History of ASH

The American Society of Hematology (ASH) boasts more than 17,000 members across 100 countries, making it the world’s largest professional society serving both clinicians and scientists around the world who are working to conquer blood diseases.

Its mission is simple in nature: to further the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disorders affecting the blood, bone marrow, and the immunologic, hemostatic and vascular systems, by promoting research, clinical care, education, training, and advocacy in hematology.

With more than 17,000 members from nearly 100 countries, ASH is the world’s largest professional society serving both clinicians and scientists around the world who are working to conquer blood diseases. A large portion of the society’s endeavors concentrate on education. To that end, ASH has established an Education Roadmap, which will focus on expanding the Society’s educational portfolio by addressing learner gaps and needs.

In developing these educational offerings, ASH has been mindful of relevant core competencies, as defined by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), and the Institute of Medicine (IOM). The commendation criteria of ASH’s accreditor, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), has also been considered to ensure the offerings are of the highest quality. Current education strategies include six priority content areas: precision medicine, acute myeloid leukemia, sickle cell disease, immune therapies, hemostasis and thrombosis, and systems-based hematology. The society notes that future iterations of these priorities may or may not change with the evolving needs of hematologists.

Lastly, the ASH Academy is an eLearning platform that provides the most current practice tools, clinical support, and educational products needed for every stage of a professional’s career in hematology. This is where members can find the latest offerings in continuing medical education and can maintain their certification credits.

ASH also supports research as a means of furthering the specialty’s knowledge. The ASH Agenda for Hematology Research serves as a roadmap for the prioritization of research support across the hematology community, including recommendations for dedicated resources from funding agencies and foundations that will equip researchers to make truly practice-changing discoveries.

Additional information about all of these can be found on the ASH website: www.hematology.org