David Steensma, MD

David Steensma, MDSenior physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School Shakespeare claimed that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. A medication with a confusing name, though, can cause a fatal mistake. That’s why pharmaceutical companies exert so much effort creating clear and distinctive [...]

David Steensma, MDSenior physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School Recently, a hospital in Boston announced that a senior staff scientist had developed a “cure” for leukemia. I wasn’t surprised to read this – there are many clever and creative leukemia investigators in Boston, and promising new [...]

David Steensma, MDSenior physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School The great experimental physicist Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) provocatively claimed, “All science is either physics … or stamp collecting.” Lord Rutherford intended his cocky quip as a jab at the geologists, chemists, and biologists of his era – [...]

David Steensma, MDSenior physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School The first time I ate bone marrow was, fittingly, shortly after I spoke on marrow failure at a conference in Milan, where osso bucco with saffron risotto is a local specialty. The tiny, back-alley trattoria where I [...]

David Steensma, MDSenior physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School “Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.” ― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables Despite the cultural and political [...]

David Steensma, MDSenior physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School After years of attending the ASH annual meeting, I’ve come to understand my meeting-related emotional cycle well enough to avoid taking it too seriously. Each December, I rotate through a set of five now-predictable peri- and intra-meeting [...]

David Steensma, MDSenior physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School When a shocking historic event occurs, many can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the terrible news. I, too, can recall intimate details of awful incidents like the September 11th [...]

David Steensma, MDSenior physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School When did your interest in crossword puzzles start? Did you enjoy puzzles growing up? My mother has long been an avid “cruciverbalist” – a crossword puzzle aficionado. In 1977, when I was in elementary school, Mom subscribed [...]

David Steensma, MDSenior physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School This month, David Steensma, MD, discusses transfusion burden in a patient with clonal cytopenias of undetermined significance. And don't forget to check out next month's clinical dilemma - send in your responses for a chance to win [...]

David Steensma, MDSenior physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School During their presentations, MHM speakers will be asking the audience how they would respond to patient cases. Audience members will vote live at the meeting via an audience response system, but we want to know what you would do. Send [...]