A welcome to EBMT 2021 from this year’s Congress President: Dr Rafael Duarte
Dr Rafael Duarte is the President of this year’s EBMT 2021 Online Annual Meeting. A well-known face at EBMT meetings, Dr Duarte has served the Society at the Scientific Council and the Board for nearly a decade as EBMT Secretary and TCWP Chair. He is based at Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda, Madrid, Spain. Rafa would like to give a warm welcome to all this year’s delegates.
Q: Rafa, welcome to this year’s congress. Like last year, we have having to meet online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. What words of welcome do you have for our delegates this year?
A: My first words of welcome, as last year, and following the various waves of the COVID-19 pandemic that we have faced, can only be words to remember everyone that we have lost to COVID-19, our loved ones and so many colleagues and healthcare professionals that we have lost in this tragic year. Also, I would like them to be words of hope and of a warm embrace for our attendees to enjoy our annual meeting as a forum to carry on with education, scientific exchange and networking in the current circumstances.
Q: The rollout of vaccines is giving hope that the pandemic could be brought under control during 2021. How have things been in your own hospital, have you managed to proceed with most planned treatments despite the various surges in cases?
A: I completely agree that the rollout of vaccines is bringing hope, although the timeline of implementation of vaccines varies among countries and regions. Healthcare professionals and elderly citizens have already been vaccinated in most places. However, although patients with haematological malignancies and recipients of HSCT and cellular therapies are also at high-risk, and they are recognised as a priority population, the timing of their vaccination is perhaps not that clear. Factors related to production and availability of the various vaccines available will also play a role here. In the meantime, during the second and third waves of pandemic since our last annual meeting, things have improved compared to the first wave. I believe that currently most of us are managing to proceed with most planned treatments in our haemato-oncology patients.
Q: This is now going to be the second all online congress – what lessons did you learn about moving online last year? Has it made this year a much smoother process?
A: EBMT 2020 was a big challenge and a steep learning curve for everyone on the team, and the results were fantastic considering the circumstances. However, in 2020 we had a rather reduced program, and now in 2021, taking advantage of our prior experience, the program is a full scientific and educational program with as many sessions as in any of our traditional in person annual meetings. The availability of sessions both live and on-demand gives everyone the best opportunity we have ever had to watch and enjoy as many sessions as we would like.
Q: Things are looking very hopeful for a return to an in person meeting in Prague in 2022. How optimistic are you feeling about this?
A: I am very optimistic, but I must recognise that so was I when you last interviewed me in August about an onsite congress in Madrid in 2021! In any case, for a big multinational society and annual meeting as we are, with more than 6.000 participants from 90 countries, future meetings with onsite participation will never go back to the former model of in-person only. Many of our members and attendees may continue to choose to register and join virtually. And this represents a significant technical new challenge. Pre-recording of lectures, even with brief live virtual Q&A sessions in some cases, will not be good enough for such a new model. We will have to be able to stream the in-person sessions live through the virtual platform, to make those live sessions interactive with seamless participation of both in-person and virtual attendees, and to do so for as many parallel sessions/auditoriums as one may need, nearly twenty for a big meeting like ours. It’s a very exciting and challenging project for the Society ahead of us.
Q: What are some of the things you are looking forward to on the program? Like last year, will you get to see more sessions yourself than you would in a regular on-site meeting?
A: Yes, I’m sure that as last year, the on-demand availability will give me a chance to follow many more sessions than in our standard onsite meetings before! The level of the science in 2021 has been very good, and the Presidential Session includes several top-notch randomised trials. Also, I’ll follow as much as I can satellite symposia, educational sessions and workshops, in particular those on infective and non-infective transplant complications and on cellular therapies. This year, we’ll also have an opportunity to enjoy a fuller program in our Multistakeholder Forum on Innovative Therapies, with two sessions on Wednesday morning. And I will be involved in, and would like to recognise the relevance of our Patient, Family and Donor Day, and the work carried out by the team to make this important Day happen in these less favourable circumstances of the pandemic.
Q: Thank you, Rafa, and enjoy EBMT 2021!
A: Thank you and the same to all our delegates!
