The value of voyaging
Providing cancer care, conducting first-class research, and training the next generation of scientists are critical and competitive endeavors. When Institute staff members are out and about, they carry the flag both for themselves and for the Institute. "It's about getting the word out," says Rosalind Segal, MD, PhD, who studies nervous-system development in relation to degenerative brain diseases and cancer. Undoubtedly, she says, road trips extend the reach of DFCI's reputation across the country and internationally.
"When I attend a meeting like this, the Dana-Farber name becomes associated with Harvard in peoples' minds."
— Eva Guinan, MD
The benefits go both ways. When Segal gives an invited talk, it usually involves a working dinner and the opportunity to meet other principal investigators and junior scientists. "You can arrange collaborations and learn about what's going on at their institutions," she adds. "It also generates interest in Dana-Farber's activities."
When Charles Stiles, PhD, established the Institute's program in neurooncology a few years ago, Segal encountered curiosity about it when she visited other campuses. "People would ask me, 'What is the focus?' 'How is it going?' and 'When is the next job going to be open?'"
Speaking invitations, in fact, often have recruiting as part of their agenda. Meeting a Dana-Farber researcher in person and hearing how his or her lab operates may be decisive when the younger scientist chooses an institution for a post-doctoral fellowship. "Half of the people in my lab had seen me talk in person before they came here," says Bruce Spiegelman, PhD.
Pediatric oncologist Lisa Diller, MD, averages six trips a year for meetings and conferences.
While there are some tireless travelers, many at Dana-Farber set strict limits, particularly those who have young children. "I try not to travel more than once a month," notes Segal, whose husband — neuroscientist Michael Greenberg, PhD, of Children's Hospital Boston — has a similarly busy travel schedule. They coordinate trips so that one of them is at home with their kids, although once the couple had to exchange their children at the airport when Greenberg was arriving on one flight and Segal was leaving on another. "And," Segal says, "I don't go anywhere in the two months before a grant application is due."
Not everyone believes the benefits of traveling outweigh the distraction and time away from the lab, and some avoid it whenever possible. But Spiegelman, whose research involves both diabetes and cancer, disagrees. "When we have a paper in an important journal, I get out and talk about it," he says. "I believe that when you publish something significant, you have a responsibility to give other scientists an opportunity to query you. It goes without saying that it's good for the Institute."
For their "road trips," clinical researchers like Eva Guinan, MD, are sometimes invited to make presentations at hospital "morning rounds" or "grand rounds" throughout New England and the country. In the former, Guinan accompanies doctors-in-training as they visit patients and discuss their cases. Grand rounds, in contrast, are lectures held for physicians on particular topics.
Guinan also attends conferences involving more basic research, such as one on cell therapy and vaccines held in Italy. "It was incredibly useful, because these were high-level discussions with top people," she says. "I arranged for three research collaborations at that meeting."
Such trips also highlight DFCI faculty members' distinction of holding Harvard appointments. "In Europe, Harvard is the name that's known," Guinan remarks. "When I attend a meeting like this, the Dana-Farber name becomes associated with Harvard in peoples' minds."
Even when physicians journey frequently, their patients are in good hands. For Guinan, traveling means ensuring that other doctors will cover her patients and clinics (she reciprocates when her colleagues are away), and she remains tethered to Dana-Farber by phone and computer. She remembers one conference on bone marrow failure, when "I made dozens of cell phone calls keeping in touch with people attending to my patients."
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