ASTCT’s members-only special interest groups (SIGs) provide an exclusive opportunity to get more deeply involved and actively engaged in your area of expertise by communicating with peers, learning best practices, educating the broader HCT community and advocating on issues of concern.
Membership of SIG’s are limited to current, paid members only. Each SIG has a Steering Committee and an online Community. The SIG Community pages include member lists, an open-forum discussion board, SIG specific resources and more.
HOW TO JOIN A SIG
Please follow the steps outlined below to become a member of an ASTCT Special Interest Group (SIG).
- Hover over the “Membership” tab at the top of the homepage and select “Special Interest Groups”.
- Navigate to the SIG you’d like to join and select the “SIG Community” button.
- You will be prompted to sign into your ASTCT account.
- You will be required to login onto the ASTCT website to access the SIG Community.
- You will see “My Profile” and “Logout” in the top right corner of the screen when you are successfully logged into your account.
- You will be prompted to acknowledge ASTCT’s SIG Community Rules.
- Select the “Join Community” on the top right section of the page. We recommend keeping your email preferences to “daily digest” so you can stay updated on discussions within the SIG.
- Once complete, you have joined the SIG community page
Contact ASTCT Headquarters with any questions regarding your membership or participation in a SIG.
Administrative Directors SIG
The Administrative Directors Special Interest Group offers administrators at blood and marrow transplant centers a national forum where they can exchange ideas and information, benchmarking and disseminating data about best practices within hematopoietic stem cell transplantation centers.
ASTCT Staff Liaison - Liz Stockton
SIG Community
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SIG Steering Committee
Mark Duckworth, BS - Chair
Julie Porter, MSc - Vice Chair
About the SIG
Members have the opportunity to be involved in working groups that provide recommendations on national issues related to BMT program administration, as well as to participate on a conference planning committee or other task forces. Members can use the Administrative Directors discussion forum to seek input from colleagues regarding BMT program questions or practices.
Advanced Practice Provider SIG
The Advanced Practice Provider Special Interest Group (APP SIG) provides a forum for APPs to exchange ideas and information while promoting their role in the BMT/cellular therapies field. The SIG hopes to focus on education, jobs, networking and other opportunities as it continues to grow and expand its presence in ASTCT, and we want to use our website as a tool for communication and education.
ASTCT Staff Liaison - Anna Hawkshead
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SIG Steering Committee
Nancy Shreve, APN, FNP-BC - Chair
Chelsea Honstain, FNP-C - Vice Chair
About the SIG
Our SIG enables APPs to become more involved and have a voice in ASTCT. We are defining new ways to support APPs in the BMT field and are embarking on new projects to increase their knowledge and resources. Our website offers networking, education, practice and research opportunities. During the annual BMT Tandem Meetings we have our own clinical education conference — sponsored by the ASTCT Education Committee — devoted to NPs, PAs and fellows. It is a great opportunity to learn from BMT experts and obtain practical clinical information that helps us care for our transplant patients. Steering Committee members are reaching out to you and encouraging all current BMT APPs to join the SIG. We must unite to achieve great things in the years to come for our BMT practice.
Aging SIG
The Aging Special Interest Group is a national and international forum for exchange of ideas, collaborative research development, and educational initiatives on the care and resiliency of older adults undergoing transplantation and cellular therapy (TCT) treatments. Their mission is to achieve the optimal outcomes for TCT among older adults through better patient care and advancing age-related research.
ASTCT Staff Liaison - Liz Stockton
SIG Community
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SIG Steering Committee
Sarah Wall, MD - Chair
Rebecca Olin, MD, MSCE - Vice Chair
Biobehavioral Research SIG
The Biobehavioral Research SIG intent is to improve TCT patient quality of life and clinical outcomes by advancing science that effectively integrates behavioral (including psychological and social/environmental factors) and biological processes. The SIG believes this will be achieved through a better understanding of the intersecting behavioral and biological mechanisms that underlie symptom, social and psychological health. Examples of such research include, but are not limited to, the application of this principle to the cross-directional effects on health behaviors, insomnia, fatigue, sexual dysfunction, depression, anxiety, isolation, fear of recurrence, social health disparities, and gene by environment interactions.
