2025 ASH Advocacy Awards: Honoring Excellence in Hematology Advocacy

The 2025 ASH Advocacy Awards recognized bipartisan legislators and patient organizations whose advocacy shifted research funding priorities and patient-care policy.

The announcement named individual policymakers and organized patient groups whose sustained engagement focused legislative and appropriations attention on hematology priorities. For clinicians, the awards signal policy shifts that may affect research opportunities and clinical program development.

Senators Susan Collins, Patty Murray, Shelley Moore Capito, and Tammy Baldwin received the ASH Public Service Award for leadership in appropriations and NIH funding advocacy. Organizations such as Sick Cells, the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, and the Sickle Cell Disease Consortium were honored for coordinated patient advocacy and legislative engagement—activities that ranged from convening briefings to direct constituent outreach and sustained congressional engagement.

Policy outcomes tied to these efforts include demonstrable support for NIH appropriations and legislative movement on the Sickle Cell Disease Comprehensive Care Act. The Senate Appropriations Committee’s FY 2026 LHHS recommendation for increased NIH funding reflects advocacy that preserved and expanded research dollars. Legislative attention to sickle cell disease is channeling resources toward care coordination and program development, which should translate into expanded trial activity, stronger research pipelines, and greater institutional capacity for specialized care.

Clinicians can engage with ASH advocacy through clear, scalable steps: join society advocacy networks; take part in policy days and congressional visits; submit clinical input to testimony or comment letters; collaborate with patient organizations on briefings; and amplify calls for research funding through professional communications.

These activities can be scheduled around clinical and teaching commitments and scaled from local hospital briefings to national society initiatives. Contributing clinical perspective helps ensure policy decisions reflect practical care considerations and patient needs.

Organized sickle cell advocacy shows how coordinated action produces tangible change: patient-group briefings and constituent meetings increased congressional attention and helped advance legislative language and resource allocation for sickle cell initiatives. Early effects include more structured care coordination programs at some health systems and prioritization of sickle cell topics in research solicitations and requests for applications. This example links patient and clinician collaboration to observable shifts in policy priorities and resource distribution that affect clinical programs and research planning.

Expect opportunities for increased funding, new trial openings, and evolving standards of care in areas targeted by advocacy. Institutional leaders can align research portfolios and clinical programs to emerging priorities by reviewing institutional advocacy channels, identifying local legislative aims, and integrating advocacy objectives into departmental strategic plans. Sustained clinician engagement paired with organized patient advocacy will be essential to convert policy gains into durable improvements in patient care and research capacity.

Key Takeaways:

• The 2025 ASH Advocacy Awards highlight bipartisan legislative and patient-group efforts that helped secure greater appropriations attention and legislative movement on sickle cell priorities.
• Hematology clinicians, researchers, and patients—particularly people with sickle cell disease—are most directly affected as funding and program priorities shift.
• Anticipate expanded research funding, new clinical trials, and program development; clinicians and departments can align plans and engage in targeted advocacy to shape implementation.