ASH Honors Rep. Doris O. Matsui (D-CA) And Melanie Bloom For Their Public Service, Leadership, And Commitment To Biomedical Research

Main Category: Blood / Hematology
Article Date: 26 Nov 2009 - 4:00 PST

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The American Society of Hematology (ASH), the world's largest professional society of blood specialists, will recognize a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the national spokesperson for the Coalition to Prevent Deep-Vein Thrombosis for their efforts to promote biomedical research. The Public Service awards will be announced in conjunction with the Society's 51st Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA.

Melanie Bloom, national spokesperson for the Coalition to Prevent Deep-Vein Thrombosis (DVT), will be honored with ASH's Outstanding Service Award for her dedication to increasing public awareness of DVT. Following the death of her husband, award-winning NBC TV journalist David Bloom, who died from complications related to DVT while on assignment in Iraq, Ms. Bloom has worked to share her personal story to raise awareness and educate patients, health-care professionals, and policy makers about reducing the risk of DVT. In addition to helping to garner support to declare March as DVT Awareness Month and serving on the Steering Committee for the National Quality Forum to help establish consensus on DVT treatment guidelines, Ms. Bloom spoke as part of the ASH Special Session on Venous Thromboembolism at the 2007 ASH Annual Meeting in Atlanta.

Rep. Doris O. Matsui (D-CA) will receive ASH's Award for Public Service for her dedication to health-care issues. Since winning a special election in 2005 to fill the remainder of the term of her late husband, who died from complications of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), Rep. Matsui has been a champion of health-care and research issues. As a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees most non-Medicare/Medicaid health-related issues in the House, and because of her personal experience with MDS, Rep. Matsui has been particularly active in issues related to bone marrow failures and hematologic malignancies, and has sponsored legislation to improve research and treatment of bone marrow diseases. She has also helped to lead congressional efforts to secure dedicated blood cancer research funding at the Department of Defense.

"The hematology community owes both of these women a great debt for their outstanding leadership and tireless efforts to help advance the cause of medical research," said Nancy Berliner, MD, 2009 ASH President, Chief of Hematology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "It is my honor to recognize these two distinguished individuals for their dedication to achieving better understanding of and treatment for hematologic disorders."

The awards will be formally announced on Sunday, December 6, at 1:30 p.m. prior to the Plenary Scientific Session.

Source
American Society of Hematology