Zahra Pakbaz, MD; John Strouse, MD, PhD, Discuss Practicing Classical Hematology

Dr. Pakbaz, from the University of California Irvine, and Dr. Strouse, from Duke University, both met with Heme Today to share their perspectives as classical hematologists who treat adult patients. They spoke on the shortage of specialists in the field.

“It’s rare to be trained both as a pediatric and adult hematologist in the United States medical model,” Dr. Strouse said. “I think the big difference is that most pediatric hematologist oncologists will do some pediatric hematology even in an academic setting … and that’s very different than in the adult academic space where most oncologists do not do any hematology.”

Dr. Pakbaz also suggested that expectations of employers may play a part.

“I think this also has something to do with employers that expect the doctors to see everything,” she said. “In modern medicine, every field you enter is like an ocean … even in [classical] hematology there is so much subspecialty. If you don’t have enough people who are who trained in this, then we can’t move the field forward.”

Dr. Strouse agreed with that sentiment, citing his own experience with treating patients.

“For sickle cell disease, I feel much more comfortable providing excellent care than even for thrombosis, which I see a fair amount of, but it’s not my area of focus,” he said, adding a provider might only see one or two patients diagnosed with a rare hematological disorder and those patients might not be “receiving the same level of care they would if they were seeing [a clinician] who took care of a lot of people with that condition.”

In closing, Drs. Strouse and Pakbaz also commented on the initiative from the American Society of Hematology to fund dedicated classical hematology programs and increase the number of dedicated specialists in the field.