Mo Al-Khalaf, PhD – The Early Career Voice

Highlighting Sessions at #BCVS21

August 25, 2021August 25, 2021 Mo Al-Khalaf, PhD

While AHA Meetings are highly valued for their annually impressive original science presented to conference goers, these annual meetings also provide much sought-after space for highlighting and amplifying voices within cardiovascular research that historically have not been given center-stage. Over the past few years, the “Women In Science” and the “Early Career Networking” sessions have both proven to be coveted and successful highlights of the Basic Cardiovascular Sciences annual meeting.

(#BCVS21 Session 4: Women in Science Breakfast; screen capture by blog contributor)

This year the Women-In-Science session was held as the first slot on the second day of #BCVS21, and therefore it was aptly titled “Women In Science Breakfast”. The session was organized and moderated by Drs. Pilar Alcaide and Nicole Purcell, and they were joined by a panel composed of Drs. Jane Freedman, Merry Lindsey, Rong Tian and Joseph Hill, all of which are current Editors-in-Chief of various high impact journals in the cardiovascular field. This unique panel shared some timely information, such as:

Covid-19 has significantly increased the number of submitted manuscripts, therefore increasing the workload and pressure on the overall research publishing apparatus, from desk editors to reviewers and various journal production staff
For some much appreciated and applauded news, across the board journals have been increasing the number of women editors in scientific journals, many achieving over 50% of associate editors as women.
Journals are thinking beyond just article publishing, podcasts, social media, and other content amplifying tools are being more widely accepted and used to benefit the research being published in the journals.

The second session I’ll highlight in this blog is the Early Career Networking session, which was titled “BCVS Mix & Mingle”, and it lived up to its name even when it was 100% virtual, with impressive use of videoconferencing plans and gaming involving all attendees for the session. This session, as always, was sponsored by the BCVS Early Career Committee, chaired by Dr. Sean Wu and vice-chaired by Dr. Susmita Sahoo, and involved hosting and moderating duties by several the Early Career members (which included me, as a pseudo-game host for a BINGO! type event). The main goal of these networking events is to foster a sense of connection and community building for the early career scientists, from first-time attendees, to the annual card-carrying members of the Basic Cardiovascular Sciences community. Some of the highlights I experienced in this session include:

Live-video interaction with colleagues from all corners of the globe! A reminder that while virtual conferences do pose challenges and have limitations, these conferences currently provide the largest potential of bringing together the global science community.
A little bit of competitive drive definitely livens up a video conference room! Pairing a networking event with some gamification (even if it’s just Bingo) is an excellent way to get the conversation going and connections forming between conference attendees.
I personally will remember all the fun we managed to have in this one hour of video chat, and I look forward to future meetings where the early career community will continue to expand and accomplish impressive professional advancements to share at #BCVS22

(#BCVS21 Session: BCVS Mix & Mingle; screen capture by blog contributor)

Those were two of the most engaging and enjoyable sessions at #BCVS21, as expected. The value of providing a spotlight for Women In Science, especially for leaders in various roles within the cardiovascular research field (professors, program directors, Editors-in-chief, etc.) is extremely high and essential, in order to continue moving towards true equity and gender-balanced science world. #WIS efforts provide podiums for women to elevate their voices and lift up early career scientists that see themselves aiming for those podiums that are available for them, and of course continue to push the boundaries and expand the space for current and future generations. Similarly, the Early Career networking event centers on the recognition that establishing connections between scientists strengthens the community as a whole, leading to future collaborations and optimized knowledge sharing, which ultimately reflects positively on the scientific research done and benefit the general public as a whole.

“The views, opinions and positions expressed within this blog are those of the author(s) alone and do not represent those of the American Heart Association. The accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with them. The Early Career Voice blog is not intended to provide medical advice or treatment. Only your healthcare provider can provide that. The American Heart Association recommends that you consult your healthcare provider regarding your personal health matters. If you think you are having a heart attack, stroke or another emergency, please call 911 immediately.”

Climate Change is a Biomedical and Healthcare Crisis

August 9, 2021August 5, 2021 Mo Al-Khalaf, PhD

One thing that has been on my mind, and surely it must have crossed yours recently, is the fact that our planet’s climate, and the environment, are having an increasing impact on how healthcare and society functions. The frequency of extreme weather events is plain to see and often experience (heatwaves, fires, storms, floods, droughts, etc.). Important to note: these events, if isolated and thought of separately, have happened throughout history, stretching back decades and centuries. However, when seeing them collectively, the absolute increase in number of events, and the frequency of “extreme” weather, that’s the key to seeing our current problem more clearly.

Climate change, coupled with environmental degradation and pollution, have been thought of as issues for politicians to deal with, and for manufacturers and large-scale industry to rein in, and for energy generators and tech companies to innovate away from its abuse. And while all these points are very true and totally valid, I will rhetorically ask: which segment of the population do you think is at the forefront of dealing with climate change and the environment? I’d argue that healthcare systems are the first line of defense and most immediately impacted.

Our environments and the climate we live in are major factors in determining our individual health status. Our bodies, or organs, tissues, and down to our cells, are each tasked with doing whatever is needed to continue functioning in the environment and climate we exist in. humans and all species have developed, over many generations on the evolutionary timescale, a lot of impressive mechanisms that help them survive, and thrive, in the wide range of environments and climates that exist on this planet. Additionally, we’ve learned and advanced medical and societal innovations, which also assist us individually and collectively, in living and contributing to life on this planet. However, there are limits to what the body can handle, and currently limits to what biomedical advancements have been achieved in assisting life beyond certain conditions.

