ASH News Daily 2017 - Issue 3 - B-44

ASH News Daily

Page B-44

Monday, December 11, 2017

ASH Advocacy Leadership Institute: In Their Own Words

ince 2011, the ASH Advocacy
Leadership Institute (ALI) has
offered U.S. ASH members the
opportunity to learn about advocacy, health policy, and the legislative
process, and to become engaged in
the Society's activities on Capitol
Hill. The two-day program consists of a training workshop at ASH
Headquarters on day one, where
participants learn about the legislative process and health policy, advocacy, and media relations, with
guest speakers from congress, the
National Institutes of Health (NIH),
and more. On the second day, participants visit their respective congressional offices on Capitol Hill to
apply what was learned on the first
day.
Here, two 2017 ASH ALI participants, Dr. James Blachly and
Dr. Lee Hilliard, share their unique
experiences with ASH News Daily.
If you're considering ALI but are
on the fence, read on for an inside
scoop, plus info on how to get involved.
James S. Blachly, MD
Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Hematology,

Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics, The Ohio State University,
Columbus, Ohio
As a young faculty member at the
outset of a research career, it is disheartening that national funding is
harder than ever to obtain. I wanted
to bring the message that all Americans benefit when the health of our
nation is improved, and this starts
with broadly funding innovative

Gilead's first HIV
product, and the
first-ever nucleotide
analogue reverse
transcriptase inhibitor
in HIV, approved

Gilead Sciences
founded

1987

James S. Blachly, MD

1996

2001

Gilead's first
AIDS-related
product approved

2006

basic, translational, and clinical research. One of my favorite parts of
the initial trip to Washington, DC,
was meeting other ASH members
with a variety of backgrounds and
practice scopes from academic institutions to community oncology
practices, and sharing a sense of
enthusiasm about the importance
of continued NIH funding. Visiting
Capitol Hill in the capacity of more
than just a tourist, and with a mission that we all believed in, was exciting and rewarding.
I will continue to remain engaged
in advocacy for research funding
at the national level by staying in
touch with my local congressional
and senate offices, as well as hosting them for visits in our lab and
our hospital when they are available. I am also looking forward to
the ASH Grassroots Lunch this year
in Atlanta.
For those still considering ALI,
don't be intimidated. We aren't lobbying for anything controversial
like uranium exports or subsidies
for industry X. Everyone I spoke to
on Capitol Hill, on both sides of the
aisle, stands behind NIH. We need
ASH members to take an active role

Gilead acquires
CGI Pharmaceuticals
and rights to its
preclinical compound
targeting spleen
tyrosine kinase

2010

First-ever oncedaily, single-tablet
regimen for HIV
approved in
collaboration with
Bristol-Myers Squibb

2011

Gilead acquires
Calistoga
Pharmaceuticals,
a company focused
on cancer and
inflammatory diseases

A FOUNDATION
BUILT ON INNOVATION
S E E W H A T ' S N E X T AT BOOTH #1317

2014

Lee Hilliard, MD
Professor of Pediatrics and Chair
of CHS Blood Utilization Committee,
University of Alabama Birmingham
School of Medicine, Birmingham, Alabama
I am fortunate to have grown
up in a family that emphasized
the importance of good citizenship
- keeping up with current events
and giving back to the community
through service. So I have always
been more politically engaged than
most. What inspired me to apply
to ALI is that our country is now
at a critical point in our history. We
need more informed and engaged
citizens, and we need to advocate
for our patients, particularly those
who have been historically disenfranchised. Basically, I decided
that talking about the problems in
health care with my friends and colleagues was not enough. I could no
longer simply stand by and watch
what is happening on a daily basis
without taking action. It was time
to directly advocate for change.
»» ALI Page B-50

Gilead joins
Beat AML Master
Trial, a collaborative
effort led by the
Leukemia and
Lymphoma Society

Gilead's first
hepatitis C virus
(HCV) treatment,
and the first-ever oral
regimen for genotypes
2 or 3, approved

2013

to help keep it that way.

2016

Gilead's
first oncology
product, a
PI3Kδ inhibitor,
approved

2017

Gilead acquires
Kite Pharma,
an industry leader
in engineered
T cell therapy

First-ever
all-oral,
pan-genotypic,
single-tablet
regimen for
HCV approved

© 2017 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. UNBP3556 10/2017
Gilead and the Gilead logo are registered trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or one of its related companies.
All other trademarks are the marks of their respective owners.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASH News Daily 2017 - Issue 3