EHA President-elect Dr. Döhner On the 'Lighting the Flame' Program

Konstanze Döhner, MD, Professor at Ulm University and President-Elect of the European Hematology Association (EHA), met with Heme Today to share the background and ongoing progress of the EHA Lighting the Flame program.

“The background for initiating the Lighting the Flame program is the EHA realized the number of hematologists was decreasing in some European regions—in particular the Balkan and Baltic regions—and less medical students are interested in hematology,” Dr. Döhner explained.

Lighting the Flame was launched in 2022 with the support of an unrestricted educational grant from AstraZeneca.

“The program is intended for early career professionals and medical students in the later stage of their educations, and also for residents,” Dr. Döhner added. “What we would like to do is provide some insights in hematology and show how interesting and relevant hematology is.”

The first phase of the Lighting the Flame program is a free, fully online phase that offers courses on different hematologic diseases, live workshops with mentors and experts, interviews with researchers and clinicians, and podcasts.

“If you get interested in the program then we have phase two, a face-to-face retreat for around 25 selected applicants,” Dr. Döhner continued.

The first Lighting the Flame retreat was hosted in 2023 in Bucharest, Romania, for the applicants selected in 2022.

“We had 27 young, interested students and residents,” Dr. Döhner said. “We had a very experienced faculty of 11 mentors, and we offered a really great program to the participants.”

She added that six of the participants became members of EHA, and 15 were offered a grant to participate in the EHA 2024 Annual Congress in Madrid in June. “They have the opportunity to promote the program there and to work together with our young EHA committee, and also to attend hematology sessions.”

This year, EHA received 77 applications, up from 47 last year, “so there is really an increase in interest of the program,” Dr. Döhner noted.

The retreat for this year’s applicants will be held in July in Estonia. Participants from the previous years’ retreat will be invited as well.

“[The retreat’s program] is really very broad, ranging from basic research to bioinformatics,” Dr. Döhner stated. “I think everyone will find a really interesting field and maybe get motivated and enthusiastic to stick to hematology, which is really a wonderful area of medicine.”

Visit the Lighting the Flame program page to participate in the program and see future application deadlines.