Written by:
Nina Shah
Global Head of Multiple Myeloma Clinical Development and Strategy, AstraZeneca
As a hematologist, your patients trust you with their lives.
I see them at their most vulnerable moments, and the relationships I develop have always been one of the most fulfilling aspects of my job. They have defined my career as a multiple myeloma doctor and researcher.
But it was making myself vulnerable to the patient community that helped me deepen those relationships and ultimately inspired me to take a role at AstraZeneca that allows me to have an even greater impact on the patient experience.
Putting myself in their shoes
In 2019, I joined patients, caregivers, and other providers on a three-day hike in Iceland as part of the Moving Mountains for Multiple Myeloma Program, which supports the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. Our 20-person team hiked hours each day across the terrain of Iceland, and it was both physically and mentally challenging. Once we started, there was no stopping – no turning back and going home.
We hiked each day along a glacier in Iceland and every person on our team had a role in reaching the final waterfall. I remember the water captain was a multiple myeloma patient. There was no running water, so he had to shovel snow, bring it back to boil and filter it in order for everyone to have water to drink. He did this for our entire team – and was happy to do it. Watching him and the other patients and caregivers on the trip, I was in awe of their strength, resilience, and fortitude.
I look back on this trip to Iceland often. It altered the course of my professional career. My research has always focused on how to improve disease outcomes. But this experience allowed me to fully open up emotionally and begin to understand the patient experience on a deeper level.
Something you live with, not your whole life
For patients living with multiple myeloma, it becomes all-consuming and the disease itself becomes part of their identity. Many multiple myeloma patients are still working, have families to care for and want to live full lives. Their disease is something they live with, but it shouldn’t have to define their lives.
During recent years I've learned how to let my personal guard down, to allow myself to look deeper into my patients’ lives. This has made me a better doctor. It has also allowed me to understand them as people and not just patients. It’s so important to me to try to make their cancer journey easier for them. I feel sad when they tell me that they are tired or don’t have as much energy as they used to, and while I can’t completely understand their physical state, I can do my best to try to improve their experience.
Partnering for progress
The trip to Iceland had a role in altering the trajectory of my career. It made me think about how I could make a larger-scale impact for patients. At AstraZeneca, I am working towards doing just that. My main focus is figuring out when we should be implementing treatment in the course of multiple myeloma and what treatment options to explore further.
I still practice oncology and see patients in a small capacity. It’s important that I am able to keep patients at the forefront of my mind every day when I come to work and focus on how my team and I can contribute towards improving cancer care. We know how fast oncology exploration evolves and we want to ensure that we are at the forefront of innovation. In order to continue to deliver new and effective medicines, it’s critical that we consider the patient experience from the beginning and are open to new ways of thinking as we forge pathways in hematology.
Just the beginning
By collaborating and integrating patient insights, my team and I are eager to utilize new technologies and techniques to get treatments to people with cancer faster, improve screening and diagnostics access and understanding, and make clinical trials more efficient. Though we are at the beginning of our ambitious journey in hematology at AstraZeneca, after scaling a mountain – I know there is no challenge too big! At the end of the day, we are searching for a cure, and that is how we will truly transform the lives of our patients.
Nina’s story is part of our ongoing series: TrailblAZers in Oncology, which spotlights colleagues on the AstraZeneca Oncology team who are making an impact, both personally and professionally.
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Veeva ID: Z4-55694
Date of preparation: June 2023