EVENT REPORT ON BLOOD CONFERENCE 2023
First of all, I would like to thank Malaysian Society of Haematology (MSH) for giving me the
opportunity to attend BLOOD CONFERENCE 2023 (Annual Scientific Conference by
Haematology Society of Australia and New Zealand, Australian & New Zealand Society of Blood
Transfusion, Thrombosis & Haemostasis Society of Australia and New Zealand) organized in
Melbourne, Australia from 4th-8th November 2023.
This conference covered a wide selection of topics, including thrombosis, coagulation, transfusion,
benign and malignant haematology.
On 4th November, I attended pre-conference transfusion workshop which highlighted on “the
untransfusable patient” and management of major hemorrhage. There were also round table
discussions with experts on the topics of blood transfusion management for Rhesus negative patient.
There was 1 speaker from New Zealand who shared on their experience of setting a “Patient Blood
Management” department.
On 5th November, the conference started with topics on mitigating health inequities, especially
focused on treatment of anaemia in low-income countries and challenges in management
hemophilia in resource-constrained settings. In afternoon session, I attended the sessions on
immunotherapy for myeloma, CART treatment in DLBCL, role of transplantation in myeloid
disorders, and targeted therapies in AML.
On subsequent days of conference, there were interesting sessions on red cell membrane disorder,
management of MPN and hematological malignancies in pregnancy, CML updates, treatment
resistance in CLL, management of VWD, hemophilia gene therapy, and anticoagulation in special
populations. The conference’s closing symposium focused on managing inherited cancer
predisposition syndromes in 10 years’ time and future transfusion strategy in 10 years’ time.
In this conference, I presented a poster on Outcomes of prognostically favourable Acute Myeloid
Leukaemia with NPM1mut, t(8;21), and inv(16) or t(16;16) consolidated with chemotherapy only
in comparison with allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation in first complete remission.
This conference gave me the opportunity to have discussion with haematologists from Australia
and New Zealand on challenges that we faced on managing our patients. What impressed me about
the health care system in Australia and New Zealand is that they have a very good patient support
group for their hematological patients and I hope that we can do the same as in Malaysia to improve
our care to our patients.
Last but not least, I would like to thank MSH for making my learning journey a meaningful one.
Prepared by,
Tham Yea Bing
Hospital Tuanku Jaafar Seremban