Our bodies and our knowledge cannot overcome prolonged extreme heat, or cold, or dehydration, or unrelenting chronic assault of pollution, or any of the many factors that our changing climate and degrading environment challenges those bodies at greater and more extreme frequency. Biomedical researchers and active healthcare professionals must continue to support actions designed to lower the negative impact of climate change and deterioration of our environments (local and global). Health impacts must be front and center in all discussions related to combating climate change. Some conversations about climate change can make it sound that the most affected people will be individuals living near coastal lines, or in faraway patches of land on earth that are not easily located or well known to most North Americans, Europeans, and people living in more developed nations. This is simply a false viewpoint. Climate change and the deterioration of the environment is already leading to more death and more debilitating lifestyles in every corner of the map.

These past few months, the Covid19 pandemic, has shown the world what a fast-expanding global health crisis can do to negatively impact how the world functions. Climate change and the constant deterioration of our living environments will be even more impactful than Covid19. Biomedical researchers and professional healthcare members have a major role to play in shaping the change narrative, and implementation of key actions to protect humanity from the worst outcomes of a hard climate, and a detrimental environment where we live. The world has been warned about climate change for decades, but maybe it needed a global healthcare crisis like the Covid19 pandemic to demonstrate a bit of, and stimulate our imagination to see, how bad things can get. Let’s hope the 2020’s is the decade that finally sets the world on the right direction to preserve what we have left. It might be our last chance.

An Experiment with an A.I. Blogging Partner!

July 7, 2021June 29, 2021 Mo Al-Khalaf, PhD

This week I wanted to try some new ideas for a blog. Instead of writing it myself, I wanted to test out a new class of artificial intelligence that’s already available, and rapidly expanding in the domain of online media writing. As a blogger, I think it is important to demonstrate what this space is going through in terms of evolution. Therefore, for this monthly blog post, I will be using one of the relatively new Artificial Intelligence (AI) writing generators.

These are applications built on algorithms requiring you to only input a few keywords, or sentences, and then clicking a button and letting the AI generator initiate its programming. The AI will spend some time (only a handful of minutes) and search all over the internet for data, producing a 100% guaranteed unique written article. This type of technology is right now in its infancy stages, and is useful in a limited capacity. But in the next five to ten years, AI of this sort will be immensely more integrated, not just in blogging, but in all types of professional fields.

As a biomedical scientist, I can imagine using an AI generator as an assistant in writing scientific articles that I aim to publish when I generate new research, finalize studies, and have results to share. A medical doctor could use AI writers to assist in composing case reports, as well as discussing details of specific medical treatments, or any other writing task. It’s not hard to imagine a future where many professionals, within academia, or the healthcare system, will be using AI generators to assist them in enhancing, and speeding up content sharing while reducing the time consumption required for writing reports, articles or any other original content.

This is an exciting new technology to embrace as an early career professional. Knowing that my readers (as always, thanks for reading!) are mostly early-career scientists and professionals, I think it’s prudent for me to expose and bring awareness to this emerging technology. With that, I will now share the stage on this blog with the artificial intelligence writing generator called Writesonic. This specific AI generator was picked by me because of its simplicity and affordability. The application only requires me to provide a few keywords, and then provide it time to search and produce a short article that is guaranteed to be unique. There is no “copy-pasting” from somewhere else. And it’s up to me to accept it, and make any changes necessary.

The keywords I provided to seed Writesonic are Heart disease burden novel treatments & prevention strategies. The primer intro I was prompted to provide was this: Heart disease is the number one cause of mortality worldwide. The burden of this disease is set to increase in the coming decades due to longer lifespans, more prevalent sedentary lifestyles, as well as the changing type of diet and food choices that the global population is adapting to. Research towards new preventative measures, as well as new treatment options is of great importance in order to reduce the burden of heart disease on the overall society.

Let’s see what Writesonic produced:

[New Treatments And Prevention Strategies For Heart Disease: A Comprehensive Update

Heart disease is the number one cause of mortality worldwide. The burden of this disease is set to increase in the coming decades due to longer lifespans, more prevalent sedentary lifestyles, as well as the changing type of diet and food choices that the global population is adapting to. Research towards new preventative measures, as well as new treatment options is of great importance in order to reduce the burden of heart disease on the overall society.

What is heart disease?

Heart disease is a term that is used to describe conditions that affect the heart and its chambers (cardiac chamber). Heart disease can be classified as either coronary artery disease or ventricular heart disease. Coronary artery disease is the narrowing of the coronary arteries and the accumulation of plaque, which can lead to a heart attack. Ventricular heart disease is the weakening or malformation of the chambers that give the heart its ability to pump blood, leading to a similar heart attack or a stroke. Approximately 50% of heart disease is due to coronary artery disease. Of this group of diseases, only 50% will progress to cause a heart attack. The remainder are considered non-major conditions, but the symptoms and outcomes can be much worse.

