Dr. Swoboda on the Importance of MDS World Awareness Day

David Swoboda, MD, of Tampa General Hospital, discusses the importance of Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) World Awareness Day, which takes place annually on October 25.

“[MDS] is a disease that most people do not know or understand until they get the diagnosis,” Dr. Swoboda said. “Bringing awareness to the challenges that patients could face, whether it’s lower-risk or high-risk, is very important to me.”

Dr. Swoboda also described what makes MDS unique compared to other diseases and what he finds fulfilling about specializing in MDS.

“Patients do not generally have a mass or a lot of pain, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have major concerns, decreased quality of life, significant fatigue, or hospitalizations related to the disease that the physician has the opportunity to hopefully improve upon,” he concluded.