Chairperson and committee
Chairperson: Justina Kordai Ansah (Ghana)
Secretary:
Diptiranjan Rout (India) April 2023 - February 2024
Demewoz Tadesse (Ethiopia) February 2024 - current
Membership
The Working Party currently has 51 members representing 24 different countries.
Meetings
Three meetings were held in the reporting period. The first was a face-to-face business meeting held on June 18, 2023, at the Swedish Congress Centre in Gothenburg, Sweden as part of the Gothenburg ISBT congress. Members who could not participate on-site joined the meeting virtually. The second and third meetings were both held virtually on February 1, 2024 and March 19, 2024, respectively.
The June 2023 business meeting was attended by a total of 25 delegates representing 12 countries and the February 2024 meeting had participation from 19 members representing 11 countries. The March 2024 meeting was made up of a subgroup of the BSM WP with participation of three from three different countries.
The topics covered at the business meeting and its follow-up meeting include:
- Matters arising from the Digital Kuala Lumpur/ Gothenburg Congress Business meetings
- Contributions from BSM WP (“How-Do-I,” “case studies,” ISBT forum post)
- Blood Supply Management (BSM) WP Newsletter
- Call for BSM WP Webinars for 2023 and 2024
- BSM WP Audit
- Other project suggestions for the BSM WP: Good practices in BSM
- Nominations and elections for WP chair
- ISBT BSM WP scientific session at June 2024 Barcelona Congress
The subgroup meeting of March 2024 considered the survey objective/s and addressed the methodologic approach in line with a proposed working title for a new WP project.
There was a series of e-mail exchanges between the Chairperson and CO with respect to applications of newly recruited WP members, support for surveys/projects/ meetings and Barcelona congress preparation with respect to the BSM WP. In addition, there were e-mail exchanges between the chairperson and WP members with respect to communications from the ISBT CO for contributions to webinars, follow-up on individual and group tasks. Members of two different sub-committees of ISBT BSM WP working on assigned projects/ survey exchanged e-mails accordingly during the period.
Activities during the period
The main achievements of the ISBT BSM WP during the period were as follows:
- Finalisation of “Blood Supply Management during the COVID-19 pandemic” survey the survey was completed in 2023-2024 and an abstract of the report was accepted for a poster presentation at the 34th Regional Congress of ISBT held in Cape Town, South Africa from November 18-21, 2023. However, the author was not issued a visa to South Africa and therefore was unable to participate to present the report of the survey.
- Recruitment drive for new WP members: The successful recruitment drive on ISBT website in 2023 continued to yield good results. During the reporting period, five applications were received and all five applicants from four countries were selected as new members.
- Appointment of a new secretary for the BSM WP. Following the resignation of Diptirijan Rout, the WP Secretary on February 02, 2024, the WP appointed a new secretary, Demewoz Tadesse from MoH, Ethiopian Blood & Tissue Bank, Ethiopia on February 10, 2024 to continue in the role.
- Appointment of WP Educational Officer. The WP secretary was appointed to this new role and will serve as the contact points for the office for organization of a webinar or an Elearning activity, workshop during congresses and review of WP resources.
- Project on Remote Site Blood Management (RSBM) trial This is a WP Project conceived during the Gothenburg congress. The retrofit kits for the 16 selected sites for the study were completed and are ready to be fitted on the fridge shelfs.The company working to supply the software however has been delayed in going forward. This is currently being resolved so that the project can continue.
- Preparations towards a survey titled “Supply Chain Challenges: Impact on Transfusion Medicine Services” Following the decision to conduct a survey, there was one virtual meeting and a series of e-mail exchanges between members of a sub-committee that constitutes a core group, resulting in elaboration of the survey questionnaire, and preparation and validation of the final version of the survey questionnaire carried out with assistance from the CO.
- Preparations towards a survey titled “Magnitude and associated factors of unmet need of blood and blood products among patients in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)” Following the decision to pursue a project, there was one virtual meeting and a series of e-mail exchanges between a sub-committee that constitutes a core group. Survey objective/s and methodologic approach in line with a proposed working title for a new WP project have been addressed and survey questionnaire drafted. The next step is the recruitment and assembling of a team to further develop the survey protocol. This work will continue in 2024-2025.
- Nomination and election for new part chair. The quest for nomination and election of a new WP chair to replace the current chair who will resign after nine years commenced with announcement at WP meetings. With enormous support from the CO, there was a call for nominations (February 27- March 22, 2024) and the voting was held between March 28- April 16, 2024. At the end of the nomination period, three names were received for the position; Vijay Kumawat (India); Suchet Sachdev (India) and Rada Grubovic Rastvorceva (Macedonia). The result of the election is anticipated to be announced before the end of April and the new WP chair-elect will take over from June 2024, during the Barcelona Congress where he/she will be introduced.
- Ongoing work by the ISBT BSM WP The WP is developing a concept for a periodic Newsletter for WP members and working on a manuscript to submit to Vox Sanguinis based on “Blood Supply Management during the COVID-19 pandemic” survey.