Prevention Strategies

Heart disease is often prevented in its early stages, where the average life expectancy is around 5 years. The first step in the prevention strategies is to prevent a number of risk factors that can cause heart disease, such as high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, smoking and an unhealthy diet. Some of the proposed strategies for the prevention of heart disease are: Studies show that the common components of heart healthy diets include: vegetables, whole grains, fruit, nuts, low fat dairy products, tea and coffee. Progression to clinical cardiovascular disease can be delayed and even reversed if found in the earlier stages of the disease. Weight gain to obesity may cause a number of health problems, Weight loss is the most important factor in the prevention of heart disease.

Diagnosis and treatment

Heart disease is a major risk factor for death, in both men and women. It is also considered a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Heart disease encompasses all types of conditions in which the heart is significantly damaged. Conventionally, the most common approaches for the treatment of heart disease are drug therapy and surgical intervention. In general, heart disease is caused due to a build-up of atherosclerosis.

Conclusion

Heart disease is a major cause of death worldwide. New therapies and preventative strategies are being developed to reduce the risk of heart disease, as well as new targeted therapies to treat certain forms of the disease. Heart disease is highly complex and the available knowledge and research on the condition is constantly changing.]

Alright, I’m back! Here’s my review: Writesonic is one of the better, but not top of the line, expensive options, so presumably there is a level of competence above what we saw here. The user-friendly and low threshold to entry and use of this AI content generator is very attractive. It allows folks like us, outside of the daily need for such a product, to actually jump in and try this stuff out. The actual end-product, the content, is however way below our “subject matter experts” viewpoints, and for many of us, our “technical precision” will quickly find the overly generalized way the AI writes leaves a lot to be desired.

Without burdening you with another example, I did the same exercise with a different AI writing generator called Rytr, which functions similarly to Writesonic. The final content output was remarkably similar in length and depth of information. This research provided me with enough data to understand where the technology has broadly reached. I see no way for these AI assistants and algorithms to be sufficiently up to date with scientific literature and novel science at this moment. Being able to scan and extract information from original research articles and academic publications is a step (or a mile) out of the general AI writer mandate, for the time being (but surely in a few years this will not be the case).

So, in the end, I’ll say this: AI writers have a great potential to be useful in fields of research and medical writing, but for now, they’re a few years away from that utility. Having said that, for early-career professionals, I say keep an eye on this, you’ll probably be using it by the time you’re at a later stage in the career path you’re on currently!

The Early Career Professional’s Toolbox

June 7, 2021June 4, 2021 Mo Al-Khalaf, PhD

Many professionals must hone several key skills over time to be successful at their jobs. Some of these skills are learned in academic settings. That is especially true for professions that require a prolonged educational stage (yes, I’m particularly winking at the roads toward MD & Ph.D. degrees!). But just as valuable are the skills that early-career professionals gain outside of the formal educational framework. And of course, both personal traits and the element of luck, play important roles in achieving success from an early career standpoint.

This past year has also brought on additional requirements (hello frequent webcam meetings!) that should be highlighted and appropriately incorporated into the early career “skills toolbox”. One must ensure forward momentum and “future-proofing” one’s advancement in an early career path. “Adapting to the times” is key, and there are evergreen tools that are essential to career advancement. Here I’ll share some of what I think are key tools in this present-day moment for an early career professional (specifically from my personal point of view, as a biomedical researcher – but hopefully I’ll add enough general value framework for the wider community as well).

Tool #1: Work ethic

This is obviously the most useful and versatile tool to have when going through early career progression and advancement. There is nothing that can replace dedication and diligence when it comes to building a career. This translates of course to the practice of “putting in the time”, but that’s not all there is to it. Work ethic to me also means figuring out the many ways in which work gets done! Here I’ll highlight the immense value in developing a work ethic that includes learning how to create and be part of a team. Sometimes projects are better served when multiple professionals with varying expertise and experiences team up (multidisciplinary collaborations). Also, work ethic is learning to optimize being both a mentee (learning from multiple mentors is the fastest way to advancing one’s skillsets) and being a mentor (passing on skills to peers and junior team members has immeasurable benefit to the work and community surrounding it).

Tool #2: Networking

I touched on this a little bit earlier, but this is worth spotlighting on its own. Other than creating teams with the explicit goal of accomplishing specific tasks or projects, an early career professional needs to put in effort towards expanding one’s own professional community of contacts. This is generally called networking, and every scientist and most professionals know the classic phrase “it’s not just about what you do, but also it’s who you know, and who knows you!”. Career advancement is a series of challenges that come sometimes routinely, and many times unexpectedly. Networking, having outside perspectives and individuals with various experiences outside of one’s immediate work bubble, is one of the best ways to gain and apply new skills towards overcoming challenges, and therefore securing career advancement. And yes, knowing and connecting with successful individuals, who demonstrated an ability to navigate through the dense forest of early career progression, is worth the effort it takes to network and connects.

Tool #3: Writing

Speaking to many scientists in my early career category, I frequently hear that writing is not a “favorite” activity for many researchers. It’s treated as a counter to the “real work”, which is the active “researching” tasks that we engage in. Writing is thought of as kind of an archiving practice, more passive than advancing the plotline as the research unfolds. I personally feel like this kind of thinking diminishes the importance of writing, not just as a valuable tool in career building, but also as a practice that contributes to personal growth and even enjoyment! There are many strategies developed towards advancing one’s writing potential. Recently my AHA early career blogger colleague Dr. Jennifer Kong wrote an excellent blog about writing strategies titled “25 Useful Tips for Establishing a Writing Routine”, check it out!

