In the spotlight

11th Annual EAHAD Congress, Madrid, Spain – a recap

With 2076 participants from 74 countries in attendance, the 11th Annual Congress of EAHAD took place in Madrid, Spain, from 6 to 9 February 2018. Dr Víctor Jiménez Yuste served as president of the Congress, which brought together multidisciplinary bleeding disorders stakeholders from across Europe and beyond.

 

The event kicked off with the 2nd edition of the Pre-Congress Day, on 6 February featuring simultaneous translation into Spanish and dedicated sessions for physiotherapists, nurses and psychosocial professionals. On the same day, EAHAD launched a new initiative, the inaugural Young Investigators Workshop. The reception for the Workshop was very positive and you can read testimonials from the participants here.

 
The programme highlighted innovation and progress in the bleeding disorders field with topics including product type and inhibitor development, laboratory monitoring of new therapies, and the pharmacoeconomics of haemophilia care. You can find the programme and abstracts of the Congress here.

 

Furthermore, the 11th Annual Congress provided the perfect space to honour those who have contributed to the bleeding disorders community. This year, EAHAD honoured the association’s founders Prof Cristopher Ludlam, Prof Pier Mannucci and Dr Brian Colvin, who were presented with the Recognition Award for their initiative in and forward-thinking mentality around finding new ways of collaborating and promoting haemophilia activities across Europe. The importance of their leadership and vision in bringing together haemophilia healthcare professionals cannot be understated.

 

We also recognised research contributions with prizes awarded for the top three posters presented during the Congress. This year’s recipients were:

1) A. Bowyer et al. with “The FIX C assessment of extended half‐life recombinant factor IX products in clinical practice”

2) C. Bidlingmaier et al. with “Prevalence of overweight in young patients with severe hemophilia and its economic burden in Germany” and

3)  H. Pergantou et al. with “Application of paediatric bleeding score (ISTH‐BAT) in children with von Willebrand disease (preliminary study)”

 

Additionally, the best SLAM presentation award, as voted by the audience, went to Paul Saultier for “Implementation of the French primary long‐term prophylaxis guidelines: A real‐world prospective study of the FranceCoag PUPs cohort “.

 

Finally, we announced the winners of the 2018 EAHAD Research Grants, Alessandro Casini with “Interactions between fibrinogen variants and blood cells: towards a predictive model in congenital fibrinogen disorders” and Sébastien Lacroix-Desmazes with “High throughput generation and characterization of monoclonal anti-FVIII IgG from patients with haemophilia A”.

 

The Madrid meeting was EAHAD’s biggest and most successful yet (as you can see from these photos). Here’s to an even greater success with the 12th Annual Congress, in Prague, Czech Republic, 6-8 February 2019.