Academy: Highlights Day
ATMF 15th Annual Meeting in Egypt
Aziza Hammadi
ATMF President, Algeria
Magdy El Ekiaby
ATMF15 President, Cairo, Egypt
Dina Ekram
ATMF Coordinator, Cairo, Egypt
A joint event between ISBT and ATMF, featuring “Highlights of ISBT” and the ATMF 15th meeting took place on the 11th - 13th of January 2024, at the Grand Nile Tower Hotel in the lovely city of Cairo, capital of Egypt.
As our host, the Egyptian Society of Blood Services (ESBS), under the auspices of the National Blood Transfusion Services - Ministry of Health & Population, together with ATMF Board members, designed a program bursting with topics aiming to keep us updated on the progress in the field of transfusion medicine. The program focused on: transfusion scientific research in the region, massive transfusion & feto-maternal immunology. It was conducted by international ISBT speakers and Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) speakers, who conveyed their experiences and insights to our region with the contribution of active discussions carried out by the attendees from the Arab region.
Magdy El Ekiaby addressing the meeting
The ISBT highlights day was inaugurated with a presentation from the ISBT Executive Director where the concept of ISBT Highlight Day was explained, followed by a presentation given by the WHO EMRO Blood Safety office representative.
ISBT speakers covered the three themes of this year’s meeting in the following sessions:
- Transfusion research, including presentations: red blood cell transfusion threshold - still research needed, systematic use of developing evidence based methodologies for PBM guidelines, and how can I get my manuscript published
- Massive haemorrhage, including presentations: pre-hospital use of blood products, use of whole blood in paediatric patients, and massive transfusion protocols - the clinician’s perspective
- Feto-maternal immunology, including presentations: overview of feto-maternal immune interactions, implementation of ddPCR method for-invasive fetal blood group typing for alloimmunized pregnant women, and antenatal transfusion practice and anti-D prophylaxis based on BSH guidelines
ATMF speakers covered the rest of the ISBT Highlights day by presenting the results of three surveys that were conducted ahead of the meeting among the transfusion professionals in our region covering the same 3 main topics of this years’ meeting: (Transfusion research survey- massive transfusion management, analysis of regional status - feto-maternal immunology survey). The results of these surveys allowed us to have a clearer vision of the 3 topics in the EMR countries and provided a guide on the measures to be follow in the future.
Ahmed El Ekiaby participating in the question and answer session
ISBT Academy Day
ATMF15 was a two day meeting and included different experiences in the region regarding the same three meeting themes exposed by speakers from EMR. These days were marked by very active panel discussion sessions between ISBT experts, ATMF speakers, EMR experts and the attendees from different parts of the world, where specific questions have been discussed and answered in each area:
- How to move forward with transfusion research in Arab region in transfusion research panel discussion?
- Working towards regional guidelines on management of massive haemorrhage in massive transfusion panel discussion.
- How to improve regional management of feto-maternal immune interactions in feto-maternal immunology panel discussion?
Through ISBT highlights day and ATMF15 meeting presentations, EMR experiences were exposed and EMR surveys showed up their results which enriched different panels discussion even more. This was crowned with excellent recommendations that came out from each discussion and provided the framework on what can be done to direct innovation policies in the future for the Arab region.
Participants in a group photo
Indeed, the ISBT highlights day and ATMF15 meeting served as a gathering for transfusion medicine professionals from Arab region with international and EMR experts to interact and build bridges.
The meeting also featured awards for all speakers, moderators, three best poster presentations, and all the sponsors.
The meeting was honoured to have around 160 attendees attend over the three days not only from the Arabic region, but also from all over the globe, form countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Argentina, Peru, and The Netherlands.
Finally, on behalf of ATMF executive board I would like to thank the ISBT Academy for their continuous support and valuable contribution.
Left to right: Dina Ekram, Aziza Hammadi, Jenny White, Khadija Lahjouji and Hanady Samaha