Tool #4: Public Speaking

This is by far one of the hardest tools to get comfortable with, especially in an early career stage! It’s been said that some folks have a greater fear of public speaking than death. It’s an extremely difficult skill to practice, let alone master. But the fact is: Public speaking is more integrated into many career paths than it is apparent at first glance. You don’t have to be standing in front of a podium in a lecture hall or stadium to require the use of public speaking skills. Company conference rooms, group meetings, office planning sessions, work retreats, team project implementations, all of these are examples where public speaking as a tool becomes essential. To focus a little bit back on science and medicine, researchers are very aware of the frequency in which their work requires them to publicly speak in front of peers, internal and external stakeholders, and sometimes the wider interested public. Oftentimes public speaking ends up being the main factor in elevating comparable applicants or competitors for a position or award. More importantly, public speaking is a valuable tool to utilize, amplify, and deliver acquired knowledge to a greater number of individuals that benefit and further advance the work. It is hard, but I would argue it’s one of the most important tools to get comfortable within an early career professional setting!

So after reading this blog post (thanks, by the way!), maybe find some time to think about the four tools spotlighted here, and see how they rank, in terms of ease of use and frequency of utilization, in your own current working environment. Identify which of these tools needs honing and sharpening to be more useful to your current situation. Then plan out a way to work towards getting comfortable at using that skill to improve your career progression.

The Rising Value of Plain Science Talk: Part 2

May 5, 2021April 30, 2021 Mo Al-Khalaf, PhD

In part 1 of this blog series, I laid out two main plot points that I wanted to focus on when it comes to the ideas behind Plain Science Talk, 1) Traditionally scientific information has been communicated in extremely technical and specialized formats, geared towards peers and subject matter experts, and 2) Traditional spaces where science information is shared tend to be “closed circuits” of pay-walled and sometimes hard to discover specialty journals, coupled with once or twice a year professional gatherings like conferences and workshops. While these structures were never intended as barriers, their historical origins and continuation to our present-day do contribute to the overall limitation of science information dissemination, and the ability to maximize the benefits of science in the broadest forms possible.

In an effort to spotlight novel approaches that can be leveraged to expand outreach, and provide a path to more science being available to the global population, I pointed out Knowledge Transfer and Translation (KTT) and Online-based Media, as key strategies and tools that can help achieve our desired aims. The ultimate goal here is to show, with a few examples, how science can be adapted and modernized in a way that effectively contributes, not just to other scientists, but to a much wider proportion of the public.

(Submitted by author, CC-0 images at pixabay.com)

If the past year (and still counting) of the pandemic has exposed us to one thing, well that would be the under-prepared healthcare states that our various global societies are existing in, with regards to delivering and optimizing public health. The other thing that the Covid-19 pandemic has shown us is the need for amplified and optimized science communication approaches so that the general public can be better served by the information scientists have to offer. Better communication will also help to clarify the reasons and factors involved in how science operates, and how the information gathering and disseminating process is always in a state of evolution and advancement.

The spotlight I want to place on KTT is geared towards emphasizing the difference between information sharing between specialists versus information sharing with non-specialists and multidisciplinary audiences. The traditional framework of scientific journals and specialty conferences is based on a “membership” structure: paid subscriptions to high impact/highly specialized publishing platforms, as well as tiered annual membership fees, to access conferences and participate in ancillary workshops and seminars constructed by other members of the professional organization. There is in fact value in this framework. I believe for the most part it serves the greater good for specialists and highly-invested individuals to have domains where their interactions are concentrated and their in-group information sharing is optimized.

This is undoubtedly the main reason why these types of specialized subject matter communication approaches exist. These methods encourage and facilitate science advancement by having highly knowledgeable experts engage with one another to challenge and expand the potential of information gathering. So my spotlight and encouragement for broader Knowledge Transfer & Translation are not meant to be a replacement to the first-order framework of in-group communication, but instead, it is my attempt to highlight the importance of what I’ll call “second-order communication” framework. This is the communication between subject matter experts and the more generalized audience, composed of multidisciplinary groups and specialists in other fields, as well as casually interested and invested members of society, without specific professional ties to the scientific data being communicated.

The majority of KTT approaches in the scientific fields are left to individuals that act as separate but integral links in the information chain. The original researchers are reliant on others to absorb the information they produce and move it in a direction that can be used by others in organizations such as government policymakers, industrial development, news media sharing, etc. This is mostly because the traditional academic/educational models experienced by scientists are very rarely designed with broader communication as a required skill to develop and expand over time. Science communication is classically seen as published articles in specialized journals, and infrequent conference talks & presentations to rooms full of experts in the fields related to the topics discussed.

Transfer of knowledge to a much wider group of people is often thought of as a task left for other individuals (not the original scientists) to deliver. The idea of Knowledge Translation is even more distant as an aim from many scientists. Translation (taking the gained information and finding a way to make it more immediately impactful in society, either by the production of something new or implementing new policy) is the most underserved aspect of science information gathering. Thousands of new research articles are produced every year, the vast majority of it goes unnoticed and without impacting people or the planet we share with millions of other species.

