European Group For Blood And Marrow Transplantation Annual Congress

Main Category: Transplants / Organ Donations
Also Included In: Conferences
Article Date: 07 Mar 2008 - 3:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

EBMT, the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, will host over 4,000 top scientists, physicians, nurses, caregivers, patients and their families, and others during its 5-day Annual Congress in Florence, Italy. This meeting is a forum for the scientific exchange between physicians, nurses, and data managers, as well as a place for families, patients and others to meet, network, and exchange their experiences. The Annual Congress is planned to enhance the crucial close interaction with the leaders of each discipline in a harmonious programme.

The 34th EBMT Annual Congress

This year's Annual Congress is predicted to be an even bigger success than last year's meeting in Lyon where EBMT welcomed over 3,600 delegates from more than 75 countries. This year's Annual Congress in Florence from 30th March to 2nd April will also be the 24th Meeting of the EBMT Nurses Group, the 7th Meeting of the EBMT Data Management Group, and the 2nd Patient and Family Day.

The Congress has been carefully prepared to offer a scientifically productive and highly informative meeting with plenary sessions, educational sessions, workshops, lunch sessions and joint sessions covering all-important topics and presented by the top experts in the field. This year the two plenary sessions focus on rapidly changing issues: the evolution of Graft-versus-Host-Disease (GvHD) and a session on Cord Blood Transplantation. The combination of this scientific meeting with the nurses', data managers' and statisticians' programmes highlights the multidisciplinary character of the EBMT Annual Congress.

The 2nd EBMT Patient & Family Day

The 2nd EBMT Patient & Family Day will take place in Florence on Saturday 29th March 2008. The EBMT Board decided to repeat this initiative based on the success of the first event in Lyon last year, in line with the Group's goal of improving communication between EBMT professionals and patients. The programme will incorporate the suggestions and experience gained from the first exchanges with patients and families. It has been designed to explore both scientific trends and the special relationship which often exists between the clinical BMT personnel and patients and their families.

This information day will consist of two presentations, four plenary sessions and six workshops led by physicians, nurses, patients, donors and family members. The two presentations will be "Overview of transplant activity in Europe" and "Clinical evolution of GvHD".

For more information on the Congress and to see the full schedule, please visit http://www.akm.ch/ebmt2008.

About the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation

Bone marrow or stem cell transplantation is often the only curative treatment for different malignant diseases and is currently performed on more that 50,000 patients worldwide each year. The European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) as the leading non-profit, scientific society representing 530 transplant centres in and outside Europe, promotes all activity aiming to improve stem cell transplantation or cellular therapy. This includes registering all the activity relating to stem cell transplants with a view to improving treatment outcomes for patients. EBMT has set standards for indication and treatment for malignant and non-malignant diseases, along with running training programmes for continual professional development. These are continually audited and updated. EBMT is also responsible for accrediting the transplant centres based on their performance and data reporting.

European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation