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July 2017
Download the entire issue here in PDF format. Selected stories below . . .
It isn’t rocket science…or is it? 
A Word from President Krishna Komanduri, MD
Dear colleagues, Like many of my generation, I was fascinated as a child by our efforts to reach beyond our own planet for the first time. My earliest memory of a television broadcast is of watching grainy black and white images of the moon walks of Apollo 14 in 1971. Indeed, my first career goal was to be an astronaut. While I never achieved that dream, I was fortunate to begin a collaboration when in Houston with a colleague at Johnson Space Center in NASA. Our role was to help those studying immune responses in astronauts better characterize virus-specific T cell responses. READ MORE.
Cord Blood Special Interest Group Spotlight
by Juliet Barker, MD
The cord blood (CB) SIG has been created to provide a national and international forum to promote the use of CB for the transplantation of patients with diseases of the blood and bone marrow as well as to support the development of CB-derived cellular therapies and regenerative medicine applications. The SIG has a wide membership from the U.S. and other countries and any member of ASBMT is invited to join. The SIG had a lively and well attended in person meeting at this years 2017 Tandem conference (Orlando, Florida). Speakers included MDs from transplant centers in the US, England and Europe and CB banks as well as representatives of the NMDP and the CIBMTR. READ MORE.
Download the new Early HCT Referral Slide Set
 The field of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) has grown increasingly complex with expanding applications and donor options. An Early Referral slide set teaching tool was developed by the ASBMT Committee on Education in conjunction with the CIBMTR® and the NMDP/Be The Match®. This slide set was developed to address advances in HCT and optimal timing of referral, for use with community hematology and oncology physicians and providers who refer patients to transplant centers. READ MORE.
Policy Perspectives
 By Stephanie Farnia, ASBMT Director of Health Policy and Strategic Relations
I’ll start this month’s column with a resounding THANK YOU to all of you that took the time to really understand the issues with the CMS FY18 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) Proposed Rule. More than 44 transplant centers (TC) commented with a total of 138 TC comments. The highest volume TCs were Dana Farber, University of Kentucky and University of North Carolina. READ MORE.
The 4th Annual ASBMT Fall BMT Clinical Education Conference for NPs, PAs and Fellows
Registration is now open for the 4th Annual ASBMT Fall Clinical Education Conference for NPs, PAs and Fellows. The conference will be held Oct. 26–28, 2017 at the Sheraton Hotel in Seattle. Register before August 1st for the Early Bird Rate of $300. Additional information about lodging, learning objectives, and the full course schedule is provided here: READ MORE.
BBMT Impact Factor Rises and July Issue Journal Highlights
The ASBMT is proud to report the 2016 Impact Factor for its journal, Biology of Blood & Marrow Transplantation (BBMT) has risen to 4.707. The impact factor is a measure of the frequency with which the average article in a journal has been cited in a particular year. It is used to measure the importance or rank of a journal by calculating the times its articles are cited. READ MORE.
Also in this issue. . .
Download the entire issue here in PDF format.
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