2013 NHF-Baxter Clinical Fellows
The National Hemophilia Foundation (NHF) is pleased to announce this year's NHF-Baxter Clinical Fellowship award recipients: Tyler Buckner, MD, of the University North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Christopher Ng, MD, of the University of Colorado Denver.
Funded through the generous support of Baxter Healthcare Corporation, the NHF-Baxter Clinical Fellowship Program was developed to attract new physicians to the field of non-malignant hematology and support their continued development as clinician-researchers. The goal of this program is to increase the overall number of physicians committed to a career in bleeding and clotting disorders by providing them with high-quality mentored training from both a clinical and research perspective. NHF-Baxter Clinical Fellows are nominated by program directors from leading academic training centers in the US.
Buckner is a native of Tullahoma, TN, and a graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis. He attended medical school and residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he also completed a combined fellowship in adult hematology and pediatric hematology/oncology in June 2013. Buckner will continue to work at UNC as a member of the School of Medicine faculty. His research training includes a National Research Service Award postdoctoral fellowship at the UNC Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, as well as didactic coursework that will lead to a Master's of Science degree in Clinical Research from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. As a hematologist and health services researcher, Buckner plans to study patient-centered methods for improving the delivery of healthcare services to patients with hemophilia. His current research efforts are focused on improving the management of chronic pain in people with hemophilia.
Ng is a pediatric hematology/oncology fellow at the University of Colorado - Anschutz Medical Campus. He attended medical school at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California and completed his pediatrics residency at the University of Washington/Seattle Children's Hospital. Ng is pursuing his fellowship training in Colorado because of the University of Colorado Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center and its commitment to clinical care and hemostasis-based research.
As an NHF-Baxter Fellow, Ng will learn about the care of patients with bleeding and clotting disorders under the mentorship of Dr. Marilyn Manco-Johnson. He will continue with his research projects involving the role of von Willebrand factor in hemostatic and thrombotic diseases. Ng's career goals are to focus on the care of pediatric patients with bleeding and clotting disorders through clinical care and academic research.
The NHF-Baxter Clinical Fellowship provides up to $100,000 annually to support two years of training at the fellow's institution. Since its inception, 26 fellows have been awarded this fellowship. Many graduates of this program are already engaged in training other new hematology fellows, and successfully running bleeding and/or clotting treatment programs, as either medical directors or co-directors of centers.
New Institutions Join NHF-Baxter Fellowship Program
NHF is pleased to announce the selection of three new institutions that were approved to participate in the NHF-Baxter Clinical Fellowship Program:
- Penn State Hershey Medical Center–Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center of Central PA, M. Elaine Eyster, MD, FACP, Program Director
- Children's National Medical Center - Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders (Washington, DC), Michael Guerrera, MD, and Naomi Luban, MD, Co-directors
- Washington University School of Medicine - Division of Hematology, Morey A. Blinder, MD, Program Director
The review committee also approved the renewal application of Emory University/Children's Hospital of Atlanta with Christine L. Kempton, MD, MSc, as program director.
Participating institutions may be well-established hemophilia and thrombophilia treatment centers, or ideally affiliated with major universities and teaching hospitals with qualified clinical and research faculty. Successful institutions demonstrate a history of providing quality training for fellows, and the ability to develop them into skilled clinicians and independent investigators. They also need to provide advanced training in the area of blood coagulation, hemostasis and thrombosis; treatment of hemophilia, von Willebrand disease and other bleeding disorders; and treatment of thrombophilia and other thrombotic diseases.
Since the inception of this program, 19 institutions have previously received approval to nominate candidates for fellowships.
