CSTM Virtual Education Day - February 2025

The CSTM Board revised the Education Subcommittee Terms of Reference in 2023 to focus on the provision of virtual education sessions. This blog series seeks to highlight both the Education Subcommittee and the various virtual events hosted throughout the year. For information on upcoming and past virtual events, check out the CSTM Virtual Education Days webpage.
 
Co-Authors: Crystal Brunk and Jessyka Deschene
 
Virtual Education – Getting to The Heart of Sickle Cell Disease

Held on February 12, 2025, this was CSTM’s first virtual education event of the year. Welcoming over 240 live attendees with 25 taking advantage of the French translation option, the event was another success. We had the usual attendee demographics with mostly laboratory professionals, but also included other clinical professionals such as nurses and physicians. The live polls continue to drive engagement during the event and are now posted on social media prior to the event to tickle curiosity and promote registration.

Our first presentation was by Dr. Kareem Jamani who talked about “How we use Cellular ... continue Therapy to Cure Sickle Cell Disease”. Dr. Jamani set the foundation by describing allogeneic stem cell transplant, both from matched sibling donors and haploidentical donors, as well as gene therapy for sickle cell disease. The discussion then evolved comparing and contrasting the available therapies outlining possible challenges and toxicities associated with each.

The second presentation called “Together Towards Personalized Medicine” was a combined effort from Dr. Nancy Robitaille, Nadia Baillargeon, Gabriel-André Leiva, and Jessica Costanzo Yanez. This collaborative presentation followed a very interesting case of a patient with sickle cell disease who was severely alloimmunized and needed a stem cell transplantation. Leveraging the skills and perspectives of various team members this session hit home the need for communication and collaboration in providing care in these complex cases.

Both talks offered live question and answer periods that were well attended with interactivity between many members of our transfusion medicine community – if you have not attended one of these events live yet we encourage you to do so in order to get the full experience.

On the Virtual Horizon

Stay tuned for more CSTM Education Days in 2025, which are tentatively scheduled for July 16, and November 5. All CSTM members can access the recordings of previous virtual education events on the CSTM Members page CSTM - Member Log-in. If you are interested in speaking about a specific topic or want to join the Subcommittee, reach out via [email protected]