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| Associate Professor Wood delivering the Ruth Sanger Oration |
Research at Monash Haematology
was recognised and awarded at the HAA Annual Scientific Meeting in Melbourne
last month, attended by around
1500 national and international delegates.
The event is the combined scientific meeting of
the Haematology Society of Australia and New Zealand (HSANZ), Australian and
New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion (ANZSBT) and the Australasian Society
of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.
The prestigious Ruth Sanger
Oration was awarded to Associate
Professor Erica Wood, Monash Health haematologist and Head of Monash
University’s Transfusion Research Unit. The award is the highest honour of the ANZSBT made in recognition of a
significant contribution to the field of transfusion medicine.
Associate Professor Wood was recognised for her
research, teaching, service to the ANZSBT and international work.
“It was a great honour to receive the award and deliver the Ruth Sanger
Oration,” said Associate Professor Wood. “My oration focussed on the role of
haemovigilance systems in improving the safety of clinical transfusion in our
region and internationally.”
“While our blood supplies in Australia and New Zealand are very safe, we
still have a lot of work to do about how we use blood in our hospitals – human
error is responsible for many of the serious adverse events related to
transfusion,” said Associate Professor Wood.
Associate
Professor Wood is a member of the World Health Organization expert advisory
panel on transfusion medicine, Vice-President of the International Society of Blood Transfusion, and President of the International
Haemovigilance Network. In
these roles she has worked for more than 20 years to improve blood safety nationally
and internationally.
“We
are privileged to have a transfusion expert of Associate Professor Wood’s
calibre and international reputation championing patient blood management at
Monash Health,” said Associate Professor Jake Shortt, Group leader at the Monash
Health Translation Precinct.
Monash Health haematologist and
Monash University PhD student Dr Ashwini Bennett received the HSANZ New
Investigator scholarship.
This highly competitive award of $60,000 enables Dr Bennett to continue her PhD
at Monash Health and Monash University, where she is investigating novel
markers of thrombosis.
Other
recognition included an oral presentation by Monash Health haematologist Dr
Sumita Ratnasingam, whose research focuses on mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).
Dr
Ratnasingam’s study compared the safety and efficacy of first line
immunochemotherapy (ICT) regimens in treating elderly patients with MCL.
“MCL
accounts for 6% of all non-Hodgkin lymphoma and is a fairly aggressive disease
with an expected survival of less than five years,” said Dr Ratnasingam.
“Despite
the median age of diagnosis being 60-70 years, there is a paucity of treatment
guidelines or clinical trials for elderly MCL to guide our management,
resulting in varied treatment strategies and outcomes.”
Dr
Ratnasingam undertook a retrospective audit of elderly MCL (elderly defined as
age 60 or above) patients in four Victorian tertiary hospitals. The results
confirm that typical older patients with MCL benefit from the same therapies
normally reserved for younger patients.
Monash clinicians and researchers
had 20 abstracts accepted for oral and poster presentations at the Annual Scientific Meeting.
Monash University’s Adjunct Clinical
Associate Professor Stephen Opat is the current President of the HSANZ and was
the convenor of the meeting and chair of the local organising committee with
many other Monash Haematology staff members, including Associate Professor Shortt,
Associate Professor Wood and Dr Zane Kaplan.
An overview of Associate
Professor Wood’s lecture can be found here: http://thelimbic.com/haematology/clinical-transfusion-practice-in-australia-could-be-safer-sanger-oration
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