(Submitted by author, CC-0 images at pixabay.com)

My second spotlight is aimed directly at where you and I are in right now, namely “the internet”! Many have long seen the potential that online-based communication has to offer when it comes to expanding the reach of specialists. I won’t go through a timeline of the evolving state of the web, but suffice to say, in the most recent versions of online media, the expansion of reach that individuals have, especially through the use of Social Media (#SoMe), has reached a level that greatly facilitates information sharing and that idea of “second-order communication” between specialists and a wider group of individuals unrelated to the field specialists within an in-group.

The expanding communication platforms available for scientists and other subject matter experts must be seen for their highly valuable potential. The ability to directly share information with the public in forms that are not “pay-walled” or exclusive to specialists is undeniably a positive evolution of the whole communication framework. Having said that, it is important to note that new forms of communication also bring about the important need to learn and gain incremental experience in the methods and approaches that optimize the final goal of beneficial information sharing with wider audiences.

Everyone needs “practice” to get better at information sharing (it certainly takes “practice” to get better at information gathering). It doesn’t help that classically, science communication has been left out of the traditional structures of science education and implementation. But now is as good a time as any to commit to gaining new skills (one of the side effects of the pandemic on society as a whole, is realizing the need for novel skill acquisition!). The online world is rapidly evolving as well, and with it, new communication frameworks are quickly becoming more normalized (web-based video conferencing, more robust social media use, new platforms, and functionalities on existing apps, etc.). The more experts are able to directly communicate with each other and with broader groups of people, the faster we can reach the aims of KTT and provide our communities with useful data that can benefit us, and the world we live in.

The Rising Value of Plain Science Talk: Part 1

April 13, 2021April 9, 2021 Mo Al-Khalaf, PhD

When it comes to placing value on something newly discovered or innovated in the scientific fields, a key yet somewhat lost-in-the-shuffle point is the ability to communicate to a wide audience why this discovery or innovation is rated as highly valuable. Most scientific discoveries, novel techniques, and significant leaps forward in knowledge and implementation are “communicated” via academic publications in journals that have significant value to academics and subspecialists but have limited general public exposure, and in specialty conferences and society meetings where only paying members and interested individuals are able to participate in.

Even when some of those journals are more widely distributed and recognized (Nature, Science, New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, etc.), the actual articles in those journals are written in extremely precise, yet somewhat too technical of a format, to capture the attention and translate the knowledge to the wide swath of the population that might encounter it. And Even when the conferences and meetings are more accessible and have reduced barriers to entry and participation, the actual presentations (the talks, the posters, the workshops) are all geared to communicate directly to peers in the field, not to an interested yet general-knowledge audience.

This is not to say the work itself and researchers doing it are not producing important knowledge. New discoveries and innovations are the keys to maintaining or improving the planet and all its inhabitants’ health. Knowledge is the key to propelling societies forward. The issue is that for so long, the methods of communication of this type of information has been restricted, both by the avenues that contain this information (journals and conferences that are inaccessible to the public) and the written/spoken formats used to transmit this information (articles and talks delivered in overly technical ways).

The missing ingredient in a recipe that would serve a much greater audience with something more palatable and engaging is called Knowledge Transfer & Translation (KTT). There are many definitions and formats that shape what the KTT factor is, depending on the organization that places importance on it. In a generalized way, I’ll define KTT as: a plan to disseminate newly acquired information to the broadest set of interested parties, accompanied with a framework of how to advance this new knowledge into actions that benefit (sometimes “profit”, in business sectors) the knowledge seekers and broad general public.

Knowledge Transfer and Translation has not always been a focus in academic research circles. Most scientists think of KTT as someone else’s job. I did! In the years it took for me to gain enough education and real research experience (a journey that spans more than a decade, from BSc to MSc to PhD to research fellowship), the vast majority of my time learning has been with the singular aim of discovery & innovation. Once the discovery is made, the only requirement my academic world asks of me is to report this discovery, in the form of a research article that only my peers in knowledge can truly appreciate in full, and maybe talk about this discovery in a 10-min presentation at a conference where many of my peers and interested members of the field I occupy congregate on an annual basis.

However, this traditional and old-fashioned view of the role of an academic has begun to change in the past few years. Discovery and innovation are still the driving forces of academic research, but increasingly, the values placed on those discoveries and innovations are complemented by how much Knowledge Transfer and Translation is placed behind these discoveries and innovations to propel them beyond the circles of subspeciality academic fields. Novel avenues of sharing knowledge have entered the hallways and labs of academia: Online platforms. The digital world with its massive reach and accelerated speed of information sharing is an essential and increasingly irreplaceable tool to implement the KTT directives needed to advance our societies. Science communication (#SciComm) has taken on a new meaning and many new forms that were simply unavailable a few years ago. Social Media has complemented and amplified the use of Traditional Media in broadcasting research and academic data that normally had few ways to reach the proverbial “center stage”.

I’ll tackle this ever-growing list of new and exciting ways of science communication on Part 2 of this series of blogposts, coming May 2021. Until then, you can always reach me for feedback or just to say hi (Twitter: @MoAlKhalafPhD), I am an “Extremely Online Scientist”!

