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Harvard Medical School will accredit a new Continuing Education course on stem cell therapies developed by the International Society for Stem Cell Research, launching in spring 2025.
The course — which joins more than 200 others in the HMS Continuing Education program — is targeted toward practicing physicians who have already completed medical school. It will cover topics including “fundamental stem cell biology, methodologies and considerations for stem therapy product design and clinical trials, and the rise of unproven stem cell clinics and stem cell tourism.”
Unlike stem cell research of the past, the course seeks to teach physicians how to introduce stem cell medicine to their patients.
ISSCR Education Committee Vice Chair Jaime Imitola said “stem cell medicine” encompasses understanding not only the broader biological concepts but also the stem cells and applications of stem cells in diagnosis and therapy.
“That’s actually what medicine is — you need to understand the biology of a process, you need to use the process to diagnose better, and then finally, you need to apply that for therapy in patients,” Imitola said.
Kendra M. Prutton, the ISSCR Science Communication and Education Manager, emphasized the importance of enabling clinicians to communicate accurately and effectively with their patients, an objective that she says has become increasingly necessary in today’s healthcare industry.
“We think clinicians need this up-to-date education to help navigate this really dynamic and evolving field and be able to really effectively counsel patients for better and more informed decision-making,” Prutton said.
The field of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine has grown exponentially in recent years, offering new and promising treatments — but this growth has also come with a rise in misinformation, Imitola said in an ISSCR press release.
In particular, Prutton pointed to unreliable stem cell clinics that “are preying on the hope of a patient” in an interview with The Crimson.
“So, a big portion of this is how to communicate with the patient, how to help them navigate it, because it is a very tricky landscape,” she said.
Per Prutton, the ISSCR-Harvard partnership is designed to bridge this gap by providing healthcare providers with Continuing Medical Education in stem cell science.
“Harvard had the experience with producing CME that’s new to us,” Prutton said, “as well as their extensive reach and trusted reputation amongst health care providers, but also, with the public.”
“It’s really two big powerhouses coming together for this to make a big impact,” she added.
The ISSCR, founded in 2002, is a global, nonprofit organization dedicated to STEM cell research and its applications to human health. Members of its Education Committee work to promote transparent patient-clinician communication and correct misinformation about stem cell medicine.
According to Prutton, the ISSCR has ambitious plans to expand its educational offerings. Following this foundational course, the organization is developing disease-specific modules focusing on rapidly advancing sectors of stem cell medicine.
“At the end of the day, the stem cell field should be applicable to patients, and the conduit to do that are clinicians or physicians that are practicing medicine,” Imitola said.
