Events on 28 September 2023

Crossroads to a Compatible Career: From Pipette to Patient Blood Management

An overview of Red Cell Immunohaematology (RCI), the services offered and how we fit in within the wider healthcare system.

Example cases starting with single specificity through to complex antibody identification using a variety of techniques. Discussing the need for consultant input when serology cannot be resolved and what happens next.

We will briefly cover duties beyond serology performed as a biomedical scientist and how these fit in nationally as well as locally.

Finishing on the progression routes through RCI, NHSBT and the wider transfusion community.

Transfusion outside the NHS – jobs for Biomedical Scientists

Meet the Examiner Session

The Air Ambulance covering Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland first approached Blood Transfusion in February 2021 to discuss the idea of them being able to carry blood on the aircraft so they can carry out lifesaving transfusions at the roadside. In the previous months the medics on board had been documenting those patients they had attended that they thought would have benefited from being transfused at the scene of an injury.

The majority of these were road traffic accidents and stabbings where blood loss had led to severe morbidity or even mortality. After months of meetings discussing what equipment was needed (e.g. blood boxes, temperature monitoring devices, storage etc.), finances, validation procedures and trialling the process we finally started providing blood on board in February 2022.

The lecture will include a basic introduction to a busy mixed urban and rural Helicopter Emergency Medical Service in the East of England and the logistics of carrying and administering blood products to multiply injured, major trauma patients. The types of patients that typically require a transfusion will be presented and we will hear from patients that have since recovered and how they feel about having received a prehospital transfusion.

Resuscitation with Pre-Hospital Blood Products (RePHILL) trial

What’s new in antivirals? (Antivirals & Mabs as therapeutics)

This presentation will give delegates an introduction to important human viruses, their treatment with antivirals and possibilities for preventing antiviral resistance. Implications of recently identified metabolic capping of hepatitis C virus.

It is clear that the interaction of humans with animals and the environment has been at the centre of infectious disease emergence and spread through out history. Recent global events have shown that this is still the case, or at least likely to be! Close contact with animals and our collective movements in and out of each others environments has the potential to permit transmission of organisms that have the potential to cause zoonotic or indeed enzoonotic disease. We need to consider this aspect carefully to understand what mitigations we might need to put into place and also what considerations might need to be taken on board in the light of changes to infection patterns as a possible consequence of climate change.