It is important to me that the content be PERTINENT and timely for most conference attendees. I certainly believe that the topic of practice is very pertinent today as our specialty seeks to address significant workforce challenges. These challenges include a decline in the number of medical school graduates entering pediatrics, a decline in the number of pediatric residents choosing to enter our specialty, and forecasts of an increasing need in the number of pediatric hematology/oncology specialists in the future.

It is my goal that the presentations within the symposium will describe PRACTICAL innovations in pediatric hematology/oncology practice that have been successful in meeting some of these challenges and could be implemented by attendees in their home institutions after leaving the conference.

As I started to put together the symposium, I knew I needed the opinions and advice of others. Through years of networking, which is a huge benefit of being part of ASPHO, I identified about a dozen fellow ASPHO members knowledgeable in these areas. I reached out to them and brainstormed with them about the content of the symposium and potential speakers.

Building upon the advice of my colleagues, I put together the plan for the 2025 ASPHO Presidential Symposium. The symposium is titled “Innovations in Pediatric Hematology Oncology Practice Addressing Workforce Challenges.”

• Whitney Lerch from Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh will speak on the optimal integration of advanced practice providers (APPs) into pediatric hematology/oncology practice. I believe she’ll be the first APP to speak at an ASPHO Presidential Symposium.
• Susan Kearney from Children’s Minnesota will tell us about their shift-based practice model and how it has met the needs of early career providers.
• Wayne Liang, one of our early career members from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, will be speaking on emerging technology to enhance clinician wellness, retention, and perhaps efficiency.

So, I have picked a topic that I’m passionate about, is pertinent for today’s attendees, and promises to contain practical tips and innovations that will hopefully be beneficial to attendees. I sincerely hope that you will join me in attending this year’s Presidential Symposium on Friday afternoon, May 9, at the ASPHO Conference in Louisville, KY.

The availability of these therapies has not necessarily led to equitable access for patients. Several factors limit access to these therapies, including cost, geographic accessibility of GT/BMT centers, concerns about toxicity, and lack of data about the long-term durability of the newer GT products. Healthcare providers and patients and their families are challenged in decision-making about which curative/transformative therapy to select, given the lack of data showing comparative effectiveness of the newer therapies compared to BMT. This webinar will address these challenges in the United States while offering suggestions to ensure equitable access for patients living with SCD.

Pediatric hematologists serve as trusted sources of information about treatment options for patients with SCD and are gatekeepers for access to these therapies. Thus, it is important for pediatric hematologists to be knowledgeable about them, including the challenges faced by patients and their families as they consider these therapies, and to have insights into their own biases to facilitate decision-making about these therapies that is patient and family centered and offers equitable access to GT and BMT.

Speakers

• Maa-Ohui Quarmyne, MBChB MS (moderator), Phoenix Children’s Hospital
• Lakshmanan Krishnamurti, MD, Yale School of Medicine
• Nitya Bakshi, MBBS MS, Yale School of Medicine
• Elizabeth Stenger, MD, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
• ASPHO Webinars, held live and available on demand, are free to members.

Mark Your Calendars for More ASPHO Webinars

• Artificial Intelligence for Pediatric Hematology/Oncology: Innovations and Applications, March 4, 2025, at 3pm CT
• Gene Therapy for Hemoglobinopathies, April 8, 2025, at 3 pm CT

Special thanks to Review Course Committee Chair Cindy Neunert, MD, and Vice Chair Julia Meade, MD, and the entire committee for coordinating an excellent event. If you missed it and want access to the educational content, please watch for information on purchasing the Review Course On-Demand and Knowledge Assessment REsource (KARE) self-assessment questions later this month. Specialists at every career stage will be able to use these self-assessment tools and on-demand content to review core principles to build and maintain clinical expertise, receive CME or MOC Part 2 points, and prepare for MOCA-Peds.

Melissa P. Beauchemin, PhD, and Sheila Santacroce, PhD, are nurse researchers who led members of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Diversity and Health Disparities Committee to investigate barriers clinicians face when enrolling children of caregivers who use LOEs onto pediatric oncology clinical trials.^1,2 COG, a member of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN), is the world’s largest organization devoted exclusively to childhood and adolescent cancer research. ASPHO Diversity Advisory Group member Lindsay Jo Blazin, MD MPH, recently interviewed Drs. Beauchemin and Santacroce about what they learned conducting this research.