ASTCT Staff Liaison - Tess Ruzga
SIG Community
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SIG Steering Committee
Erin Costanzo, PhD - Chair
Molly Taylor, MD - Vice Chair
About the SIG
The Biobehavioral Research Special Interest Group (SIG) provides a national and international forum for the exchange of ideas, research agenda setting, collaborative research development, and educational initiatives on the interaction of behavior, psychology, social/environmental factors, and biological processes (summarized as ‘biobehavioral’) throughout the hematopoietic cell transplantation and cellular therapies (TCT) process.
Cord Blood SIG
The Cord Blood Special Interest Group (CB-SIG) will provide a national and international forum to promote the use of cord blood for the transplantation of patients with diseases of the blood and bone marrow. The CB SIG will also support the development of CB-derived cellular therapies and regenerative medicine applications.
ASTCT Staff Liaison - Liz Stockton
SIG Community
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SIG Steering Committee
Leland Metheny, MD - Chair
Rajneesh Nath, MD - Vice Chair
About the SIG
By joining the CB-SIG, members will contribute to specific cord blood initiatives, including: Interacting with CB banks, regulators and accrediting bodies to promote the optimal quality of CB products. Promoting optimal practices in the clinical conduct of CB transplantation for the treatment of diseases of the blood and bone marrow. Working with the CB banking and transplant communities to develop cost-saving approaches to optimal therapy. Promoting clinical, translational and laboratory CB research. Accelerating the investigation of CB-derived cellular therapies and regenerative medicine applications. Promoting CB banking and transplantation through interactions with the National Marrow Donor Program, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Food and Drug Administration and other government funding agencies, and the Cord Blood Association.
HCT Value and Health Economics SIG
The Special Interest Group for hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) value and health economics provides a national and international forum for the exchange of ideas, educational initiatives, research agenda setting, conducting collaborative research and dissemination on health economics and the value of HCT (e.g., costs and utilization of care, cost-effectiveness and – benefit analyses, patient-centered components of value and other health economic topics).
ASTCT Staff Liaison - Anthony Cisneros
SIG Community
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SIG Steering Committee
Andreas Klein, MD - Chair
Amy Emmert, MPH - Vice Chair
About the SIG
Membership to the SIG offers opportunities to become more involved with ASTCT and ground breaking work in the cell therapy field.
Nursing SIG
The Nursing Special Interest Group offers blood and marrow transplant nurses a forum for education, the exchange of ideas, networking, the promotion of transplant nursing, and the dissemination of best practices within the field of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
ASTCT Staff Liaison - Liz Stockton
SIG Community
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SIG Steering Committee
Ashley Rumsey, MSN, APRN, AGCNS-BC, OCN, BMTCN - Chair
Nancy Austin, RN-BSN, BMTCN - Vice Chair
About the SIG
The SIG offers opportunities to get involved in SIG projects, the steering committee, ASTCT committees and conference planning.
Palliative and Supportive Care SIG
The Palliative and Supportive Care SIG was established to promote the delivery of high-quality patient and family-centered care that optimizes the quality of life of patients undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation. The delivery of such care is the product of research, education and clinical care management.
ASTCT Staff Liaison - Liz Stockton
SIG Community
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SIG Steering Committee
Areej El-Jawahri, MD - Chair
Christine Ullrich, MD, MPH - Vice Chair
About the SIG
The Palliative and Supportive Care SIG recognizes that all patients under the care of a hematologist-oncologist benefit from discussions that support complex decision making and advance care planning, quality of life (QOL) and palliative care (PC) needs with each member of their medical team. The SIG will focus on attainable goals meeting the needs of transplant patients and their families. At the same time, the SIG recognizes that many of the PC concepts that are integral to the care of transplant patients are best addressed as early in the course of a patient’s medical care as possible, involve providers who care for these patients starting at the time of diagnosis, and continue long after the transplant procedure to support the long-term needs of transplant survivors. For this reason, the SIG has identified long-term goals and questions broader in nature than those raised in the hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) setting, but complementary to transplant-specific issues. It is the belief of the SIG that these long-term initiatives will ultimately help all patients who receive care for life-threatening hematologic/oncologic disorders. Furthermore, the SIG recognizes that the long-term goals may require continuous refinement as progress continues.
