A mentorship pilot program in classical hematology can facilitate career development and improve retention in the field, according to a study published online Aug. 1 in Blood Advances.

Noting that there is a lack of mentorship opportunities within classical hematology versus medical oncology, Zoya Qureshy, M.D., from the University of California San Diego in La Jolla, and colleagues developed a year-long external mentorship program implemented through the American Society of Hematology Medical Educators Institute. Thirty-five hematology/oncology fellows interested in classical hematology were paired in a meticulous process with 34 academically productive faculty mentors from different institutions across North America. Pairs were expected to meet once a month virtually and could participate in a scholarly project. The program was assessed using mentee and mentor surveys, a mentee interview, and a mentee focus group.

The researchers found that 33 of the pairs completed the program (94.2 percent). Of the mentee respondents, 63 percent worked on a scholarly project with their mentor, and several mentees received publications, grants, and awards. Perception by the mentee that their mentor was a good match was associated with a perceived positive impact on confidence, career development, and professional identity. After fellowship, 23 mentees (66 percent) accepted classical hematology faculty positions. All mentors believed that the program would improve retention in classical hematology.

"This study shows that effective, deliberate mentorship is vital for career advancement, especially for trainees," Qureshy said in a statement. "Virtual communication can foster strong external mentorships and relationships for those who might not have as much institutional, local mentorship readily available."

Several authors disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.

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TUESDAY, April 9, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Direct oral penicillin challenges (DPCs) can be delivered to patients with penicillin allergy labels (PALs) by nonallergy health care professionals (HCPs), according to a study published in the March issue of the Journal of Infection.

Mamidipudi Thirumala Krishna, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., from the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom, and colleagues examined the feasibility of nonallergy HCPs delivering direct oral DPCs for penicillin allergy delabeling in a prospective observational study conducted in three hospitals across three settings (acute medical, presurgical, and hematology-oncology). After screening, patients with a PAL were stratified as low risk/high risk, and those classified as low risk underwent a DPC.

Overall, 1,054 of the 2,257 PALs who were screened were eligible. A total of 270 participants consented, and 259 were risk-stratified (155 low risk; 104 high risk). The researchers found that 126 low-risk patients underwent DPC; 96.8 percent were delabeled with no serious allergic reactions. In acute and elective settings, the conversion rate from screening to consent was 12 and 17.9 percent, respectively, with odds ratios for consent of 3.42 and 5.53 in hematology-oncology and presurgical settings, respectively. Difficulty in reaching patients, clinical instability/medical reasons, lacking capacity to consent, and psychological factors were common reasons for failure to progress in the study.

"Our findings suggest a multipronged approach is needed in the U.K. National Health Service to maximize uptake of DPC," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to relevant organizations.

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Doctors at a hospital in Moncton are speaking out against the provincial government's planned changes to laboratory services they say could affect patient care. The multi-phase plan would result in some tests being shipped to other hospitals in the city or other parts of the province, which doctors say could increase the time it takes to get results. 

About 280 medical and dental staff of the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre are opposed to changes expected to be implemented over the next several years, several physicians said at a news conference Tuesday.Dr. Luc Cormier, a cardiologist at the Dumont, said they want the changes halted and to instead focus on improving existing labs. "I think we need to maintain that plan rather than doing a very, very drastic change to a whole lab organization for our province in our hospitals and in the long run that will impact patient care," Cormier told reporters.

The plan, according to an internal document obtained earlier this month by CBC News, shows phase one starting this fall. It involves shipping all outpatient blood samples to Fredericton and Bathurst for testing.  A second phase would see the expansion of the microbiology lab at the Dumont, which would become the provincial public health laboratory handling routine microbiology testing. This phase would also involve transferring hematology and chemistry samples from the Dumont to the Moncton Hospital for testing, according to a news release from the doctors. The Dumont would only retain what the news release describes as a "'stat lab' for major emergencies." A third phase, which the news release says could start in 2026, could consist of centralizing all pathology-related services at the Moncton Hospital and Saint John Regional Hospital. The doctors said this would affect tests for cancer patients at the Dumont, which has a major oncology centre.The doctors rejected suggestions the changes would have no impact on patient care...Read more

Do you agree with these physicians' point of view?

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Medicine is a dynamic profession and physicians are at the forefront of health care innovation, consistently pushing boundaries of patient care and driving both industry and practice patterns forward. Despite being frontline caregivers and end users of medical technology, many physicians have a common misconception that innovation only takes place in the research lab or industry sponsored design studio with key opinion leader focus groups. The truth is, innovation in health care, like in other professions, can come from anywhere, and the young minds of newly minted physicians are especially primed for seeing ideas due to their uncanny ability to see the world differently.

As physicians progress through residency, fellowship and, ultimately, a high-powered clinical career, the success that they experience can sometimes be a hindrance to innovative ideas. Shawn Kanungo, a millennial innovation expert and author of The Bold Ones: Innovate and Disrupt to Become Truly Indispensable, describes how past successes amongst professionals in any industry frequently leads to an overreliance on previous practice patterns, which often leads to complacency in innovation. As professionals progress in their career, past successes define their identity, further hindering their innovative spirit. Understanding this concept may help you maintain a rookie mindset to come up with fresh ideas that usually are the most groundbreaking.

Innovation is not easy, but with determination, creativity and hard work, physicians can make a real impact on the industry. As the late Steve Jobs once said, “Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you.” Physicians, particularly younger ones, are especially primed to see innovative ideas sooner than others due to their rookie mindset and position at the forefront of health care innovation. Developing a disruption mindset and understanding the mechanics of execution can empower young physicians to bring about transformative change in the 21st century...Read more

Did your past successes lead to complacency in innovation?

Healio

Female physicians experienced a greater earnings penalty because of less hours worked than men. Female physicians earned less per hour, despite being single, married or having children.

Marriage and children appeared to be associated with a greater earnings penalty among a cohort of female physicians because of less hours worked when compared with their male counterparts, according to study results published in JAMA Health Forum. Work is needed to address the barriers that lead women to work fewer hours compared with men to reduce the female-male earnings gap, researchers concluded. “A better understanding of the association between family structure and sex gaps in physician earnings and hours worked over the life cycle is needed to advance policies addressing persistent sex disparities,” Lucy Skinner, MPH, researcher in the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, and colleagues wrote.

“In contrast to the hours gap, our findings indicate that the gap in earnings per hour is not strongly associated with marriage and children, where female physicians earned between 21.4% and 23.9% less per hour than male physicians, regardless of whether they were single, married or had children,” the researchers wrote. “This difference in earnings per hour may be associated with women choosing to practice in lower paying specialties. Such decisions have been attributed to unconscious beliefs and overt sexist attitudes and behaviors during undergraduate and graduate medical education; benevolent sexism, where medical school advisers and mentors encourage women to enter more empathetic specialties; and hostile sexism, where medical students experience overt antipathy during their experiences with certain specialties on the basis of their sex.”...Read more

Can these pay gaps ever be abolished?