Prof. Jorge Sierra: “Although I’m not the head of the hematology department anymore, there’s lots of things I still have to do”.

26 years. 

That’s the time Prof. Sierra has been the head of the Hematology department at the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in the city of Barcelona, Spain. 

He was 41 years old when he took charge of a big team of hematologists and specialists in blood diseases. Along with them, he was able to develop the project of his life. 

Also, during all that time, he’s been a Board of the Faculty of Medicine member, coordinating the Master of Transfusion Medicine and Advanced Cell Therapies and been the President of the Spanish Society of Hematology and Hemotherapy. 

His main lines of research are the clinical impact of molecular alterations in acute myeloid leukemia and the study of new therapy modalities of this disease. 

After so many years of learning and experience, we knew that he had a lot of things to say. 

When Prof. Sierra talks about his work as a Head of the Department, you can see a spark of excitement on his eyes and a melancholic smile on his lips while he remembers all the things he experienced during so many years. 

 How can you gain some respect and recognition?

“Expanding your knowledge”, explains Dr. Sierra. “You must work in your education to the fullest. When you expand your knowledge, your professional career will also grow while you own your professional respect”. 

He defends continuing medical education, and he participated on several occasions with different medical programs as coordinator and director. 

As an example, he’s been supervising the program Blood Online since it started in 2017. Currently the program is on its 8th edition. (By the way, we have a little surprise at the end of the blog). 

For a Head of Department, loneliness is not an option. It’s a job where you must be involved in different situations and with all sorts of people, from doctors and nurses to patients and their families. 

“You have to give them the recognition they deserve”, explains. “Their professional values, their career path… everything is important”. 

Also, Prof. Sierra recognizes that on some occasions those people know more than him. “That’s why is so important to recognize their career, where do they come from and what value can they add to it”. 

Emotional intelligence is also important to manage people. Be able to deal with positive and negative emotions helps to improve the feelings of everybody. 

We are talking about a big group of people with the same objective: give the best and most efficient attention to the patient and the family. 

That’s why Prof. Sierra includes other skills like “flexibility, know how to set goals and learn how to empower them”. 

He’s always been a man with a lot of initiative. 

When he was appointed as president of the Spanish Society of Hematology and Hemotherapy, he stablished one of the main objectives as strengthen the quality and international prestige of the Spanish hematologists. 

Also, for him it was very important to impulse the progress from the youngest ones: intensify the relationship with other specialties, building bridges with patient associations, strengthen the transparency policy and continue fighting to increase the time of specific training in the specialty.

“It is also very important to be able to not change what it works and promote constantly improving initiatives”, he explains. “Almost everything can improve, so it’s very important to be open to changes and knowledge updates, not only on the specialty but on the general science and processes as well”.

They have to convince medical directors, assistant and managers of new changes in the approach to a certain condition, even if this means an increase in the hospital's budget.

“Communication with hospital managers is very necessary”. 

It is very interesting the freedom that Dr. Sierra gives to his collaborators in their work. 

He doesn’t like to supervise them constantly, because that shows lack of trust.

Rather, he prefers to be next to them and support them and help them in whatever they need. 

“We have to be available for them so they can fulfill their objectives”, explains. 

Well, he accomplished this successfully. In fact, about a year ago his colleagues decided to organize a tribute at the educational session of the CETLAM Group, the Cooperative Study and Treatment of Acute Leukemias and Myelodysplastic Group, by its acronym in Spanish. 

They all highlighted him as a referent for his long professional journey and his commitment to the hospital. 

During those minutes, a lot of them shared lovely experiences and stories they lived with him. 

Each one of them was very grateful to him for always showing human quality at every moment, besides his implication in teaching and scientific excellence. 

The fact that he is not the Head of the Service anymore doesn’t mean that his career is over. He’s going to be very involved in the research and other aspects of his specialty. 

“During the next four years I am going to be Senior Consultant, and I will keep being Professor of Hematology”, announces. 

That means that he won’t be doing all the clinical administration tasks he used to do, which will allow him to be more focused on the caring aspects of his work. 

But that’s not all. He also explains: “I am going to try to keep doing scientific activities. I still want to help my youngest colleagues with their research”. 

On the teaching side, he will carry on helping residents and staff doctors as a Professor at University. 

“I still have a lot of things to do and initiatives to promote”, says while he smiles with expectation. 

As we said before, the program Blood Online Spanish edition is one of CMC’s most successful ones. 

It started in 2017 with the objective of bringing the latest updates to Spanish hematologists and blood specialists related to patient care. 

Professor Sierra will be coordinating all the experts who will participate and collaborate with the preparation of the articles. 

That’s why we are so happy to announce that the 9th edition of Blood Online will start in January 2025. 

It will have 18 new numbers on e-learning with learning objectives and key points. Each number will have an expert commentary done by a local expert. 

Also, this program has the scientific endorsement of the SEHH, so by completing the full activity you will obtain an official certificate. 

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