Updates from ASH-a-Palooza and Mentoring in Hematology/Oncology | Tax Kourelis, MD | #ASH24

So my name is Thaks Kourelis. I'm a clinician and associate professor at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. I was asked to discuss, you know, ASHA-Palooza and the importance of teaching and mentoring in medicine in the field of myeloma. So ASHA-Palooza is an ASHA initiative. It's the first year I'm doing it myself and I found it very interesting and exciting. It's a very sort of laid-back opportunity for trainees of various stages in their career to meet with, I wouldn't say senior, hopefully I'm not senior, you're like mid-career faculty. There are some senior faculty and just get some high-level career advice. So it's the first time I was doing it this year. As I mentioned, I thought it was very interesting and we had people, they're going to stop by your desk, not your table, I think it was in a restaurant, again, very low-key. And we chat for about 10 minutes. I had a medical student, I had fellows, I had residents, I had more advanced fellows right before they're trying to get a job. So from all sorts of paths of life that were interested in hematology, oncology, so different needs, obviously. And I think the important thing here to discuss is why is mentoring and passing the torch or giving advice to younger people is important. And I think that's where I should really mention Mayo because this is the place that has taught me what a great mentor is. And I worked with, I usually like to tell this story when I was a first-year fellow. And I've written some papers, but the first proper paper I ended up writing was with Angela Dispensieri, an amyloid paper. And so I did the work, I wrote the paper again, thought I did a decent job. And she could have just reviewed it, fixed it for me, and we could have submitted it, and that's that. But Angela is not like that. So seven drafts later, back and forth, back and forth, little tweaks. She never handed me on the plate, like, this is it and you're done. She really actually struggled and had me struggle and work with me and taught me how to go through a paper and how to write it properly. And then things got better after that, hopefully. But she spent the time, these are busy people, and they still spend time to teach you simple things. Also, other great people like Saji Kumar, Mori Gerds, Vincent Rauskumar, all these people have great mentorship track records. And mentoring is a holistic thing. It's not only teaching you how to write a paper, teaching you about statistics, or teaching you about patience. It's teaching you about work-life balance, how to deal with disappointment, failures, how to be flexible and adjust on the go. It teaches you about patient care. The opportunities, I think, it's countless for myself. And I think every old junior faculty and mid-career faculty owe this to them that we've been handed down tremendous opportunities at this institution. And these super famous people could have hold on to all the fame to themselves, but they haven't. They've really shared it with us and have guided us and have helped our career tremendously. So, I mean, it's impossible to do the same. And it's human nature is to help each other out and help our junior people avoid making more mistakes or handing them opportunities or promoting their work and getting ready to help our patients better. That's the whole point, right? Yeah, and I think that's what I had today is say about ASHA-Palooza and mentoring in general. I'm still, you know, it was the first time doing it this year. I mean, I usually have maybe one or two trainees that I devote time at work to try and help out with their research and career development. I don't do more than that, but I found it very rewarding and it's been great. And thank you.