Lindsay Jo Blazin (LB): Why is it important for families who use LOEs to be enrolled on pediatric oncology clinical trials?

Sheila Santacroce (SS): For the same reason it is important for anybody to be enrolled on clinical trials. We know what has taken pediatric cancer from a survival rate of less than 50% when I first became a pediatric oncology nurse in the 1970s to now. It’s because of research. We’ve come a long way since then. When more families can access trials, the results are more generalizable, and they can be easier to translate into practice.

Melissa P. Beauchemin (MB): Everyone needs to be included to know that this is working for everybody. And this is how we start to understand what other supports individuals need in a trial to have those same outcomes.

LB: What did you learn about barriers to enrolling patients/families who speak LOEs onto clinical trials?

MB: As someone who has often worked with Spanish-speaking populations, one thing that was so interesting to me was learning that, although it is challenging to enroll people who speak Spanish onto clinical trials, for families who speak languages other than English and Spanish, it’s exponentially harder. There’s almost a tiered challenge. One of the responses was, “if they speak something else [besides English or Spanish], they’re just not going to get enrolled.”

SS: The thing that impressed me was really the need for centralized resources to improve what we’re seeing on the ground. A lot of people were talking about the same thing and trying to solve the problem on an individual or local level, or say the solution is not to enroll anybody who doesn’t speak English or Spanish. There is a responsibility to build in supports centrally.

LB: What can individuals or smaller teams do to increase enrollment of children of caregivers who use LOEs onto clinical trials?

MB: Make sure your institution allows for the Central Institutional Review Board (CIRB)–approved translated consents, which are available in limited languages for most COG phase 3 trials on the Cancer Trial Support Unit (CTSU) website. And find out if there are resources at your institution to support translation.

SS: And it’s important that we all do that, not just those of us who have a personal stake with people who don’t use English as a primary language. We have a professional responsibility, even if it doesn’t touch us personally. This isn’t something we can leave to our colleagues who are multilingual.

As pediatric hematologists and oncologists, our work includes efforts to advance language equity in healthcare. When we design trials, we must find ways to expand inclusion criteria across multiple languages. When we then open these more inclusive trials at our institutions, we must advocate and use all available resources to enroll participants that represent the diversity of our patients. And at the bedside, we must hold ourselves and our teams accountable to minimizing the language barrier by utilizing interpretation and translation services at every step of the care journey.

References

1. Beauchemin MP, Ortega M, Santacroce SJ, et al. Clinical trial recruitment of people who speak languages other than English: a Children’s Oncology Group report. JNCI Cancer Spectr. 2024;8(4):pkae047. doi:10.1093/jncics/pkae047

2. Santacroce SJ, Beauchemin MP, Pelletier W, et al. Multilevel challenges to equitable inclusion of children in trials when parents use languages other than English: a qualitative report from Children’s Oncology Group’s Diversity and Health Disparities Committee Language Equity Working Group. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2024;71(11):e31321. doi:10.1002/pbc.31321

Copyright © 2025 by the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. All rights reserved. The views and opinions expressed in the Diversity Corner articles are those of the author alone and do not imply an opinion on the part of ASPHO, its Board of Trustees, or staff. The information in this newsletter is intended to provide readers with resources and information that they may find useful and of interest and is only current as of the publication date. ASPHO is not liable to any party as a result of their reliance on the information, recommendations, services, or resources discussed or made available through this newsletter.

Shabnam Arsiwala, MD, Children’s Mercy Hospital/University of Missouri-KC

Sucharita Bhaumik, MD, Merck & Co

Christopher Dandoy, MD MS, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital/University of Cincinnati

Wendy Darlington, MD MAPP, Comer Children’s Hospital/University of Chicago

Adam Esbenshade, MD MSCI, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital/Vanderbilt University

Chana Glasser, MD, NYU Langone Hospital-Long Island/NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine

Esther Knapp, MD, Norton Children’s Hospital/University of Louisville

Zach LeBlanc, MD, Children’s Hospital-New Orleans/Louisiana State University

Rebecca McFall, MD, Advocate Children’s Hospital

Mentors are currently being finalized for these individuals. The 2025–2026 class will kick off with a group meeting at the 2025 ASPHO Conference in Louisville.