Hindsight 2020: Lessons From a Calendar Year of COVID

March 12, 2021March 12, 2021 Mo Al-Khalaf, PhD

This month signifies a full calendar year since the covid-19 pandemic has been declared a crisis and activated a worldwide response. To be exact, the WHO declared covid-19 a pandemic on March 11th, 2020. Of course, the signs were there beforehand. Starting in December 2019, there were officials in China focusing their attention on the city of Wuhan, where a flu-like disease was spreading in a cluster linked to a specific local market. By January 2020, reports of first deaths and first confirmed cases outside of China started to pop up around the world. And in early February, the news about clusters in France, Germany, cruise ships and more, should have made it clear (in retrospect) that we have a global infectious disease spreading around us. It took the world another 5-6 weeks to actually call it a Pandemic. As of mid-March 2020, our approaches have dramatically pivoted, and here we are a year later, living (with tragic numbers of losses and challenges) in a new world.

I wanted to take this calendar-year anniversary to reflect and examine some of my early thoughts and approaches to navigating the covid-19 pandemic. I’m taking full advantage of the fact that I was afforded the ability to write a blogpost on a monthly basis here in the AHA Early Career Voice (author page) as the crisis was unfolding. Within this space of reflection, I’ll try to spotlight and share some learning moments and lessons learned, in an effort to progress and adapt to the ever-changing world I was (and still am) navigating, as an early career scientist in cardiovascular & biomedical research.

In March 2020 I wrote a blog titled “Science Communication Is The Bridge We Need”, not specifically addressing Covid-19, but the pandemic was definitely was a topic on my mind from what I was reading early last year. I wanted to share my thoughts and personal viewpoint, that echo chambers and microenvironments of news sharing are dominating the internet, and scientific facts are getting missed/lost/covered up. In hindsight, it’s pretty clear that many decision-makers and lots of folks were simply not placing the required amount of urgency and focus on the news about Covid-19 that was spreading worldwide. My two-cents back in March 2020 were that more robust science communication can help with evidence-based news information sharing. I admit I’m proud of that March 2020 blogpost, no redo needed!

By April of last year, my thinking was already shifting with regards to how the pandemic is going to affect early career advancement, and what paths may be ahead. The title of that blog post was “Future Planning in the Time of Corona”, and again, I feel good about how this blogpost holds up! The theme in that written piece was centered on the often cited political tagline “Never let a crisis go to waste”. My take was that a global pandemic is one of the few causes that can truly bring to attention plans and areas of need that a vast majority of the world population can together work on.

A month later, in May 2020 I think I was slightly too optimistic and jumping a little bit ahead of myself! The title of the blogpost was “COVID-19 Stage 2: Embracing Progress, Cautiously”, and while I’m glad I measured my wording… it is now more accurate to say that most of the globe was still in Stage 1 of dealing with the pandemic back in May of last year. In June I wrote about my year-long leadership experience in my local institute’s trainee committee, my way of taking a break from always writing about the pandemic.

By July of 2020 I noticed what we now call pandemic (or covid) fatigue, and the rising tides of anti-science sentiments that started to build up as a result of the masking and social distancing regulations that have changed from one set of recommendations to a different set of ideas within a few months (from March to July). This is why I felt the need to write “Knowledge Advances Incrementally”, a blogpost where I spotlight the main working ethos of the scientific method, which boils down to:

Have a question
Come up with a testable hypothesis
Run the experiment
Collect data and analyze results
Verify/validate results by replication
Conclude what new information you can, making sure to stay exactly within the boundaries of the experiments and data you collected.

The last thing I’ll highlight is my blogpost recapping my experience in attending and participating in the annual Basic Cardiovascular Sciences (BCVS) meeting. This was the first major conference meeting that I have previously attended in-person that switched to a virtual format. I titled that blog post “A New Way To Participate”, and in retrospect, it was one of the most instructional and useful learning experiences that summer. I discussed the advantages (and challenges) that the virtual conference format brings to early-career scientists. Additionally, I pointed out some tips and tricks on how to navigate a fully online annual meeting. Back then there were a lot of wrinkles and tweaks that we learned from, and have implemented in other virtual conferences later in the year. My overall opinion still is positive, and I think that a future that includes an in-person meeting supplemented and balanced with an online component is the best way to progress and upgrade the conference format.

My take-home message today, looking back at this full calendar-year of covid exceptional circumstances, boils down to this: Humility, empathy, and optimism for a better future are essential keys to navigating the rough waters of living through a pandemic. Take care of yourself, and if possible, be helpful to others.

Personal and Community Advancements are Interlinked

February 4, 2021February 4, 2021 Mo Al-Khalaf, PhD

When it comes to advancing your professional career path, it can feel like it’s a very singular and personal journey, built on sequential sets of decision-making opportunities that ultimately only affect you. Today in this blog, I aim to share the many angles that emphasize a viewpoint that shows advancing your own professional career is in fact a community building effort, and it is very possible that those decision-making moments, challenges to overcome, and opportunities to pursue, can ultimately affect a host of individuals that are interconnected with you, on a professional, and personal level.

Let’s start by pointing out the fact that currently all of the science and health sectors are significantly being affected by the Covid-19 global pandemic. These are special circumstances that bring about unique challenges and pressures on the decision-making processes that early careers (and actually, careers of all stages) have to tackle. Part of the unique situation that we’re all dealing with is the mixture of increased separation and distance within professional working groups (either in actual physical space, or with the addition of a larger work-from-home element), coupled with the shared connection that so many of us are basically dealing with very similar stresses (the novelty of the situation; the larger than normal burden on physical and mental health; the uncertainty of short/long term professional plans, etc.).

