The Scientific Activity Reports
This introduction to the scientific report is always a little reflection of what has happened and what we as a scientific society achieved.
Most importantly, COVID-19 lost its horror of a pandemic and turned into one of those recurrent viral infections.
But the new challenges are not less daunting. The majority of Europe is facing the significant shortage of nursing staff, endless lists of unavailable drugs, chronically underfunded institutions, topped only by the UK health system basically collapsing. All this is reflecting the decades of misgovernment in the health sector.
The EBMT seems to have recovered like Phoenix from the ashes. Albeit the Society has not published much more than in the preceding years, the cumulative impact factors have increased by 30%, reflecting the substantial improvement of the quality of the science delivered. The top performing working parties were the ALWP and the CMWP which doubled their scientific output.
E-learning has become a fundamental pilar of the activities of the Society. Well received and attended by colleagues throughout the world, they have become an important educational tool. The spectrum ranges from clinical case discussions, ‘Best Practice Sharing Discussion for Nurses’, moderated educational sessions, E-courses and ‘State of the Art’ lectures. All together more than 40 online activities were offered free of charge to colleagues at all levels.
The foundation of a new working party is unusual and has not happened for years. But in the case of the Hemoglobinopathy WP (HGWP) the EBMT once more demonstrated its flexibility and capability to respond swiftly to the scientific needs and the patients we care for. This huge field with worldwide probably the largest group of patients with curative treatment indications needed a scientific platform. Advancements over the last years from several newly licensed disease modifiers to alternative transplant options and a plethora of gene therapy/editing options opened the door now for almost every patient to be cured. This development reflects the huge demand and activities are exploding in this field. Guidelines and standards need to be established and adopted to the new circumstances, indications revised, and supportive care harmonized. Finally, it demonstrates once again that the EBMT is a frontrunner and a reliable partner for countries with high prevalence, requiring now our outreach activities to catch up and enlarge our network of international collaborations. Our CART programs and activities are growing steadily, perfectly serving the needs of our members. Lots of exciting work ahead!
We are all eagerly awaiting the renewal of our bestseller, the EBMT handbook, a regular on the shelfs of transplant physicians worldwide, where substantial changes and restructurings will be implemented to keep it up to date.
All this is not possible without the EBMT staff. They all worked hard to make it all happen and they did a spectacular job!
We now are all masters of online platforms, but we also had to learn that face-to-face meetings cannot be replaced to bring very fundamental scientific processes forward and to renew our personal relationships, which are so important for a lively society.
Therefore, great things ahead! Let us look forward to an exciting and scientifically successful 49th Annual Meeting of the EBMT in April 2023 in Paris!
