Academy
International Symposium on Neonatal and Pediatric Patients
The Department of Transfusion Medicine of the Post Graduate Institute of Child Health (PGICH), Noida, India, organised an “International Symposium on Neonatal and Pediatric Transfusions” on 21st December 2024. The symposium was organized in association with the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) and under the aegis of the National Neonatology Forum (NNF), Pediatric Hematology Oncology Chapter Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) and the Indian Society of Transfusion Medicine (ISTM).
Simon Stanworth, Oxford University from the UK, Cassandra Josephson, and Ruchika Goel from John Hopkins All Children’s Hospital USA graced the symposium in person and presented plenary talks. The Symposium was inaugurated by the Director PGICH, Arun Kumar Singh and Chief Guest Neelam Marwaha from Former Prof and Head, Transfusion Medicine, PGIMER Chandigarh, India. The symposium was attended by more than 250 participants from across the country, with more than 40 abstracts on pediatric transfusion medicine also presented. The symposium was attended by transfusion medicine experts with pediatric, neonatology and hematology oncology physicians. On the occasion of the symposium, the organizing team released a souvenir book containing all the submitted abstracts and scientific write-ups by the speakers and a book on the institutional guidelines for pediatric apheresis.
Group pictures from the event
The symposium included a detailed discussion on neonatal transfusions, routine transfusions in pediatric patients, pediatric bone marrow transplant patients and the future scope of gene therapy in hematology disorders. Apart from lectures, the symposium also hosted two panel discussions; the first panel discussion was on ethics in pediatric transfusion medicine, highlighting the importance of ethics in managing transfusion in small children and highlighting the need for more work for managing the many issues. The second panel discussion was on the clinical consultation on pediatric transfusion medicine and discussing the challenging case scenarios of transfusing newborns and transfusing pediatric dengue patients. The panel discussions provided a platform for discussion between the clinician and the transfusion medicine experts for improving patient care.
As part of the pre-symposium a workshop on “Pediatric Apheresis” was conducted in association with the World Apheresis Association (WAA). Apart from national experts, Dr Volker Witt from Austria; Hans Vrielink from The Netherlands and Jennifer Schneiderman from Chicago USA joined virtually for presentations and discussions. The workshop was attended by more than 40 participants and the lectures were followed by a demonstration and discussion of red cell priming of the apheresis kit. Many residents and young professionals in transfusion medicine in India submitted abstracts for the symposium and presented the abstracts as posters and oral presentations. The abstracts were focused on pediatric transfusion medicine and apheresis. The abstract presentations were evaluated by the subject experts, and the best three oral and three poster presentations were awarded at the valedictory program of the symposium.
The symposium was one of the first kind of international meeting in India and provided a platform for knowledge sharing and discussion on the topics which are not often discussed in detail. The international and national faculties from the pediatric, neonatal and transfusion medicine discipline discussed many basic and advanced topics. There was an emphasis on publishing and highlighting the variations and differences in practices in India when compared to the western world. The global participation provided an opportunity for discussion on many future projects and collaborations from India on pediatric and neonatal transfusion medicine.
