JACIE Committee Chair
Dr. Kim Orchard (Southampton, UK) was approved by the EBMT Board in early July 2020 as the new chair of the JACIE Committee succeeding Prof. John Snowden who was elected EBMT Secretary in March 2020.
Dr. Orchard is the current President of the British Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BSBMT). He is a long-time JACIE inspector and chair of the JACIE Accreditation Committee. He is also the National Representative for the UK and has been Co-Chair of the Clinical Standards Committee for editions 7 and 8 of the FACT-JACIE Standards and a sub-committee member for edition 6.
Prof. Snowden will continue as a member of the committee in his capacity as EBMT Secretary taking over from Dr. Rafael Duarte in this role. We are highly grateful to Dr. Duarte for his support and contributions to the Committee during his term as EBMT Secretary.
The JACIE Committee members are:
Kim Orchard (Chair), Nina Worel (Austria); John Snowden (UK), Fermín Sánchez Guijo (Spain) (ISCT); Franco Bambi (Italy) (ISCT); Isabel Sánchez Ortega (EBMT Medical Officer)
Medical Officer
Isabel Sánchez-Ortega joined the EBMT in March 2020 to fill a new position of Medical Officer. The Medical Officer represents a new position in the EBMT and embodies the evolution of the organisation towards professionalism. It is a significant role in developing professional education and standards, supporting the EBMT research strategy and in building fruitful relationships with other stakeholders designed to deliver safe quality care for patients and donors
Dr. Sánchez Ortega is a consultant hematologist who trained at Hospital de la Santa Creu I Sant Pau in Barcelona and went on to work at the Institut Català d’Oncologia (ICO) in Barcelona. She has taken over the role of JACIE Medical Director from Dr. Riccardo Saccardi effective from end-June 2020 and will work closely with the JACIE team in supporting the accreditation process and standards development.
Dr. Saccardi has been a great servant to JACIE during his time as Medical Director and happily he will stay involved, particularly in the benchmarking project where his experience is invaluable.
New staff
Carla Sánchez joined the JACIE team in May 2020 to replace Eva Controle as Accreditations Coordinator. Eva has moved to the EBMT Quality Management Unit to support the implementation of quality management across the EBMT.
As Accreditations Coordinator, Carla is responsible for managing applications and general enquiries. She coordinates the inspections of the centres to be accredited providing support and tools to the inspectors and centres seeking accreditation.
Carla holds a PhD in regenerative medicine and a Masters in nanotechnology and regenerative medicine from University College London (UCL). Her PhD project focused on elucidating the mechanisms behind aniridia, a corneal congenital disorder, in order to find new therapeutic targets for cell therapy treatments. At UCL she was also the Tissue management coordinator of the laboratory. She has been involved in public and patient engagement events and speaks Catalan, Spanish, English and Portuguese.