To accomplish these objectives, the Education Committee, under Committee Chair Erika Friehling, MD, and Vice Chair Melissa Frei-Jones, MD, works collaboratively with two other ASPHO committees:

• Conference Planning Committee, led by Chair Jessica Heath, MD, and Vice-Chair Caitlin Neri, MD, which is responsible for the day-to-day planning of the CME sessions at the ASPHO Conference
• Review Course Committee, led by Chair Cindy Neunert, MD, and Vice Chair Julia Meade, MD, which is responsible for the planning of the CME sessions at the biennial ASPHO Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Review Course.

Over the past year, the Education Committee has provided additional resources for developing effective poster presentations, and the committee is currently designing resources for creating effective lecture/oral presentations.

In addition, the Education Committee provides oversight of the KARE Toolkit and annual Webinar Series, offering learners the ability to engage in self-directed learning via digital educational resources, at the time and place that best meets their needs. The Education Committee also works with two external groups to provide CME credit for two outside events:

• Pediatric Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Consortium (PTCTC) Educational Meeting, held in conjunction with the annual ASPHO Conference.
• Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Fall Meeting (2.0 CME hours for a joint ASPHO/COG session)

Finally, the Accreditation Sub-Committee, led by Liny John, MD, continually provides accreditation oversight over all of ASPHO’s CME offerings, working to mitigate faculty disclosures and conflicts of interest. ASPHO is currently accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), with commendation, through March 2027.

Quality Improvement and Patient Safety SIG

The ASPHO Quality Improvement & Patient Safety (QIPS) SIG is committed to supporting, educating, and empowering members to deliver high-quality and safe care to pediatric hematology/oncology patients. With a diverse membership of over 300 individuals from around the world, the SIG champions academic excellence and scientific rigor to drive meaningful quality improvement (QI) initiatives in the field.

What We Do

• Educational activities. SIG members benefit from journal clubs, a QI tips newsletter, and an ongoing educational series through our online clinical forum.
• Support for QI projects. The SIG provides mentorship and project support for members involved in QI initiatives. From project development to works-in-progress discussion, SIG leaders are available to assist in advancing your work.
• Multi-institutional QI projects. One of our exciting current initiatives is the development of a platform for collaborative, multi-institutional QI projects. The initial project is underway, with plans to expand to additional sites in the future.

Upcoming Activities and Events

• Quality measures workshop. The SIG will be hosting a workshop at the annual conference focused on the development and use of quality measures in pediatric hematology/oncology.
• SIG meeting. This year’s SIG meeting will feature presentations and discussions around site-specific sickle cell population metrics and reports.

We invite you to be part of our growing community and collaborate on advancing the safety and quality of care for pediatric patients. For more information on SIG membership or to get involved in any of our ongoing initiatives, please contact SIG leadership.

Vascular Anomalies SIG

Pediatric hematologists/oncologists play an increasingly crucial role in treating vascular anomalies, particularly with the advent of new targeted treatments and clinical trials. The ASPHO Vascular Anomalies (VA) SIG leads in promoting education, research, and clinical collaborations among members.

• Our 2024 Fall VA-SIG hybrid meeting at Washington University was again a great success. We had a couple of exciting debates; an educational session on pain management in our patients; and discussion of collaborative projects within our practice, research, and education working groups. The 2025 Fall VA-SIG meeting will be hosted by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN; more information coming soon!
• The 2024 ASPHO Vascular Anomalies Primer was held immediately prior to the start of the 2024 ASPHO Conference in Seattle, WA, and was attended by more than 150 people. We plan to continue to submit these primers in the Call for Workshops every 3 years as the interest in vascular anomalies continues to grow among ASPHO members and trainees.
• Our VA SIG online member community continues to be an active platform for discussion, with consistent responses to queries within 72 hours. Since 2022, we've addressed more than 80 questions.
• In 2025, we will sponsor a workshop at the ASPHO Conference in Louisville, KY, “Supportive Care of Vascular Anomalies Beyond Pharmacotherapy.” This will be a very interactive, hands-on workshop focusing on skin biopsies and compression therapy. Please plan to attend!

All members are welcome to learn more and join the community.

The history is negative for rhinorrhea, fever, drooling, dysphagia, or exposure to sick contacts. The child has no prior medical history of asthma or prematurity and had a normal newborn screen at birth.
A chest x-ray is performed.

What is the next best step after results of the chest x-ray are reviewed?

Take the Quiz

Julia Meade, MD
Erika Friehling, MD MS