ISBT Standing Committee of the ISBT Academy
Chairperson and committee
Chairperson: Lin Fung (Australia)
Vice-Chairperson: Jill Storry (Sweden)
Members:
Lani Lieberman (Canada)
Imelda Bates (UK)
Ratti Ram Sharma (India)
Sophie Uyoga (Kenya)
Sally Lam (Malaysia)
Clotilde Carsolio Estrada (Mexico)
Dina Ekram (Egypt)
The Academy Standing Committee is supported by the ISBT Scientific Officer Eszter Herczenik, and ISBT Executive Director Jenny White, and works closely with ISBT Secretary General Gwen Clarke, ISBT Scientific Secretary Jason Ackers, and Chair of the ISBT Foundation Ravi Reddy.
Meetings and Teleconferences
The SCA met virtually in July, December 2023 and February 2024. The next SCA meeting is scheduled for June 2024.
Activities during the period
Financial Support for educational events (March 2023 – April 2024)
Approved applications
Nineteen applications were approved (total: €115,208):
Australia, Chile, Cuba, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Uganda, India(x2), Malaysia (x2), Pakistan (x6).
Reports on 17 events completed and Transfusion Today article received.
Eight applications were declined (mainly due to content that is not relevant to ISBT or transfusion medicine).
Applications to use ISBT logo (March 2023 – April 2024)
Eight applications were received and seven were approved.
ISBT Highlight Days (March 2023 – April 2024)
Three applications were approved (total: €30,012)
- TRANSMEDCON, Indian Society of Transfusion Medicine, 3-5 Nov 2023, Chandigarh: Over 800 participants, mainly transfusion medicine specialist or post-graduate trainees. ISBT Highlights program started with an Overview of ISBT and the Academy (LF & JS) promoting ISBT membership, working parties and the Barcelona meeting, and scientific talks by Jill Storry, Martin Olsson, Mickey Koh and Lin Fung. All were very well received and stimulated many interactions.
- Macedonian Society for Transfusion Medicine, 1-4 Nov 2023, Skopje: The event had about 300 delegates from North Macedonia and the neighbouring countries (Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Czech Republic etc). The ISBT Highlight Day started with Pierre Tiberghien’s welcome, followed by Eszter Herczenik’s talk about ISBT and its activities. The scientific programme included 3 sessions: ISBT adverse events and haemovigilance, clinical transfusion, blood donation. The invited speakers were Miquel Lozano, Ruchika Goel, Pierre Tiberghien and Riikka Lehtisalo, who presented their ISBT Gothenburg talks. All sessions ended with a 10-minute Q&A and with many questions.
- Arab Speaking Countries Transfusion Medicine Forum (ATMF), 24 Jan 2024, Cairo: The ATMF 15 congress was attended by around 150 participants, invited from countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region and globally. The congress focussed on three main themes: fetal maternal immunology, massive haemorrhage and transfusion research. The ISBT Academy speakers’ input was planned in close collaboration with the ATMF organising committee and integrated into the three day programme, which built up knowledge over the three days. ISBT speakers present (Tor Hervig, Satyam Arora and Jenny White) also chaired sessions. Additional ISBT speakers (Masha de Haas and Lise Estcourt) joined to present and take part in discussions on-line. The themes were continued throughout the congress with regional survey data and presentations giving a regional perspective. The ISBT and local speakers participated in lively panel discussions, in which ideas were put forward for progress on all three topic areas in the region.
Other matters
Imelda Bates from the UK joined the SCA in 2019 and resigned in 2023. The SCA thanked Imelda for her valuable contribution to the committee and ISBT. Brigitte Flesch (Germany) has kindly agreed to join the SCA.
Education Project Standing Committee (EPSC)
The EPSC is a subcommittee of the ISBT Academy and works specifically on educational content and projects. The committee is comprised as follows:
Chair: Jill Storry (Sweden)
Members: Lin Fung (Australia), Lilian Castilho (Brazil), Ratti Ram Sharma (India), Veera Nadarajan (Malaysia), Sandy Nance (USA) Geoff Simon (Australia), Jenny White (ISBT CO) Eszter Herczenik (ISBT CO). Supported by Erica Kukasira (CO).
We had a successful year and saw the fruits of our labours as the eLearning shop went live with the first two courses of learning material that has been developed from “Beryl’s book” (Armstrong BC, Wilkinson R and Goldman M. Introduction to Blood Transfusion: From Donor to Recipient. ISBT Science Series 2020;15. Special Issue.). These were followed by three more courses, and to date, the following EBAH-accredited courses are now available for on-line learning:
- Course 1: Introduction to antigen-antibody reactions
- Course 2: Antigen-antibody reactions in the laboratory
- Course 3: The use of cells and antibodies as reagents
- Course 4: Antigen and antibody variation and antihuman globulin
- Course 5: Antiglobulin tests
Response from members and non-members alike has been very positive. We had 139 enrolments as of 4th December 2023, of which 41% had completed the courses and earned their badge. Even these scores have been encouraging with 47% of participants achieving a Platinum badge (>95% correct). Learner feedback has been invaluable, and 91% agree that they would recommend this course to other people. The course content and of the different modules was prioritized on download figures of the individual chapters in the book. However, we realise that blood group content is also very popular and we are investigating how we can best teach this more theoretical content in an active way.
The other highlight of the ESPC year was a well-attended workshop at the ISBT Congress in Cape Town: ISBT eLearning – current courses in immunohaematology and future directions. Geoff Simon, our ISBT education consultant, had given a great lecture on the ISBT eLearning at the meeting and the workshop was a follow-up to his lecture. It was a very interactive workshop with approximately 50 delegates, of which 40% were from Africa. 18% from Europe, 14% from South-east Asia and Western Pacific, 9 from Latin America and 5 from North America. Participants were given access to a course prior to the congress for evaluation. We also launched our first case study: Anti-D + C. Or is it anti-G? which is now also available in the eLearning shop. We plan to develop additional modules and case studies under 2024.
Academy Day – Gothenburg (June 2023)
The day was well attended and included sessions on: Developing research skills, Neonatal & paediatric transfusions, TTID impact & surveillance, donor & donation challenges, Drug-related antibodies in Immunohaematology, Alternative approaches to blood use & blood banking, Quality control assessment – principles & practice, and Challenges in managing a blood service.
Academy sessions – Cape Town (Nov 2023)
The ISBT Academy sessions were designed to meet regional interest and included sessions on: Making safe blood available, Donor matters, Making PDMPs accessible in LMIC, Modern approaches to Immunohaematology, Mentorship – a springboard to research success, Haemoglobinopathies and Haemovigilence and appropriate blood usage.
Academy Day – Barcelona (June 2024)
Striving to be relevant and current, the Barcelona Academy Day has two novel topics: Career possibilities in transfusion medicine and Blood service finance 101. Also, in view of global events, there are sessions on Blood banking during natural disasters, and Social science in transfusion medicine’’.
I TRY IT
The I TRY IT programme is organised by Marion Vermeulen (South Africa) with a team of mentors, and in 2023 the I TRY IT 1 protocol writing course was performed. It was the first year that the I TRY IT program met in person since the Covid-19 pandemic. The in-person training during the Gothenburg congress significantly improved the quality of the output this year. There were six candidates; however, unfortunately during the year one candidate had to pull out due to the war in Sudan and lack of internet connectivity. The other five participants Beukou Fonkou Hygin Steve (Cameroon), Cvetanka Kochovska (North Macedonia), Arun V(India), Athira Sasidharan (India) and Paula Janica Masancay (Philippines) successfully completed the year with three grants awarded to execute on their study protocols
