Academy
Asian Pacific Symposium: TMUAPS 2024
Noor Haslina Mohd Noor
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Mohd Nazri Hassan
Universiti Sains, George Town, Malaysia
Rosline Hassan
Universiti Sains, George Town, Malaysia
Rosnah Bahar
Universiti Sains, George Town, Malaysia
The Department of Haematology and Transfusion Medicine Unit, School of Medical Sciences and Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), successfully organised and hosted the "Transfusion Medicine Update: Asian Pacific Symposium 2024 (TMUAPS 2024)" from 6th to 7th of February 2024, at the Grand Riverview Hotel in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia.
Grand opening ceremony
We as one of Malaysia's leading teaching centres for clinical postgraduate studies in Malaysia, including the Master of Pathology (Haematology), Master of Transfusion Medicine, and Transfusion Science programmes, feel honoured to receive an educational fund from ISBT Academy Support.
This two-day face-to-face symposium is organised in a multidisciplinary manner to allow delegates from all medical personnel and laboratory scientists to explore issues relevant to transfusion medicine. It covers blood donors and blood transfusion safety, immunohaematology, transfusion practices in special groups (pregnancy, massive haemorrhage, paediatric and neonatal, platelet refractoriness, multiply transfused), and patient blood management. The educational aims of this symposium centred on the following topics:
- sharing and upgrading knowledge and technologies related to transfusion medicine and services.
- promoting safe and adequate transfusion therapy.
- ensuring high ethical, medical, and scientific standards in blood transfusion processes.
- providing chances to exchange blood-related information.
This symposium successfully attracted delegates from seven countries, with around 210 registered guests in total from Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, and Philippine. It featured international guest speakers with expertise in transfusion medicine practices, including Professor Erica Wood from Monash University in Australia, who presented on haemovigilance and personalized transfusion medicine, Oytip Natalang from Thammasat University in Thailand, who highlighted on RBC phenotype/genotype discrepancies, and Michael Ng from the Health Sciences Authority in Singapore, who focused on quality assurance in immunohaematology and antibody identification in DAT positive sample.
Question and answer session
Additionally, six local Malaysian speakers were also involved including Dato’ Faraizah Dato’ Abdul Karim, President of Malaysian Blood Transfusion Society, presented on transfusion transmissible infection, Veera Sekaran Nadarajan, from University Tunku Abdul Rahman, who discussed on platelet transfusion refractoriness and blood transfusion in multiply transfused patients, Noor Haslina Mohd Noor, from Universiti Sains Malaysia, who highlighted the blood donor deferral, Carol Lim Kar Kong, from Ampang Hospital, who focused on patient blood management, Nor Hafizah Ahmad, form National Blood Centre, who share the transfusion practice in pregnancy and paediatric groups, Mohd Muhaimin Kambali, from Hospital Sultanah Nur Zahirah, presented on transfusion in massive haemorrhage and Ahmad Arif Che Ismail, from Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II presented on the role of nurses in transfusion service.
Busy registration desk
This symposium provided an opportunity for poster presentations, and 57 abstracts were submitted and published in the Journal of Biomedicine and Clinical Sciences (JBCS).
Thank you to the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) Academy Support for giving us with an educational fund to ensure that this symposium was a success. We'd also want to thank all of the TMUAPAS 2024 committee members and sponsors for their contributions to the symposium's success.