These challenges are all coming on top of the already known and understood stresses and pressures involved in trying to pursue advancements in a professional career path. So questions can come up in our mind every once in a while, such as “Should I delay, or reduce my strive to grow professionally for now? Should I hold on to what I have, make sure I ride out the storm? How can I think of professional advancement at this time, when so many are dealing with extraordinary challenges?”. These are valid and excellent thoughts to have, and to try to find actual answers for. Each one of us faces a few similar, and many distinct, sets of factors that contribute to our decision making process regarding our current and future professional paths.

When it comes to professional advancement, sometimes looking after your own self interests also serves as looking after the interests of the many communities that you belong to. Moving forward in a career path allows for a number of positive changes to happen simultaneously:

The professional space that you occupied can be now filled by someone else.

Moving forward professionally frees up the junior position that you previously held (and managed to succeed in, allowing for the advancement to happen). Now someone else can come in this space, learn and have an opportunity to advance in their future, in a way similar to what you’ve done. Bonus community points: Now you are able to be a direct, or indirect (formal or informal) mentor to this new individual, or at the very least a useful contact and advisor.

Your new position will benefit from having you join.

Remember that advancing your career, getting the “new job”, is not just a win for you, but also for the job itself! Progressing through your career path means you’ve gained skills and experiences that will be of value to the new community and position you’ve moved into. This is also a reminder to always look inward towards what you can provide for the new career, not just look for what the new career provides you. Obviously there is a learning curve to every new professional position, but your unique collection of skills and experiences is just as important to integrate into this new path.

Science and healthcare serve the local, national and international population.

As an early career scientist, I always anchor my thoughts around this basic truth. My career progression depends on my ability to contribute to the advancement of knowledge and innovation, geared towards serving the needs of the global population. In my case specifically, my job focuses on reducing the burden of cardiovascular disease, and finding new ways to promote and sustain a longer healthier life. For me, professional advancement allows me to expand my reach and work towards affecting more people in a way that contributes to their health and global knowledge. When it comes to your professional path, make sure to evaluate and appreciate your own current and future contributions to the communities you’re part of.

So my take home message today is: advancing your own professional career path is in fact not just an act of singular self interest, but an opportunity to help progress the community you are leaving and the community you are joining. The current global pandemic has brought on some additional challenges and stresses that must be acknowledged and appropriately taken into account. All of these factors play a role, but should not dissuade anyone from striving towards advancing one’s professional career.

Professional Resolutions with a New Perspective

January 19, 2021January 15, 2021 Mo Al-Khalaf, PhD

Let me add myself to the collective millions (billions?) of folks who are glad to have passed the year-end milestone and are hoping, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this coming calendar year is very different! We can finally say now “2020 is behind us!”. Many have faced personal and professional challenges that could not be foreseen. Some have had success as well, despite the difficulties on the road to personal and professional progress. Some have had success because 2020 provided them ingredients for it, and I hope that these individuals utilized this success to benefit others, and provide support to those in need.

Like many others, I use the page-flip into a new calendar year as a marker and opportunity to reflect and reset my mind. By no means is this necessary, I have had years where I was firmly anti “year-end mindset”, because a calendar switch is an arbitrary marker of time passing, and I think a lot of folks have had, or still have, this outlook, which is fine! Still, I think this year I wanted to write this blogpost about professional resolutions just as a fun exercise, and maybe (hopefully) put something out there that would benefit (inspire?!?) someone towards a path for professional advancement. This resolutions list will not contain personal goals like achieving the desired weight or reading more books. Let’s get started.

(Submitted by author, modified from CC-0 images at pixabay.com)

1) Explore and find the potential to grow your professional community.

Trainees and early career folks tend to be very focused on their individual or small team “projects”. While this is important, it could obscure the wider “community” aspect of advancement that’s needed to build and expand one’s career. In 2021, I want to continue exploring new ways to participate in professional community building (like joining committees, participating in campaigns, being active in welcoming new members at work, to give a few examples). However possible, find the potential to grow and connect with other professionals within the field.

2) Make ambitious and novel plans for professional advancement projects (with a catch).

One of the things that are very commonly mentioned about 2020 is the reduction/delay/loss of some desired professional accomplishments, which were planned or anticipated before the global health crisis materialized and became unavoidable. A lot of trainees and early career professionals spent much of 2020 trying to salvage whatever they could to complete tasks. This is understandable. Having said that, the “salvaging work” mentality is at best a temporary approach to professional advancement, and at worst, an active hindrance to progress. Making a concerted effort to plan and perform novel and ambitious projects in the new year is a way to get one’s career trajectory back on a climbing slope. The catch I alluded to earlier is vital to note here: in addition to being ambitious in planning, be forgiving of yourself as you track the progress of these new projects. The global health crisis is still ongoing, and everyone is navigating new territory with this whole career advancement reality.

3) Highlight and celebrate all successes on your career path (small or big).

There is a prevalent stream of thinking within academic, scientific, and medical spaces that orient members of these communities to only focus on the biggest accomplishments achieved. Celebrating a publication years in the making, a graduation (also years in the making), a promotion to more senior status (years in the making… do you see the trend?!), and so on. The past year has certainly reduced the number of success stories for many, especially for the early career folks. In 2021, I think it would greatly benefit us to celebrate more professional milestones, even the small ones, and to highlight and be proud of any professional success achieved. The longer we delay enjoying the journey we are on, the longer and drearier the journey will feel like, and maybe even become. The old saying “success begets more success” can be made more accurate by saying “celebrating success paves the way for more success”.

