From the President

In reflecting on my four-year tenure as President Elect and President, I want to convey how proud I am of ISBT and how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to lead your society with an incredible team of leaders at all levels. First, below is a photo taken during the Cape Town Regional Congress last November of me with the past three Presidents of ISBT, who are namely, Erica Wood, Martin Olsson, and Ravi Reddy, and ISBT’s Executive Director Jenny White. Their guidance, support and passionate commitment to ISBT was exemplary and enabled me to serve as President with confidence knowing I was standing on their shoulders building on a solid foundation of leadership and excellence.

There is also a photo of the current Board of Directors of ISBT on page 17 of this issue of Transfusion Today, taken at the ISBT Regional Congress in Cape Town in June. These outstanding and dedicated professionals from around the world have worked together for the past two years to navigate the transition from virtual to in-person Congresses, review and update Strategic Plan, and support many ISBT initiatives that have advanced the science and practice of blood banking, transfusion medicine, cellular therapies and education, always committed to grounded by our fundamental mission of service to blood donors and patients throughout the world.

One recent Board action was to unanimously vote to continue with two Regional Congresses in odd years, based on the outstanding success of the Gothenburg and Cape Town Congresses in 2023 and our society’s fundamental commitment to global support of research and education, including in Lower Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). The Board also voted to establish a new “Big Data Working Party” with the first formal Working Party (WP) meeting in Barcelona. Promoting the generation of large-scale studies and methodologies using big data, including large donor and donor-recipient databases linked to clinical outcomes, disease registries and repositories, was one of my primary goals as President. I am confident this new Big Data WP will pave new paths to advance donor and recipient health and Precision Transfusion Medicine in the upcoming years and decades.

I particularly want to acknowledge and thank the leadership and members of the ISBT WP’s. I joined the TTID WP 40 years ago and led that WP as Chair for 8 years prior to standing for President Elect. Through that role I came to fully understand and embrace the mantra that “the Working Parties are the Engines of ISBT”. Each of the WPs focus on and debates scientific, technical and policy issues, develop ideas and execute studies and educational activities, all of which make our society so productive and successful. Please visit the Working Party website to get to know the chairs and leadership of each WP and learn about their accomplishments and plans. All WPs are eager to welcome new members, and particularly young professionals and representatives from low- and middle-income countries.