From Central Office
Reflections from some of our Cape Town Harold Gunson Winners
The Harold Gunson Fellowship is a travel grant for young investigators who are under 40 years of age and have had an abstract accepted for a congress. These grants are awarded based on the abstract score and equity across regions. Winners of the Harold Gunson Fellowship are encouraged to take part in all aspects of the congress to maximise the opportunities to learn, and make lasting connections with their fellow peers and other ISBT members from across the globe.
Beatrice Nazar - Tanzania
I am Beatrice Nazar Tingo a Medical Laboratory Scientist working at Tanzania National Blood Service (Northern Zone Blood Transfusion Centre) as Quality System Officer. I am thrilled to express my special gratitude to ISBT for selecting and awarding me with the “Harold Gunson Fellowship” to attend the 34th Regional ISBT Congress held from 18th – 21st November 2023 in Cape Town, South Africa. The Congress offered me a great opportunity not only to meet with experts in the field of blood transfusion but also received the most recent updates from transfusion medicines.
I learned new skills in strengthening Quality Management Systems and development of new technologies including electronic crossmatch, and use of drones and smart fridges to deliver service to patient.
I was delighted to attend the “Young Professionals Breakfast”; whereby young professional were divided into groups based on to their area of interests and mentors were deployed to each group. Through these groups, knowledge, skills and experiences were shared through interactive discussions between young professionals and mentors.
In addition, I presented my two abstracts which were accepted for poster presentations and gained constructive feedback and recommendations from transfusion researchers and experts for future implementations and further studies.
I am gratified by the knowledge and experience gained and I will use it to strengthen blood quality and safety in my country.
Morten Haugen - Norway
I am grateful for the experience and I enjoyed my time at the ISBT Congress in Cape Town. Receiving the Harold Gunson Award was an honour, and meeting experts in transfusion medicine, including the board and the president of ISBT, was truly inspiring. The interesting discussions about transfusion medicine and research projects during our lunch at the congress was encouraging, especially for someone new and young in the field.
Attending the Young Professionals Breakfast and meeting other young professionals and colleagues from around the world was a great experience. Discussing the varying practices in transfusion medicine practice across countries was particularly interesting. I hope this was the beginning of lasting connections and friendships, and I look forward to meeting again at future ISBT congresses.
The congress has motivated me to continue my research and to consistently seek further knowledge in the field of transfusion medicine.
Roshan Fakruddin Shaikh, Morten Haugen, Mwinyi Shawwaly Omari, Muluken Kassahun Geremew, Beatric Nazar Tingo, Nana Benyin Aidoo, Rita Muhindo, Musembi Muteti, Michael Busch (ISBT President) and Prateek Srivastava
Prateek Srivastava - India
Thanks for giving me this opportunity to share my experience at the ISBT Conference.
Having completed my post-graduation in Transfusion Medicine just recently, and this was my first in-person conference, attending which was of immense help to me as I learnt so much about the practices being followed across the world in the field of Transfusion Medicine.
I had the opportunity to interact with delegates across the globe and share my work for the first time before an international audience. It wasn't just a Travel Fellowship for me, but it was an encouragement to keep doing good work towards patient care.
I learnt about the e-learning platform of ISBT, the I TRY IT programme and the various Working Parties and also attended the workshop on PDMP. The Young Professional's Breakfast was a great way to interact with professionals of my age and there was so much interaction and exchange of knowledge.
When I returned home after this conference, I was determined to bring a positive change in my work area and implement some of the measures which I learned about in this conference. I want to be a part of ISBT which will give me the feeling of being associated with this wonderful organization which is so keen to work towards better patient management and encourages equal participation of delegates throughout the globe.
Thank You again for this fellowship. I now look forward to being permanently associated with ISBT for the purpose of learning and improving patient care.
Harold Gunson Cape Town Winners with ISBT board members and regional directors
Mwinyi Shawwaly Omary - Tanzania
My name is Mwinyi Shawwaly Omary from Tanzania. I like to be addressed as Shawwaly or Omary. I want to thank the International Society of Blood Transfusion for giving me the opportunity to attend the ISBT Congress in Cape Town this year. This was my first ever attendance at the Congress. I would like you also to thank the ISBT for giving me a Harold Gunson fellowship I was able to attend the congress and participate in the Congress at Cape Town.
It was a very nice experience for me and I had a lot of things to learn out there. For sure I would like to say this was like a miracle to me because I saw an opportunity to write an abstract because I was doing my internship in the clinical laboratory at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Moshi-Tanzania and then I was able to attend the congress after the abstract was accepted. The Congress was very nice and then I had an international experience of attending the Congress because I’ve never attended any congress concerning transfusion therapy or any other congress relating to health aspects. As a young professional with a bachelor’s degree in medical laboratory sciences in microbiology and immunology, I think I have a lot of things to do in transfusion therapy. I would like to request the Harold Gunson Fellowship to assist the Fellowship winners in doing more research concerning transfusion therapy because it requires a lot of effort and support.
For example, I did my research when I was doing my internship so I had to ask the laboratory to assist me with the materials during data collection but now the internship is over and I’m back home so I can’t do anything more because I would have to go to a health facility in case I want to have a research and I will be requested to pay for the materials during the study. I would like the Harold Gunson Fellowship to assist us in this. Lastly, the congress provided me with additional knowledge in my head so I can use it for the future. I would like again to thank the Harold Gunson Fellowship for the opportunity to attend the ISBT Congress in Cape Town, thank you so much.
Muteti Michael Musembi - Kenya
I am writing first to express my sincere appreciation to the ISBT for the Harold Gunson Fellowship Award which enabled me to attend, present, and meet different experts and young professionals. The congress provided an enlightening experience, offering a comprehensive overview of advancements in transfusion medicine both in Africa and globally. The keynote sessions delivered by experienced transfusion practitioners and scientists delved into cutting-edge research and emerging technologies.
Interactive workshops especially the AFRICARhE provided a good opportunity to meet and find possible collaborative areas within our African setup and beyond. For instance, I got in touch with Dr. Lilian Boateng’ from Ghana who has done work on immunohematology and will instrumentally help our laboratory in setting up the red cell genotyping platform as well as Dr. Ellen Van Der Schoot. The Young Professional Breakfast was yet another great platform to meet and learn from different young scientists not forgetting the interesting meet-up with the ISBT board members during the awarding of certificates.
Inspired by good work done across the globe, I look forward to integrating the new knowledge gained into practice, contributing to advancement in transfusion medicine.