Pharmacy SIG
The ASTCT Pharmacy Special Interest Group (SIG) provides leadership for pharmacists within the society and facilitates pharmacist representation on society committees. Our mission is to represent pharmacist membership within ASTCT, provide a forum for pharmacists to network and share ideas, and move the HCT field forward.
ASTCT Staff Liaisons - Kyra Newman and Haedyn Smith
SIG Community
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SIG Steering Committee
Katie Gatwood, PharmD - Chair
Rebecca Gonzalez, PharmD, BCOP - Vice Chair
About the SIG
The Pharmacy SIG has several resources that allow us to invest in your professional development, build your network, and expand your clinical practice. Listed below are some of the many resources you can access as a Pharmacy SIG member:
- Tandem Meetings of ASTCT and CIBMTR – Tandem Pharmacy Conference
- Fundamentals of HCT training course
- Monthly literature summaries
- Pharmacy SIG newsletters
- Continuing Education, including online Pharmacy Journal Club sessions
- Networking Opportunities with access to a large group of HCT pharmacists via the Pharmacy SIG Community Page
- Collaborate in research efforts
- Find mentors in HCT
Social Work SIG
The Social Work SIG formed in order to further integrate social work into the multidisciplinary HCT team and provide an avenue for collaboration and the advancement of psychosocial health research. Our hope is to create an environment that will assist transplant/cell therapy social workers to grow their professional skills within our social work organization and our interdisciplinary collaborations within ASTCT to further the clinical use and position of social work with this very unique patient population.
Ben Tweeten, MSW, LICSW - SIG Steering Committee Chair
Hailey Hassel, MSW, LICSW - SIG Steering Committee Vice Chair
ASTCT Staff Liaison - Kyra Newman
SIG Community
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SIG Steering Committee
Ben Tweeten, MSW, LICSW - Chair
Hailey Hassel, MSW, LICSW - Vice Chair
About the SIG
The ASTCT Social Work SIG is meant to be a complement to our social work professional organizations (AOSW and APOSW). While our social work professional organizations offer our members individual skill building and networking among our social work colleagues, we feel strongly that it is an advantage to both social work and our interdisciplinary transplant teams to have social work involved with ASTCT. Our professional colleagues utilize the ASTCT and the TCT meetings to be the leading organization promoting research, education and clinical practice in the field of blood and marrow transplantation and related cellular therapy. We are working closely on initiatives that it would encourage involvement by social workers in both their social work professional organization and in ASTCT.
Survivorship SIG
The Special Interest Group for hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) survivorship provides a national and international forum for the exchange of ideas, educational initiatives, research agenda setting, conducting collaborative research and dissemination on issues of importance surrounding survivorship in HCT.
ASTCT Staff Liaison - Anna Hawkshead
SIG Community
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SIG Steering Committee
Christine Duncan, MD - Chair
Catherine Lee, MD - Vice Chair
Transplant Infectious Diseases SIG
Candidates who join the TID-SIG have greater visibility within ASTCT, promoting collaboration between physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other related specialties that have an interest in infectious diseases and HCT. This SIG provides a forum for discussion of transplant infectious disease-related issues in the context of HCT and encourages research collaboration in this area. In addition, members have opportunities to be involved in the annual meeting through plenary sessions, oral abstract sessions, and poster presentations, and to serve on different ASTCT committees.
ASTCT Staff Liaison - Angie Dahl
SIG Community
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SIG Steering Committee
Sanjeet Singh Dadwal, MD – Chair
Zainab Shahid, MD - Vice Chair
Women and URM SIG
The overarching mandate of the Women and URM SIG will be to increase the number of women and other under-represented minorities in the field of stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy/immunotherapy.
ASTCT Staff Liaison - Tess Ruzga
SIG Community
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SIG Steering Committee
Eneida Nemecek, MD, MS, MBA - Chair
Melody Smith, MD - Vice Chair
Additional details coming soon.