How Can We Not Be Hopeful?
The goal of the IMF’s Myeloma Voices at ASH team is multi-focal:
- Goal #1 is to amplify the patient voice at ASH, during networking, Q/A sessions during presentations, and on our blogs and social media posts. We think it is just as important for researchers to hear from patients as it is for patients to hear from researchers.
- Goal #2 is to bring the ASH experience and knowledge to the global myeloma community in real-time. We accomplish this by blogging, vlogging, and posting to various social media platforms. Allowing patients and care partners into the world of myeloma research provides hope.This year, I delved head-first into posting on X during my ASH experience. I posted slides from abstracts, impressions of presentations, and reposted other’s posts that I found interesting and engaging. One of the other Virtual Myeloma Voices at ASH Team members, Jessie Daw, posted an incredible thread about the mental impact of having MGUS or SMM. As of now, that thread has 5,341 views!
You can see below, from the data that ASH provided for the #ASH24 influence on X that there were 25, 865 tweets with the hashtag #ASH24. I also LOVE that the great majority of all handles below are myeloma-focused accounts: myeloma specialists, organizations, and nurses like Teresa Miceli (@IMFnurseMyeloma) and myself (@MidAtlanticMSG). I also love that from the in-person team accounts, many of the rooms where myeloma presentations were held were packed, into overflow, and past! So much work and interest in myeloma research—how can we not be hopeful about that!
- IMF Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joseph Mikhael, or “Dr Joe,” has blogged about his top 10 ASH highlights here.
- Dr. Joe also did a Facebook Live event on the last night of ASH with the in-person Myeloma Voices at ASH team. Watch the Replay of the IMF Facebook Live from ASH 2024.
- You can read and view all of the Myeloma Voices at ASH blogs/vlogs on this website. At that same page, under our photographs, you can see all of our social media handles-follow us! You can read through all our posts, view slides, and interact with us there!
- The IMF is also hosting two post-ASH webinars:
IMWG Conference Series: Making Sense of Treatment on December 18th at 6 pm EST. - Latest Myeloma updates from ASH2024: Easy-to-Understand insights for Patients and C are Partners on January 8, 2025 at 6 pm EST Note: This webinar will include insights from three patients and one care partner who were members of the Myeloma Voices at ASH team!