So, as we all metaphorically and collectively turn the page and start a new chapter, leaving 2020 behind us, I aim and resolve myself to advancing my professional life by connecting more, thinking of novel, fun, and ambitious new projects, and to celebrate each small or big step forward on my early career path towards a fulfilling professional journey. Have a happy and healthy new year!

Reflections and Projections: An Interview Post a Virtual Conference

December 7, 2020December 7, 2020 Mo Al-Khalaf, PhD

As many of us know and have experienced by now, the 2020 global pandemic has forced most conferences to cancel, postpone, or alter their planned in-person settings. For meetings that opted to switch these important gatherings to a brand new all-virtual format, many challenges were faced, but also new opportunities to re-invent the conference experience have sprouted. In my personal perspective, I continued to see rapid evolution and advancement of the virtual format setting of such meetings, from the early days of the pandemic in the spring to the most recent conference I participated in, which just happens to be the biggest meeting in the cardiovascular field, the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. Earlier, I wrote a couple of blogs describing my experience at #AHA20 (you can read them here: “The Year #Virtual became #Reality”, and “Lurking: The Art of Passive Learning in Meetings”)

Today though, instead of my thoughts, I wanted to interview someone that has even more insight and know-how with AHA meetings, and therefore can really speak to the differences (and opportunities) that make this year a unique conference experience. My guest for this post-conference interview is Dr. Sean Wu, MD. PhD., a physician-scientist at the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, and the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is also the current Chair of the Basic Cardiovascular Sciences (BCVS) Early Career Committee, and a long time active member of the AHA and BCVS council. Sean and I work together within the BCVS community, and we’re both big fans of using social media to communicate science, and promote networking (you can follow Sean on Twitter here, and the BCVS Early Career Committee here).

This transcript is a lightly edited version of the interview we conducted on webcam, shortly after the end of #AHA20.

Mo: Let’s start with a big-picture view of the meeting. Could you tell us how the overall experience was like in your viewpoint, given that this year’s #AHA20 was a virtual conference?

Sean: The AHA meeting has given us a taste for what’s to come in the future. Clearly many have seen positives from this format: easy tracking and joining of sessions; rewatch or catch-up of missed sessions; ease of asking questions using chat boxes instead of physically asking questions on the mic in a room. However, certainly, there is a reduction in the networking potential, but continued innovation and offering of social networking sessions, such as BCVS Early Career Social at #AHA20, can replace some of those missed opportunities.

Mo: Share with us one of the sessions that most interest you at #AHA20, and tell us a little bit about why it was a highlight for you?

Sean: There were so many great sessions, it is hard to pick just one of course. Certainly, a session that garnered attention and featured a lot of the up-and-coming areas of science was called “Cardio-Oncology, Meet Your New Neighbour: Immunology”. This session was a highlight for many reasons, such as the ability to combine multiple disciplines such as cancer disease and therapy, cardiovascular disease and research, as well as the fundamental mechanisms of immunology that tie these diseases and require novel research approaches and future therapy options.

Mo: Considering the format change in 2020, conference planning and attending has gone through a lot of innovative changes. What role do you see social media playing in complementing the experiences of a virtual setting meeting?

Sean: Definitely social media has changed multiple aspects within our scientific community. On social media, the democratic stage allows voices from all levels of the community to interact and discuss openly just published research being shared online. Discussions spark and propel future research avenues. When it comes to the virtual format of conferences presently, social media chats, specific hashtags, and the resulting impressions and other metrics have increased significantly compared to previous years, continuing the upward slope of gain that social media involvement has in the scientific communities that populate it.

Mo: Some of the advantages of virtual meetings include ease of access, lower financial commitments, and increased diversity of participants. Would you say these advantages are enough for you to recommend this experience to trainees and early career professionals?

Sean: At the present moment, and in a future where virtual conferences are the only options, the recommendation is for sure to join in and participate, because the knowledge gained and evolving networking avenues are still very relevant and important to have, This is especially vital at the trainee and early career level in science, which typically has limited potential for interaction outside the requirements of pushing research forward. Additionally the ability to have more global participation in meetings that can bring scientists that otherwise would have been too geographically far, and/or face financial difficulty to make it to the meeting, for them to be part of the gathering is a definite advantage of virtual meeting formats.

Mo: In your viewpoint, what are some of the high-value components to add when a conference planning committee is set to organize a future science meeting?

Sean: One of the most important aspects of science meetings is promoting networking opportunities, especially for the early-career scientists attending those meetings. These types of networking sessions can be designed as mixers/socials, or more structured mentoring/advice panel discussions. These sessions are extremely valuable components of a scientific meeting. Another type of session that would be very beneficial to have is something designed to illustrate or highlight “New Frontiers” or new advances in the field. This is one of the most anticipated aspects of a meeting, where scientists get exposed to novel tools, new scientific approaches, and integration of the latest technology into one’s area of research.

I’d like to thank Dr. Sean Wu for sharing his memories (reflections) and future thoughts (projections), stemming from the recent conclusion of #AHA20. In science and medicine, as is with so many other fields, we continue to adapt to the changing landscape of our professional careers. Virtual meetings were new to us in 2020, but with continued innovation and trial, we will integrate this novel approach and utilize it to continue advancing our fields.