Reported by Dr. Andy Tang
First of all, I would like to thank Malaysian Society of Haematology (MSH) for giving me the opportunity to attend the 10th National Transfusion Medicine Conference in conjunction with International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) Academy Day with the theme of ‘Challenges and Opportunities in Transfusion Medicine’ in Kuching, Sarawak.
Since COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, this marked the first face-to-face full physical meeting attended by more than 400 participants and speakers from the globe. My journey started by preparing an abstract and poster presentation entitled ‘Antibody detection of red blood cell among Thalassemia patients in Sarawak: Prevalence of Alloimmunization’ – an idea originating from my lifelong mentor Dr Chew. We found that the prevalence of alloantibody in our state thalassemia patients was 10.1% among our diverse racial background.
ISBT Academy day was the highlight of the whole event, in which many topics of interest were presented by several distinguished international speakers from Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Brazil etc. For instance, platelet antibody testing in Asia, clinical significance of red cell antibodies, transfusion support for patients with haemoglobinopathies, TRALI Vs TACO etc. An update on patient blood management and sharing on managing blood supply during pandemic in Sabah were among the topics that attracted my attention.
This conference would not be perfect without meeting my friends and bosses in Sarawak.
Last but not least, I would like to thank MSH for giving me this opportunity to make my learning journey a meaningful one.
Prepared by,
Andy Tang Sing Ong
Clinical fellow
