“Science is constantly changing; our textbook is constantly changing.” – Dr. Ronald Hoffman
I get immense gratification, not only from training people, but from seeing the rewards of laboratory investigations in the care of patients with hematologic disorders; specifically hematologic malignancies. Another exciting thing for me has been the ability and the opportunity to work with a lot of young people and train those people and try and move their careers forward.
Science is constantly changing; our textbook is constantly changing. New technologies are being developed to study both malignant and non-malignant hematologic disorders. We’ve released new editions of Hematology: Basic Principles and Practice every five years, and we’ve tried to incorporate each of the new technologies and the application of that technology. That ability to integrate with basic scientists, to seduce them to work in our book and provide very meaningful chapters and then to identify individuals who are used to using these kinds of techniques and applying them to clinical problems, really is what makes our textbook very unique.
Our goal is to present the book in the language that is accessible not only to basic scientists, but also to students and residents and practicing physicians. Each chapter has individual areas of emphasis. So we go from the most basic biology to treatment. I think one of the most outstanding parts of this book is the area where we give our own personalized approach to the treatment or diagnosis of particular disorders, and I think those are particularly useful to individuals who are caring for patients with hematologic diseases, because it gives them, in a nutshell, how to approach a particular clinical problem.
Over the years, I have gotten a lot of feedback about the contributions that our books have made to education and patient care. When I visited China, it was on everyone’s bookshelves, and that was humbling, but also exciting. My daughter, who was a medical student at that time, went to Thailand and saw it being used there. Global access has been very inspiring to us, and I think we’re really recognized as one of the leaders in hematology education in the world.
Ronald Hoffman, MD is a Professor of Medicine in the Hematology and Medical Oncology Department at Mount Sinai Medical Center where he leads the Myeloproliferative Disorder Research Consortium. He is a highly acclaimed hematologist, who has made major contributions to the understanding of diseases of the blood, particularly leukemia. Dr. Hoffman has more than 400 peer-reviewed publications and is senior editor of Hematology, now in its sixth edition and one of the most widely used textbooks in the field.
After completing his MD at New York University School of Medicine, Dr. Hoffman went on to complete residencies at Stanford University School of Medicine and Montreal General Hospital and a fellowship at Mount Sinai Hospital. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Dr. Hoffman was president of the American Society of Hematology in 2003 and is a past editor of Experimental Hematology.
Related Authors: Edward J. Benz, Jr., MD; Leslie E. Silberstein, MD; Helen Heslop, MD; Jeffrey Weitz, MD; John Anastasi, MD
