis.
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  So you are responsible for teaching and education as well
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  in in the University Hospital? How did you come to EHA?
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  How do you become important in UK?
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  So because I was working from the very beginning in
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  hematology, it was at this time it was the only association that
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  was representing hematology in Europe.
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  And it was very clear for us that we want to show our
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  findings, that we want to represent our findings at
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  European meetings. And the EHA was from the very
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  beginning of the European meeting for hematology for our
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  department, for me. And I had the opportunity to go
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  to the Congress at a very early time point.
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  I was allowed to go there to present my abstract.
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  And I do remember very well, I went to the 1st Congress of EHA
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  in Brussels, which is a long time ago, and it was a
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  completely different meeting. So I think we had one, we had
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  something about 500 participants there.
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  And I must say I still Remember, Remember quite clearly seeing
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  all these very famous people you just knew from the papers and
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  they were touchable. So you can talk to them.
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  You had your poster presentation.
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  It was a very nice atmosphere. And you you felt to be part of
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  the community and to start collaborating and networking and
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  get to know the people who are interested in the same area.
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  So I still remember quite well these first EHA Congress in
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  Brussels. What were your first
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  contributions to EHA? So I mean the the first contact
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  was this Congress in Brussels to get to know to the people who
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  are working in hematology. We started collaborations
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  because of the networking, the networking opportunity at this
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  time. And for us it was very important
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  to submit our findings to this Congress.
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  So we had the chance to present the findings, to give the first
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  oral presentations that we have been very excited about and then
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  we crew up over the time we were invited.
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  I was an invited speaker at EHA. I joined some of the former HOPE
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  meetings representing the results from EHA Congress.
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  And over the time the network was growing and my engagement
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  was growing over the time with with this really great network
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  and the collaboration. And I was invited by EHA, for
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  example, to be part of the reviewing process for the
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  Congress. And we have to work really hard
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  and had several meetings to review all the abstracts for the
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  Congress, select invited speakers.
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  So this was a group of people growing together, getting to
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  know each other much better. And at a certain time point, I
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  was also interested to do more for EHA and there was the idea
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  to try to become a member of the board of the EHA board.
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  And this was in an in 2018. And you know, the process, which
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  is a very competitive process. But at this time, I I won the
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  ballot and I was very, very happy to be in the inner circle
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  of EHA, to become a board member and to do much more than I did
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  before and to get involved in many, many in the activities of
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  EHA. You have been involved a lot in
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  education in EHA also. Was that before being a member
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  of sport? So when I became a board member,
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  I was from the beginning of interested in outreach programs,
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  but also in education. And at a certain time point, I
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  had the chance to become the chair of the education
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  committee, which I really liked very, very much for several
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  reasons. Because education is one major
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  pillar, one major activity of EHA.
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  And I love to create courses for diseases that very important for
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  hematologists to update the courses, to provide updated
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  information in the field of hematology, but also to provide
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  mentorship in our mentorship programs.
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  And I also liked the concept and the strategy with regard to
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  career development, which is also part of education.
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  So many, many different aspects. And I really like the many, many
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  programs that we initiated and that we continued within the
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  education committee. And one highlight was for sure
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  the creation of the Lighting the Flame program.
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  This is a career development program for really young, very
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  young medical students or physicians that are just started
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  in medicine. And it was satisfying to get the
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  feedback and to see that education or with this education
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  programs you can really move things forward and you may be
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  contribute to standardized care of hematologic patients.
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  You have come a very long way in your involvement with the HA.
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  Now you're the president. As president of Eviche, what do
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  you see as the most significant challenges and opportunities in
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  hematology today? We have to face a number of
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  challenges in hematology, and one important challenge for me
• 12:04
  is equitable access, equitable access to diagnostics, to
• 12:10
  treatments, to emerging therapies across all regions.
• 12:15
  So this is one major challenge. Another challenge is to create
• 12:20
  inclusiveness, to take care of underrepresented countries and
• 12:26
  to integrate them into research in clinical networks.
• 12:30
  I think this is really very important.
• 12:33
  Another important challenge is to remove borders.
• 12:37
  That's why we have our purpose, borderless hematology, Remove
• 12:42
  borders with regard to your graphical borders, disciplinary
• 12:47
  borders, hierarchical borders, many, many borders.
• 12:50
  I think this is another challenge we we are working on.
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  They are more challenges, like supporting countries with fewer
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  resources through our education programs and through training.
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  What is the most unexpected lesson that you have learned in
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  this period? It's not a very long time to be
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  honest, but I was very proud to see what we have achieved over
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  the last years. I was very proud to see how EHA
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  was and is still growing all the many activities, but I was also
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  surprised to see that there are that there is a broad
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  heterogeneity across Europe and beyond with regard to a standard
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  of care, with regard to medical needs, with regard to policy and
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  regulatory issues. So I think there's a lot of
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  things that we can still do and that we have to work on.
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  And this is fascinating on the one side.
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  But on the other side, as I said, I think EHA has developed
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  over this long period. I'm with EHA significantly and
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  we can be very proud of that. So what is your vision for EHA
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  in the next few years for the development of EHA and
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  hematology as a field? I would like to see that the
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  Community is further growing that we are speaking with one
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  voice across Europe and beyond that we fill the the needs and
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  the gaps of countries that are not having the same standard
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  then other countries support them, spread knowledge, nurture
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  knowledge and support career development across all the
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  different carrier stages that we see in hematology.
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  And there are many more aspects I think I I would like to see
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  over the next years. And these are aligned with our
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  agenda 20-30 with our strategy very nicely.
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  So I think this is something I would like to see a growing
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  community as we working on that very hard and to address these
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  equitable access issues in Europe and beyond.
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  So there's a lot to do. There's a lot to do, but I think
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  with all the activities that we have initiated over the last two
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  to three years, we are so much aligned with our mission and
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  vision, with our agenda for the next 5 to 6-7 years.
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  And we have a plan and it's always good to have a plan and
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  to work on the plan. And we have a wonderful network.
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  We have wonderful relationships with our national society
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  partners, so I'm I'm really looking forward to move on this
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  way. So if you want the audience to
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  remember one thing of this podcast, would it be?
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  So hematology is a fascinating field.
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  It's a great community. I grew up in this community.
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  I benefit a lot in this community.
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  EHA is a wonderful association, a wonderful organization to
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  support hematologists at all stages of their career.
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  It's a discipline that allows you to get connected, to
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  collaborate with many other disciplines.
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  And it's a rapidly evolving field.
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  Hematology and I have the feeling that we achieved a lot
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  over the last 20-30 years with regard to the treatment of our
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  patients. And this is our aim to improve
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  outcome of our patients. And I have a last message, could
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  only recommend join EHA, join the community.
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  Everyone will find an area where he she can contribute.
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  It's a great community with lots of very important activities.
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  Thank you very much, Professor Donner for this fascinating
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  interview and thank you to the audience for listening.
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  If you enjoyed this episode, please like it and please stay
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  tuned for more episodes of Eagium Plot.
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  Thank you very much, Isabel.