Education Committee is Focused on “Lowering the Threshold for Activation”
This month, I caught up with Eugenia Piddini and Jaime Imitola, the Chair and Vice Chair of the Education Committee to learn about their work in general as well as the latest major contribution to build the first continuing education course on stem cell medicine. This work exemplifies how committees have come together to produce new and exceptional opportunities with lasting impact on our field. One strong theme that came through in our conversation is the deep belief of the critical role that education plays in all we do, and the need to present current information in ways that bridge experts across different specialties (i.e., clinicians, basic scientists) and areas of stem cell science and regenerative biology for the benefit of medicine and patients.
Q: What are the most important projects that the committee has worked on?
JI: One of the most important initiatives is the CME (continuing medical education) course. It has been our focus for more than two years to define what stem cell medicine is, and we are now looking at the fruits of our hard work. We are at the very end of the work in terms of video production, and by May we should have the final product. This is going to be very important for the community to see the work of the most important Society for stem cell research and regenerative medicine now delivered to clinicians.
EP: Several years ago, the Education Committee developed the stem cell biology syllabus, and the community has benefited from the highly popular resource. This tremendous response to the syllabus reinforced the value and need for teaching materials. That project was the seed for the next steps for the Education Committee – and the ISSCR conducted a membership survey that revealed the need to further our educational efforts and focus on clinician education. The committee therefore spent time brainstorming what we might do to inform and educate clinicians about our field, and that’s how the idea was born. A year later, the CME project started and now is coming to fruition. At the time, the CME course felt very ambitious, and we didn’t know how to get started. We were fortunate to have diversity in the committee to cover multiple topics and expertise so that we are able to discuss the topics broadly as well as tap into the ISSCR community at large when additional expertise was needed.
Q: Can you share more about the talent and background of members on the committee and how the composition of members contributes to the committee’s work and effectiveness?
JI: When we discussed the topic of unmet needs in the CME course, there were some areas where ethics was missing. So, we reached out to Insoo Hyun who worked with our committee to help develop clear and ethical communications for doctors to talk with patients about unproven therapies and for-profit stem cell clinics. Last year when we went to Hamburg for the annual meeting and presented updates on our progress, we obtained a lot of feedback from ISSCR committees and also the ISSCR Board of Directors. That support and contributions from others was reassuring and it helped us continue to better the work.
EP: Early career investigator Carolyn Sangokoya was also part of our committee to provide examples in how we can provide dialogue and include critical prospectives with evolving the CME course.
Q: What drives you to invest in/give so much of your time and talent to the ISSCR and the work of the committee? Describe the value you see in this volunteer work?
EP: The work is very inspiring, because it addresses our values. We aim to close the divide between the fast-tracked stem cell innovation and the clinician work that cannot innovate at the same pace unless we connect them better. Our vision was to have an impact on the work of the doctors in order to have a positive effect on human health. Of course, clinicians are educated on stem cell medicine, but many who practice today have not received this education in the past as the field continues to advance very quickly with innovations that were not present at the time of their education.
JI: To second what Eugenia was saying, the first time I have heard about stem cells was 1994, but there was not much following. I think the ISSCR is doing what we should be doing by providing the necessary education to help immediately impact our medical practice. When reflecting back to when antibiotics were first discovered, they were quickly translated in medicine. To quote Eugenia Piddini, “lowering the threshold for activation” is our goal to accelerate implementation, collaboration between the bedside and the bench, and decrease the divide between researchers and clinicians.
EP: I want to start by first telling you about the committee. The work they have done is tremendous and incredibly driven. There have been times when the committee faced immense challenges. The production of 175 slides and around 90 minutes of video presentation is an enormous undertaking – this was only possible because of a truly inspiring committee. The way in which we allocated the work meant there was no possibility of it being substituted by others – that meant that everyone had to do their work, and it created a dependence on each other to see this through.
JI: Personally, it is a great privilege. As I grew in my career, I found myself involved in stem cell research and I saw how hard it is to go from the bench to the bedside—still is. Translating the work for clinicians is critical. My vision is to reignite the passion of clinicians for translation of stem cell research, as there is a lot to do.
The first course of this ambitious program is expected to launch in May with Stem Cell Medicine: From Scientific Research to Patient Care and will be accredited by Harvard Medical School. Excitingly, the work will continue over the next year to produce four disease-specific modules, and I look forward to watching the impact that it will have in the future.
Education Committee Members: Chair, Eugenia Piddini, Vice Chair, Jaime Imitola, Mohamed Abou-el-Enein, William J. Anderson, Roger Barker, Kathryn S.E. Cheah, Anna Couturier, Elisa Giacomelli, Insoo Hyun, Kathryn S. Jones, Sally Lowell, Zubin Master, Hideyuki Okano, Graziella Pellegrini, Carolyn Sangokoya, Cecile Terrenoire. Staff liaison, Kendra Prutton.
Acknowledgements: I am grateful to Kym Kilbourne for her continuous contributions and partnership in co-creating these monthly messages.